TREVOR TREVOR's Blog

TREVOR'S Blog
August 2010
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All photos Â©2010 Nancy F Little unless otherwise noted.

Sunday, August 1, 2010
   "Flowers & Flea Market"
   FNCA Day 2 In church this morning, Rev. Sage mentioned (in context, by the way) that I don't wear shoes but I bring a lot of stuff to camp. It got a good laugh from everyone including me. I responded by affirming that it was true with a big thumbs up. What I should have said (the definition of "a good repartÃ©e") is that that way I have more room to pack more important stuff!
   After church, like we usually do on Sunday at camp, Nancy & I went to the Fryeburg Flea Market at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds. I mostly just bought movies that were $1 or 50Â¢ each... I ended up with an entire shopping bag full! Nancy was happy with her purchases, too.
   Then we drove to Sherman's Farm and cut fresh flowers for all the tables in the dining room back at camp. When we got back, our friend Beki (â†at left) and an assistant (I don't remember who it was) did a fine job of flower arranging in time for the big Sunday mid-day meal.

Monday, August 2, 2010
   "Lectures Begin"
   FNCA Day 3 Our regular daily schedule begins today. It's a routine I'm very familiar with, having attended camp all my life, so it actually feels kind of good that on the first Monday morning of camp our lectures begin. We have two lectures followed by an adult discussion group each morning except Wednesdays and Sundays. NOTE: the picture at the right was taken before the lecture began, which is why nobodyy's paying any attention to the Rev. Dr. George F Dole, who is at the podiom doing a sound-check with our sound technician in the green striped shirt all the way to the right.
   The theme for this week's lectures is "Heavenly Community" and today we learned that in heaven --- just like here on earth --- communities are the basic building blocks of society. One major difference, however, is that in heaven like-minded people automatically gravitate towards each other and end up living in the same community together... just like here at camp where like-minded people come together and live in community for two weeks each summer!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010
   "Lots of Old FNCA Photos"
   FNCA Day 4 My brother Ian (who lives on the West Coast) has been here at camp this week. Today, he emailed me more than 200 old camp photos... some of them dating back to the 1940s! It's a bonanza for the FNCA website, especally since my focus while I'm on location here in Fryeburg ME is to scan in as many old Assembly photos as possible. Here's a few highlights:

Wednesday, August 4, 2010
   "Off Campus Twice"
   FNCA Day 5 - It's Outing Day! There's no daytime program. After breakfast, everyone packs up a bag lunch and heads out to explore the area. Nancy & I went to Diana's Baths and Cathedral Ledge --- both are only about 5 minutes west of North Conway's North End.
   Diana's Baths is this awesome series of waterfalls on Lucy Brook. It's only about a half mile walk through the woods from the parking lot, and it is just so worth it! These pictures below are just a few of the dozens of waterfalls at this amazing place.
   Even though the approach is from the bottom, these photos are stacked by elevation. The top photo is about half-way up. You can see two waterfalls here; there's a third out of sight beyond the big one where the girl is walking on top of the rocks. Downstream in the middle photo, there's one waterfall up above on the far right (it's not one of the ones in the top picture); then the wide one on the central tier; and in the same photo bottom center, you can see the very top of third. In the bottom photo, you can see the bottom of that waterfall in the lower right corner, and the actual bath at Diana's Bath center left. It's basically a man-made swimming pool built into the side of the river that's designed to fill up with running water from the stream with an overflow spout on the far end so the water in it is always fresh. It hasn't been dredged in a long time, but evidently it used to have a shallow end and a deep end. Now it's basically just a wading pool that is great for young children.

We stayed at Diana's Baths until lunchtime, and then we drove about 5 minutes away to the top of Cathedral Ledge where we had a nice lunch with a fabulous view before enjoying the rest of the view from the fenced-in Viewing Area.

   After that, we drove back to camp so I could get ready for my evening gig 2Â½ hours away in Derry NH: the Derry Public Library Summer Carnival to celebrate the end of the library's summer reading program. I got there about an hour early (as planned), and there were already several bounce houses set up, a craft table, some food vendors, a bunch of info/activity booths, and the librarians and staff were toting all sort of things out of the building into the park behind the library to add to the festivities. Not to mention a couple dozen pizzas just waiting to be consumed!
   I put on my stilts a little early and stiltwalked the crowd, announcing to everyone all the while that my show would be starting soon. When the time came, at least 100 people gathered on the lawn in front of the pavilion where, for the next hour, they all obviously really enjoyed The Outdoor Special.
   They had booked me to do my very popular add-on craft Project: Ribbon Dancer for half an hour after the show, but that amount of time was based on a much smaller crowd than was there. The line was so long... and it never got much shorter because more and more people kept getting in line. So for most of two hours, with the sporadic help of several kind mothers, I churned out ribbon dancers for a mighty lot of kids! I finally had to close the line down and turn people away because dusk was approaching and I had a 2Â½ hour drive back to camp!
   But despite the overtime, this was a terrific event and I'd do it again at the drop of a hat!

Thursday, August 5 - Sunday, August 15, 2010
   "The Rest of Camp"
   I'm writing this entry a week after camp ended. I was so busy at camp this year that I really didn't have time to keep up with my blog. I had all the usual stuff at camp plus (as planned) I was spending most of my "extra" time working on the FNCA website: scanning in hundreds of historical photos and updating pages. Many of those old photos will be appearing on the site over the next several months (and maybe years, who knows?).
   Instead of trying to go back and fill in each date individually, I'm just going to feature a few of what were highlights for me.
   Attendance both weeks was up by about 10 people over last year. That means 1st week wasn't quite as sparse as last year, and 2nd week was packed to the gills! Both my kids were there at least part of the time, so it was wonderful to see them both and to see them together. I'm thrilled to report that Jason was there the entire session! And although Nancy had an on-line class going on during camp, I still got to see her way more than I was expecting. YAY!
   At the FNCA Annual Meeting on Sunday, at my suggestion, the membership voted to rename the lecture hall after one of our co-founders, the Rev. John Whitehead. He worked closely with my grandfather, the Rev Louis A. Dole, in starting the camp, and was on the lecture staff for a long, long time in the early years.
   Since I'd already asked a bunch of camera-happy campers if I could use their photos for the FNCA website earlier this year, I basically had a crew of photographers at my disposal at this year's camp session! If there was something I wanted a picture of for the website, there was always someone around willing to click the pic. Thanks everyone!
   Work Day 2nd week was amazing! We got just SO much work done including exterior painting, sweeping roofs (photo below), screens fixed, etc.

   For Outing Day 2nd week, Nancy & I went canoeing. As usual, it was a terrific day on the Saco. And I just want to go on record with this: I love my new Speedo that Nancy bought me! This is the second time she's bought me a bathing suit, and the second time that I've just been tickled pink about it.

   My brother Lee got married at camp on Thursday of 2nd week in a lovely little ceremony on the front lawn! It was wonderful to get to know his new bride Annette a little bit, and it was great to see Lee so happy again.
   The annual Sales Table Auction was once again a hilarious success. We broke last year's record, raising $917 (or somewhere right around there). Special thanks Dan Cook for being our excellent stand-in auctioneer at the last moment; to MaryBeth Bernier for once again playing the part of Carol Merrill so well; a HUGE thanks to Bob Perry for donating 4 gift certificates to his Boston-area Elephant Walk restaurants; and another HUGE thanks to Jason Greenwood for donating a pair of tickets to a New England Patriots game and to his delightful wife Beki for adding free room and board at their house to really sweeten the deal and make it even more worthwhile for out-of-towners to bid!

   Another delightful part of the Assembly this year was regular participation by members of the local congregation at the Fryeburg New Church in town. Several local adults attended lectures regularly, a few local teens (other than the inimitable Lizzie Dyer who was at camp the whole time) were able to be at camp for several days, and a cluster of local kids participated in Sparks Games regularly. It's been one of our goals to draw in the local folks again, and I especially want to send out personal thanks to Rev. Sage Currie (left), the new pastor at the Fryeburg New Church, for her terrific efforts in aiding the cause.
   Speaking of Sage, we're delighted to have her as the new pastor in Fryeburg, as well as on staff at camp. She's a terrific addition and has already added a great deal to making the FNCA our own little slice of heaven.
   And finally, the absolutely sweetest part of the FNCA 2010 session for me was getting to hold 8-week old Ada McNaughton several times during the brief time she was there! I am a total baby addict. "I admit that I am powerless over babies...." Here's a couple photos of the the youngest and the oldest people at camp, Ada and long-time FNCA attendee her great-grandmother Betty Guiu.