A Stroll to Lazy G

On that first early morning in June 1982 I awoke from a sound sleep in the staff cabin to the clanging of pots and pans, loud laughter and conversation coming from the nearby kitchen and dining room on the first floor of Roseberry Hall. Not one to recommend picking a fight with the cook and her assistant, I endured the noise and later met Nina Johnson and her capable assistant, Maureen Campbell. Both were from Long Island—not that I knew where that was since this was my first time setting foot on New York soil—having stuffed themselves, their summer belongings, Nina’s two daughters (Melissa Johnson and Sybil Johnson), and Nina’s two Shih Tzu dogs (Buffy and Beauty) into and on top of Nina’s tiny VW bug for the trip north and west. Thus began the first of my three summers at Shiloh, 1982-1984. It would be during the 1983 summer that Maureen would lure me on a walk down the road to get a soda at Lazy G, at which time she proposed to marry me.

In 1981 (I think), while I was a student at Pepperdine University, I attended a World Mission Workshop at David Lipscomb College in Nashville. Among the displays was one for stateside work in the northeast, upstate New York, for Camp Shiloh, Inc. This sounded great as I was concentrating my studies around youth agency administration and I needed a venue to serve out a "practicum." The application process was easy, but the need to raise funds did not appeal to me. Once I started getting the word out, however, the fund-raising proved to be quite simple. The costs: $250 for a summer's wages, $250 for room and board, and whatever else it cost for round-trip travel and other expenses. Contributors were generous and enthusiastic. Most enthusiastic, I recall, was my admissions counselor at Pepperdine, Ms. Sandra (Sandy) Lemm Gregory, a former year-round Shiloh worker herself.

The next June, in 1982, I took World Airways from LAX to Newark, where I was greeted by Shiloh's Executive Director, Tony Lupinacci, a recent graduate of Northeastern Christian Junior College (NCJC) in Villanova, PA and Nicki Burton, a counselor from Lipscomb (I would later learn that Nicki was the sister-in-law of one of my Pepperdine professors). Tony drove us in his stick-shift Toyota Corolla past the old Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands and Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, which probably means that we crossed the George Washington Bridge along the way, although I don’t recall that (why would anyone want to do that, anyway?).

In addition to Tony and Nicky, other staffers I recall from 1982 include Greg Wilson (NCJC), who drove the bus transporting the kids to/from camp; Bill Westerberg (Oklahoma Christian), a wrestler who would later become Shiloh’s director for two or three years beginning 1985 (I think), before the tenure of Lois and Mitchell Greer; Ruth Stamps (NCJC); Beth Ramsdell (Harding); Kirsten Eckerberg (Harding); Dan Billingsley (Harding); Steve Henn (Abilene Christian, I think); Mark Horsley (don’t recall which school, but whose sister lived in Manhattan); Gail and Peter Traisci (Danbury, CT), whose daughter Leigh would one day be the flower girl at our wedding; Jane and John Galutia and their kids, Wendy and John, Jr. (West Chester, PA), who would later meet up with us in Malibu, CA; Regina Lewis (Brooklyn), and a man named Percy from New Jersey (Newark?).

Counselors-in-training (CITs) during those summers included long-time campers Alfredo Cruz and his brother (Curtis?); Yolanda (Yo-Yo Melendez); Malik Crowder; Denise Allen; two girls from somewhere in New Jersey named Deanna (Dee) and Keena (Kee--I remember that Kee liked to wear a certain pair of jeans with the words “Brown Sugar” embroidered on one of the back pockets); and David Wilson. During our training period, I recall visiting the Flatlands Church of Christ in Brooklyn, for whom David Wilson has since served for many years as minister, I believe. I also recall a guy by the name of Dirk Forrester, from the year-round days, coming up from Tennessee (I think) to lecture us on the finer nuances of language from the city streets, trying to shock us into getting used to hearing certain vulgar expressions.

Memories of the next two years are much less clear, perhaps because I got engaged during the summer of 1983 and got married before the summer of 1984. Staff from those two years, as best as I can recall, included my Pepperdine friend, Anna (Banana) Trujillo in 1983 and her running mate Gene (from Lipscomb, although I don’t recall his last name); Sue Ellen Smith, who would one day become Maureen’s maiden of honor; a guy named Brett; Scot Harris and a guy named Mikey; and John Sanders from one of the five boroughs (Queens?), whose very quiet demeanor nevertheless commanded the respect of the campers. During all of those summers, I recall that the Admissions/Choral group from NCJC, “Sonrise,” came to perform and were always a big hit.

The campers, as always, of course, were the primary reasons for all of us gathering at the site in the first place. Campers who were unforgettable to me include the Levy children—Judy, Tony (aka “Yoda”), and Willard from Adee Avenue in the Bronx; Kasseim Bing from Mount Vernon; the Bush children, Afrika and Tunisha (sp?) from Mount Vernon, who were absolute masters at double-dutch; and the Todd family from Philadelphia, especially Robert Todd, who would come with his boom-box blasting “Eye of the Tiger” (from Rocky III?) and the soundtrack to a new block-buster music video entitled “Thriller.”

David Fritz was at Shiloh three summers - 1982-1984 -he me this wife Maurine who was there for five summers, 1980-1984. He taught Bible and served as a cabin counselor. David has worked in public social services for sixteen years, for the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan for the last eight years and is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW). He and Maureen currently live in Amityville, NY and attend the West Islip Church of Christ.