My best trip day was in 1971 when Peter sent Mark Brecker, who then took Ricky Snyder, Alan Gluck and me, to visit Camp Winaukee to discuss scheduling some athletic contests. The story you are about to hear actually happened - at least to the best of my aging memory!
Although the car was full when we pulled out of camp, we soon picked up a hitchhiker "because he had a dog." In 5 minutes Mark had gotten the guy to tell us his entire life story and had also scared the hell out of us by petting the dog....Mark was driving, the dog was in the back seat! After dropping off our passengers, we found the Winaukee camp road (paved of course) by asking some young lady in her yard who was washing screens for directions. When Mark then offered to "help her wash her screens", her father appeared and we quickly disappeared.
Being a perfectionist, Uncle Markee wanted to be sure the road she had told us to take was the right road, so he waved down a telephone repair truck leaving the camp. He asked if we were on the right road and if Winaukee had pay phones....
After leaving Winaukee, we picked up some beverages which for safety, we were told, could only be consumed on straight-aways, not curves?!?! We took them in brown paper bags into some restaurant where we ordered lunch. Every so often Mark would collect the bags, bring them to his car, and return with them restocked...at least that was not suspicious! After lunch we stopped at some ice cream place where Mark asked if they had any ice cream "cohens" and then told the bewildered girl that we would take a "levy or a schwartz" if she had no cohens!
So now we are on our way back to camp, but Mark has to do his laundry. Being conscientious, he said we had to rush to be back on time. Thus when the clothes were drying, he told Ricky to take the towels out so the other clothes would dry faster. Being no one's fool, Rick figured Mark was up to something and began to take the laundry from the washer and throw it at Mark. This made Mark begin laughing hysterically...which of course made Rick throw even more laundry... When Rick then inquired as to why Mark thought having his laundry thrown around was so funny, Mark pointed out to Ricky that he had opened the wrong washer and that it was not Mark's laundry that he was throwing, but some poor guy that was watching in disbelief as 6'1 Ricky threw his laundry around the laundermat..at which point Rick was so taken back that he dropped the laundry on the floor...
My second favorite trip day was listening to Uncle Markie get all of NOP to chant "we want the Messiah" inside a crowded Hampton Beach hamburger/pizza joint as we waited for an afternoon shower to pass by!
And you guys thought Fun Spot USA and Chinese food in Dover and Rochester was exciting!
neilbrier@yahoo.com