Beth Peacock
(Beth spent every summer at Alliquippa from the age of 6 to 21, beginning in 1960.) "There are many memeories that I cherish from my years at Alliquippa...like the thrilling feeling I got as our Greyhound bus pulled up the Alliquippa driveway after our long journey from the Pikesville Shopping Center parking lot to Small Point, piling out of the bus, running to see who else we would room with, and unpacking our trunks for yet another summer filled with fun, adventure, and maybe (as we got older...romance);
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swimming to Wood Island when I was 10 and earning a golden Alliquippa sweat shirt for it;
holding hands with a boy I liked as we hiked to the Summer School on Wednesday night to see the movie; slow dancing with that same boy on Saturday night;
sleeping under the stars on an over-night sailing trip;
getting First Place on Sunday's Inspection which meant going up to the turkey dinner buffet first!;
one of the greatest "Planned Evenings": running through the "jail" yelling "Relievo!!" and being the hero for freeing all my teammates;
instead of awakening to the usual breakfast bells, Steve went from floor to floor playing his banjo;
singing along with Callie, and in later years - Peggy and Sally Jo Gordon, as they played their guitars and we learned all the words to the best folk songs ever written;
picnic sails with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Margot Halle on the bow and Pammy Miller on the stern;
going to West Point to help pick up the lobsters for our Friday night ritual (I remember seeing the price on the wall back then: $1.60 per pound);
getting really good volleyball players on my dishshift!;
the rainy day that finally arrived so we could go to Boothbay and buy white chocolate or liitle gifts for our parents;
listening to records and picking out my favorites from the huge collection of 45s;
winning the Wednesday Racing series with Art Lohrman as my partner and picking up our silver cup to add to the living room fireplace mantel collection;
playing pingpong and bongo-boarding on the front porch;
successfully hiding from all the counslors on camper hunt night;
watching the barnswallow babies stick their little necks out of the nest in the corner above the front door;
getting a letter in my mail box!!!;
and the final bonfire on that last August night at camp, when we would hug and cry and realize that we would have to wait one more year until we would be together again with our summer friends.
There are so many more. Keep your memories alive and may you be blessed with finding some way to give your children special times and memories, too. They shape us forever."
p.s. Not only was Mott my Great Aunt, she was my next door neighbor growing up. Some summers I would drive up to Maine with Mott in June to help her open up the camp. Those were some very special times. I will always remember, and be greatful to, Mott for providing the most amzing summer/life experiences a person could ever dream for.
We lived in a different world back then.. Do you believe we could actaully spend two months without watching TV? The only time I ever remember watching TV at Alliquippa was one night on the living room floor with everyone packed in together watching a little black and white screen while an astronaut climbed down the ladder from his space capsule and stepped on the moon for the first time!