Cabin Mate

By Joe Elcock


He moved from the boathouse across the cove
after the leaf blower incident several summers ago.
He was young and scrawny then -
a bit excitable, as bats tend to be.

Big and handsome now, with a wingspan of ten inches,
he wakes while the sun is setting over the Squam Range.
His wings, wrapped like a cocoon around him as he slept,
slap the wood his claws scratch.
At afterglow he joins the swarm of bats
streaming out of eaves, attic vents and trees

to songs of bullfrogs and laugh of loons and drunken humans.
I watch them dance in the dusk by the thousands
Feasting on mosquitoes;
diving to scoop water from the cove with their mouths.
I wonder if it is he fluttering by my ear -
showing off . . . maybe.

At dawn he returns,
takes a few laps around the cabin
to pick off any stray mosquitoes, and wake me for the morning,
then retires to his crack above the door.

Hello from Dorothy Strong Williamson

Quite by accident I found your blog about Camp Asquam last night. I recognized Nancy Fairless and Deborah Warren’s names as they were campers when I was a counselor at Asquam in 1956 & 1957. It was a wonderful experience which I will never forget.

Miss Elcock came to UNH looking for an arts and crafts counselor. I was assigned to the 10 year olds in “Treetops” my first year. Carolyn Gregg was
the other counselor with me. The second year, I was in “Sunrise” with Arlene Larson and Polly Taggard.

On July 16, 1992, I had been hiking up Mt. Major, West Alton, NH with my son Jon and husband Herb. We got down early and decided to go to Center Harbor.
We had a little trouble finding the right road. I remembered the lemon squeeze. We arrived and were greeted by Ann Duffy, Miss Elcock’s niece. I explained who we were and she invited us to look around and informed us it had become a family compound. It brought back a lot of memories.

I have two sons. Jay, the older son became a tennis counselor at Camp Agawam in Maine. It was similar to Asquam having been running for generations and is still in existence today.

My husband and I just climbed Mt. Major on Oct. 8th and it brought to mind the last hike there and visiting Camp Asquam. Thank you for putting on the old songs and memories. I live in Newburyport, MA and I am a member of the Whittier Home Association in Amesbury, MA.

I remember Miss Elcock reading many of Whittier’s poems. Whittier often visited Center Harbor in the summer.

Dorothy Strong Williamson

Pictures attached:

Son Jon and myself revisiting the waterfront at Camp Asquam – July 16, 1992.
Miss Dotty revisiting “Treetops."
Miss Dotty standing in back with Sally Scherr with campers from “Sunrise”
Barbara Mercer, Charlotte Clark, Bunny Clarke, Lisa Wallace,

Miss Dotty Strong, Chrissie Blaine, Sally Kneipp, Susan Williams,

Sistie Van Ness, Happy Zouck, Susan Reidy (behind.)
1957, “Sunrise” Counselors – Dotty Strong, Polly Taggard, Arlene Larson

Camp Asquam on Facebook

Find us on Facebook look for the Camp Asquam Alums Group.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Hello from Nancy Fairless

I went to Asquam first in 1955 as a 10 year old I think, then skipped a year and went back for two more years after that. Both of my sisters and My Mother also went there.

My mother and I actually won the exact same trophy..the Rabbit spirit cup..which had both of our names engraved on it. We think Asquam and Miss Elcock are so special in our lives, and were delighted to find your Blog.

My Name is Nancy Fairless, and was when I was a camper (Starlight, Birches, and Twilight I think). My sisters were Carol and Pat. My mother was Caroline Sproul. She is 83 now. (I am 63) I am hoping to take her to visit the camp area next summer.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

On Golden Pond

The movie, "On Golden Pond" will be loved by anyone needing a Squam Lake "fix." Filmed on Sqam Lake after Camp Asquam closed in 1973, the scenery and loon vocalizations will bring back wonderful memories.

L.L. Bean catalog pictures from Camp

Pictures from Camp Asquam in the L.L. Bean catalog:

https://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ShowCatalogReq?cat_id=UY&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&catreqaddr=Z&feat=

how about this years subaru add
http://www.llbean.com/outdoorsOnline/subaru/index.html?feat=gn

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Storm on Lake Asquam John Geenleaf Whittier 1882

A cloud, like that the old-time Hebrew saw
On Carmel prophesying rain, began
To lift itself o'er wooded Cardigan,
Growing and blackening. Suddenly, a flaw

Of chill wind menaced; then a strong blast beat
Down the long valley's murmuring pines, and woke
The noon-dream of the sleeping lake, and broke
Its smooth steel mirror at the mountains' feet.

Thunderous and vast, a fire-veined darkness swept
Over the rough pine-bearded Asquam range;
A wraith of tempest, wonderful and strange,
From peak to peak the cloudy giant stepped.

One moment, as if challenging the storm,
Chocorua's tall, defiant sentinel
Looked from his watch-tower; then the shadow fell,
And the wild rain-drift blotted out his form.

And over all the still unhidden sun,
Weaving its light through slant-blown veils of rain,
Smiled on the trouble, as hope smiles on pain;
And, when the tumult and the strife were done,

With one foot on the lake and one on land,
Framing within his crescent's tinted streak
A far-off picture of the Melvin peak,
Spent broken clouds the rainbow's angel spanned.