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[J.R. Layman]

Well it had something to do, with that 6 pack I bought down at the corner store......It took a whole year for that escapade to filter up to Elder Reilly (Conf. pres) and Elder LeRoy Taylor (youth director)........So I then joined the army, and went to Vietnam  instead of driving from Indiana in my '55 Olds which had those two objects on the front bumper  (had a 4bbl, 400 plus CI....gas guzzler.....) .....which looked like they came from Victoria's Secret...or out of Madonna's wardrobe ....picking up Donna Johnson in Ohio....and going to Camp Berkshire.    Oh heck...she got holy and married a preacher! 

Anyway....Camp Lauroweld has an interesting history.  Elder David Shaw was the Youth director who purchased Camp Lauroweld from a wealthy NYC businessman for the NNEC.   The original "Lodge" has a massive fireplace (for 6 foot logs!) and is the type of log construction you find at Yellowstone NP. In the 60's when  I was a kid in the NNEC, .....Elder Shaw was Simi retired....had one church on "Sustentation" and came to camp every year.  He was a master story teller....and could keep us enthralled at the fire pit each evening....as he told the story of Donn Fendler, a 13 year old boy scout, who was lost on Mt.  Katahdin in Baxter State Park....in the 30's for 13 days and survived!   Besides that, Elder David Shaw...was an wonderful  Christian.....too bad that we don't have many "pastors" like him now a days!

It was a privilege and a blessing to have known him


FWIW Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park is the beginning of and the northern most place on the Appalachian  Trail.  My crazy 3rd sister,   the ”holier then thou”  one, and I climbed it onced, when I was about 13 or 14,.....  But she got me hacked off, because she was carrying the candy bars...and she wouldn’t give me one, till we reached the top!   I still don't think I've forgiven her for that one!

[Snoopy]

OK J.R.!!!  I thought I had good teenage stories, but I think you have me beat!!  And I would certainly hold on to the candy bar grudge!!!

[Gailon Arthur Joy]

Yes, Mrs Joy is, and and her mother was, a saint. Frankly, after meeting her mother at dinner one Sunday, I decided Mrs Joy was definitely worth the risk!!!
Much to Mrs Joy's chagrin!!!

Gailon Arthur Joy

[J.R. Layman]

Actually my first "camp" was at Pinecrest in the Northern California Conf....I couldn't have been older then 5 or 6,  but my dad, who was the Assistant Publishing Director....had taken our horses for the summer to Pinecrest  (including my precious Welsh pony!).....(I believe that he was probably responsible for the first of ANY Adventist Summer Camp having horses!)   My oldest sister was all of 14, but since her "Black Beauty" was the lead horse, along with "Scout" (a totally unmanageable horse...except for her)  ....along with the several other horses my dad borrowed to take to Pinecrest....she was the "Wrangler" on the staff and not a "camper."   There I think she met a couple of "Uncle Authors" son's who were on the staff.  (dang...they sold "Pinecrest" and bought a place called LaLonie Medows....but my brother in the last year...stopped by Pinecrest and said it's still OK)

My actual first "summer camp" was at the Northern Lights camp at Lake Metigoshi, North Dakota.....Can't specifically recall, but I think that's were I had my first boat ride and went water skiing.    My young memory....is that that was the first time I was allowed a Soda! (my parents were EXTREMUS EGW adherents to "no sugar. (we used honey…or brown sugar")......but my mom bought an Orange Crush...froze it....and it was my drink on the bus ride from Jamestown N.D. to camp.  I remember North Star Camp in Minnesota more favorably......as we went there two years in a row....when my dad took his Student Colporteurs there for a week at the end of the summer, before they returned to Union College.   It was on Rice Lake....part of the beginnings of the Mississippi River....in Brainerd MN.   I was fishing and caught a huge Northern Pike off the dock!.......So our host....the Union Publishing Director who was Norwegian....his wife cooked my "pike".   I ate it!  Much to the disgust of my family who were absolute vegetarians....but what could my dad say.....his boss enjoyed my "pike" too.  ROFL....I guess I was always a rebel.

There was a little side pond at North Star Camp.....with a little channel to the lake.  I remember a German Student "Colporteur" of my dad’s, who overturned his canoe in the pond and panic'd   Hey, he had on a life preserver, he was in no danger (but he didn't know how to swim) .....as a kid, I thought it was funny.....it probably wasn't to him.

My best "Summer Camp" experience...was going on the Canoe Trip.....from Camp Berkshire......in the Lake Saranac Region of NY.  I had these two little kids who were the children of a  popular NYC  disk jockey....who's mom was an Adventist, in my charge.....the first week of "camping" I was their Archery Instructor....then the next week we went on the Canoe trip.  As I'd been trained in Maine, at Camp Lauroweld....on proper Canoe "Technique".(the J stroke) ....by an experienced Boy Scout instructor....I guess I was pretty proficient.  And I was pretty good at reading maps too.....So I led the canoe trip....down through 3 lakes   (Upper, Middle and Lower Saranac Lake….in the Adirondack State Park (we stopped for a few moments at Camp Cherokee...the New York Conference Camp.......where my niece was a camper...then a counselor years later!)  Then portaged right down the main street in Saranac Lake to continue on the river for another 10 miles ….It was a nice trip….