Although the week's prompt shows boys reading at the library and I am a voracious reader and a library lover I had no library type photos to share. After pondering while on one of my morning walks, I decided I could find something with males gathering. Uncle Carl's archives of photographs offered up these from 1986-88, not really Sepia but some years back, from his man cavers episodes. He was fond of these hunting and fishing camps that he and several of his friends built as their retreats spending men only weekends, card playing, imbibing their favored spirits, passing time, clowning around and maybe some hunting but lots of camaraderie. No women or children were ever included. Well, the camps were rough, outdoorsy as you will see and I know my aunt Marge, his wife, would have opted out even if the wives had been invited. This was a time and a group of men who liked to get away from it all, be outdoors and spend time together.
This camp is/was in Wharton, Pennsylvania, Potter county which is in the north central mountains of the state, about 170 miles from their homes in the southwestern region. According to the 2000 US census this township had a total area of 61.8 square miles (160.1 km), all of it land and there were 91 people, 41 households, and 28 families residing there. The population density was 1.5 people per square mile (0.6/km). So it remains today a rural area where there is natural gas exploration as well as hunting for fowl, deer and other game. I wonder if this old camp is still there and if men still gather for man cave weekends.
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Pennsylvania Map, Potter County in red, |
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| The men's gathering 1986 Wharton Camp |
I do not know the full story of the photos other than Carl delighted in being there and taking photos, above the men are gathering for their time sometimes a week sometimes several days. Another photo not as clear, faded now shows maybe twice this number of men. I think that is Carl sitting on the porch, he was the official trail boss and bookkeeper for the group and made sure that all necessary supplies were stocked and accounted for and that each man paid his share. I imagine he would have addressed that at the beginning of any event. The back of the photo merely says, "we are just gathering for the week." Sometimes they had a day or two work detail and from the following photos that looks like what happened this time but wait there is a mysterious ceremony of sorts occurring as well. There are checkered shirts too as in the library prompt.
Is that a monk in a brown habit, sack cloth, anointing one of the men wearing the yellow garb? Well he does have some sort of book in his hand and a big cross round his neck. And pay attention to the bald man to the left of the one being blessed or baptized?
The next thing we know the men are "taking measurements for the back porch" according to Carl's note on the back of this photo.
Here the father has gone into the ditch to help his son, Carl wrote their names and identified them as such and he says that "progress." Strange how there are few workers among that crowd we saw gathering. Where did they all go? Evidence of the old adage, 20% of any group does 80% of the work.
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| Progress continues, notice that small building in the background. One man in the ditch and 3 overseers now. I told you these camps were primitive, men only. The man in the denim jacket with cowboy hat appears to have a mug of some type of liquid refreshment. |
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| Good grief the monk returns, with the bald man in a robe of sorts. The porch appears completed. Are they blessing it? The woodpile has been covered. Uncle Carl loved a good laugh so I can only imagine how he enjoyed this escapade. I do recall overhearing him say that they always had a ceremony of some sort at camps.
I have one last photo for this post dated 1988, two years later and it looks like they have had another ceremony. The man on the far right in the spotted jacket is Stan Debick (I met him when he came to Carl's funeral in 2011; he's the last of the elders of this group). Why is his boot off and on the floor beside him? The jug on the porch is Seagrams whiskey and it looks like the party is underway...
This is my Sepia post of men gathering, a stretch from the library, but I did have a book, checkered shirts and lots of boys grown to men.
To enjoy others posts, click on this link and as Alan says, sit back and spend some time
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