Camp Cachalot Alumni Association Forums

[76nurse]

Looking for staff and campers 1976. I was camp nurse that summer and had a great time. Hello to all.
Janet Robinson

[Tom Whelan]

I started camping at Cachalot in 1980, but I do know some people who may have been there in '76.

Vic Sylvia
Andy Novick
Lee 'Leo' Guertin

Can anyone else come up with names?
_________________
Tom Whelan
Pack 96 Webelos Leader
Troop 10364 Girl Scout Brownie Leader

[Dennis Wilkinson]

One or more of the Menard brothers could have been there about that time, I think (probably Moe Jr. and Phil). Rick Wallace might have also been around then, not sure.
_________________
Dennis
Minister of Propaganda, Webmaestro, and Chief Bottle Washer

"Everything that passes unattempted is impossible." - Stephen R. Donaldson

[76nurse]

Tom and Dennis,

Thanks for trying to get things started. I remember a counselor named Rick, can't recall last name. I certainly remember Vic. Nature counselor was Michael O'Neill; only staff member I am still in touch with. I think he did waterfront in '77. David Trudeau is another counselor I remember. Many happy, funny memories from that summer but the 2 memories that stand out are the big kitchen clean-up and the Hurricane Gloria(?) evacuation.

Janet Robinson

[Dennis Wilkinson]

Other names that come to mind are Dave Calvin and Marc Rousseau, although I'm not sure if either of them started as early as '76 as staffers.
_________________
Dennis
Minister of Propaganda, Webmaestro, and Chief Bottle Washer

"Everything that passes unattempted is impossible." - Stephen R. Donaldson

[Michael Escobar]

Hello Janet,

Wonderful to hear from you. This is Mike Escobar. I was on the scoutcraft staff in 1976. It was my first year as a staff member. If are in contact with Mike O'Neill, please send him my regards.

That was an amazing year. The first day of camp was the countries bicentenial (yes, 1st Sunday campfire was on July 4, 1976) and end with camp being evacuated by a hurricane. In the 7 years that I was a staff member, that was certainly the largest staff. I don't think we every came even close to the number of senior staff members.

Will McGraw from that staff checked into this website at some point and said that he might still have the staff year book. I can only find my 1978 version, so what I remember might be a git fuzzy. (It was 30 years ago...)

Anyway, here is who I remember was on the staff:

Camp Director: Michael J. Viera ( I believe he is a teacher at BMC Durfee High School in Fall River and he sometime write articles for the New Bedford paper.)

Program director: Robin Cambra (From looking searching for him on the web, I think that he is a guidance counselor in ~Wareham MA)

Nurse: Janet Robinson

Field sports (rifle range):
Director: David Trudeau
Will McGraw (He has signed up on this website)

Nature:
Director: Mike O'Neill
Staff??? (I'm sorry, I'm completely blocking on who was in nature that year.)

Scoutcraft:
Director: Rick Degagne (now a parish priest in the Fall River Diocese)
Assistant Director: Larry Guillette
Mike Escobar (that's me. I'm living in Toronto now.)
Mike Cheney
Duarte Viera

Trading post:
Frank Escobar (My brother. He is now a surgent in Illinois)
James Plocica (I think that is where he was)
Mike Swift (late addition to staff or started in 1977???)

Waterfront
Director: ???? (I can picture him, but I can't remember his name.)
Tom (Greg) Motta (When he went to college in 1977, he decided that he did not like to be called Tom and wished to be only called by his middle name - Greg.)
Scott Pfeninger (He is a national park ranger. In searching for him on the web, I think he is now in the Atlanta GA area.)
Scott "Pops" Popxxxxx
(someone else who I can not remember)

Crafts: ????? (I can picture what the director looked like, but I can't remember his name.)

Chaplain: Actually two:
A catholic chaplain who was a seminarian from LaSalette. (can't remember his name.)
A part time chaplain from Salvation Army (Tom ???) who would come down once a week with the Salvation army band for an evening activity. (I think his name was Tom but I can't remember Tom last name. I believe thathe came from an old line of staff members. His father was very active in the OA and his grandfather was the long time nature person who worked at Noquochoke(sp?).)

I remember the "massive kitchen clean up". The night before the camp inspection, the cook and all but one member of the kitchen staff quit. Everyone else pitched in to get things is shape before the inspection. Vic Sylvia came in as cook to rescue us. (A few days after that, he also brought in two people from a Somerset troop (David Kingman and Rick Camara (???)). I believe Vic meet them from the OA ordeal weekend.) That was an amazing day (and night). This was maybe the first or second time that I every meet Vic. He suddenly showed up like this great calming force in the middle of all this chaos showing different tricks to clean different things. I remember after everything was finally finished and he had breakfast all prep-ed and ready to go at some ungodly early hour; he then said something like, "Okay, now I can go get a little fishing in".

We also had a business manager. However, since I was not part of the "adult" staff, I did not have any contact with him.

Other people that I'm not sure:
Moe Menard???? I think he might have been crafts (fairly sure that he was on staff in the handicrafts in 1975) I know that he was the assistant waterfront director later on ( -- after 1979 or so). I can't remember if he was working in 1976 thought. I know that his younger brothers did eventually work on staff, but not in 1976. In fact, if Moe was on staff then, he was probably the youngest person on staff in 1976.

Barry Haq ???? I believe that he was in the same troop as Mike Swift and Larry Guillette. He was there in either 1976 or 1977. I can't remember what area he worked in (Nature? Field sports? CIT? I know it was not scoutcraft.)

Not: Leo Guertin was not on the 1976 staff. He was a CIT in 1978.
Also no: David Calvin and Marc Rousseau -- David I believe started on my staff in scoutcraft in 1978. Marc I believe came at least after 1978. I believe he was on staff in 1982 and maybe a year or two before that.

I believe that Rick Wallace's first year on staff was in 1979. (He was the waterfront director for two or three years.)

I believe Andy Novick was the waterfront director around 1981 or 1982 or so. (I believe that he was the waterfront director after Rick Wallace.) If that is who you are thinking of, then he was not there in 1976.

I don't think that the hurricane was Gloria (I remember that one was when I was in graduate school, so that was 1984 or later.) My guess that the hurricane was called Bell or Hugo???? I guess this is googleable.

[Tom Whelan]

I can tell you that Larry Guillette is now a border patrol agent in Calais, ME. I have the pleasure of seeing Larry a few times a year when he comes back to New Bedford for a visit. He always has some fun(ny) stories to tell (I'm sure that hasn't changed from when he was younger)

Also in Calais is Rai Smale (former Cachalot Ranger). Last I knew Rai was working for himself (General Contractor) and trying to find time to fix up his house and take care of his new family.
_________________
Tom Whelan
Pack 96 Webelos Leader
Troop 10364 Girl Scout Brownie Leader

[Dennis Wilkinson]

Like Tom, I was guessing based on who the older staffers were when I started going to summer camp in 1980 (or perhaps, who I thought was older -- 10-year-olds aren't exactly great judges of age, so I'm sure my memories are more than a bit off there.)

Mike Viera is still (once again?) involved in Scouting, and is a member of the Association. I was under the impression that he was at Bristol Community College now (I think he's the Mike Viera listed here). If you want to see at least some of the articles he's written, click on the "Links" tab at the top of the page and have a look at the "Letters from Camp" links.

Vic, of course, is a founding member of the Association, and was Scoutmaster to Tom and myself. I don't think I've ever heard the full story of what happened with the kitchen that year, although I've heard pieces of it. Vic finding time to go fishing? Who'da thunk it?

Might the seminarian have been Fr. Steve Salvador? I remember him mostly from the Catholic Retreats (now the All-Faiths Retreat) that the Catholic Committee on Scouting runs each fall (at the time, at the St. Vincent de Paul camp in Westport.) There was another young-ish, bearded priest who was at those events as well, although his name escapes me. Father Steve is still active on the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, and the last I knew he was pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul in Fall River.

A quick check of Wikipedia shows that Mike is spot-on: it would have been Hurricane Belle at about that time in '76.

Edit: I should also note that I've taken a look at the photos we've collected so far, but I don't have any from '76. I do have a few from '75 and a few from '77, a few dozen total, but only a few of those have any people in them clear enough to recognize; most are of buildings.
_________________
Dennis
Minister of Propaganda, Webmaestro, and Chief Bottle Washer

"Everything that passes unattempted is impossible." - Stephen R. Donaldson

[76nurse]

Hi Mike Escobar,

Now that I see the names I remember many of these people, including you and your brother. Thanks so much for responding.

Mike O'Neill - fire chief in Burlington, Vt. We have always kept in touch; he and my husband (also a firefighter.....Providence)became good friends. We did family stuff together when our kids were young, not as much contact in recent years. He probably remembers all the staff but we have not talked about camp in a long time.

Robin Cambra - lived in the other half of the "spider villa" duplex. We could actually talk through the bathroom cabinet and see each other through a small opening.

Michael Viera - told me I was a good choice for nurse because I was a mature, married woman. (23 y/o, married less than a year) Truth was, I was a last minute replacement for someone who backed out at the last minute!

Rick Degagne - He is the Rick I remember.

David Trudeau - Someone else we kept in touch with for quite some time. Last we knew, he lived in Assonet.

Business director had last name of Berry, I think.

I think waterfront director was Dave something.

Tom ("Greg") Motta I remember well. His dad was a vet and helped us out with the baby raccoon we had for awhile. I made cage calls to Nature twice a day with my eyedropper full of Amoxicillin.

Barry Haq - If memory serves, he was an accident prone junior staff member.....dart through a knuckle is one of the incidents I remember.

James Plocica, Will McGraw, Scott Pfeninger - all names I remember but Will is the only one I have a memory picture of.

David Trudeau and I were friendly with the chaplain, went to some investiture of his in New Hampshire.......I can't remember his name!

That was a wonderful summer for me. I remember with fondness the weekly themes. I was Dorothy during Oz week and Guinevere (complete with canoe ride to the campfire) during Knights of the Round Table week.

So glad to hear from you. My company recently moved to the building where BSA is in East Providence. I went in one day, introduced myself and found out about the alumni association.

My husband remembers waterfront director.......Dave Arsenault.

[EDBERRY]

Hello, The Buisness Director name is Bill Berry. Thats my father. I was a scout during 1974-1980?.
I remember picking up food supplies with him in New Bedford for the camp.

[ToddVC]

1976 Was my first year camping there, never missed a summer or event after....but is was as a camper, I started the same year (1978) on staff as David Calvin and Leo....