Erv Kasian – Craft Shop Czar
Erv may have missed his calling as he could have
played the role of a street person in most any Hollywood film. He didn't fit how most people might picture a
camp counselor. Erv was not a young
college student or a retired duffer looking for something to take up his
time. He was a dedicated craft
instructor and camp employee. In spite
of his sometimes rough demeanor, he did enjoy working with children.
After his WWII service in the Navy, he started to work
for agencies that helped children in Chicago.
Bob Mowen worked with him at the same agency and recommended him
to be a Craft Shop Instructor at Camp Waupaca.
Erv was one who got camp ready to open and the fix-it guy after it was
open. The old broken-down cottage hidden
at the end of camp was one of the most active areas at camp.
For years, either cabin 1 or 2 was Erv's summer
home. In the winter he was a “House
Father” at a boarding school in Hollywood, Florida, staying at Camp Waupaca and
teaching crafts at the Veteran's Home at King, Wisconsin, or living on a beach
out of his van in California.
No crafts program at Camp Waupaca was more popular
than the one Erv ran. The walls of the
shop were covered with patterns for the campers to choose form. Most of the craft work that I saw coming out
were wooden guns. Whatever the campers made there, it is certain that they
enjoyed making it.
When he was not in the craft shop Erv was the man who
went to town for emergency supplies. How well I remember his old Volkswagen
with the fenders that were barely hanging on headed out or into camp. It looked like his bug was about to take off
as the front fenders bounced up and down.
He fixed toilets that wouldn't flush or water lines that leaked. Every summer he poured 5-gallon buckets of
tar on the kitchen roof to stop leaks.
A few times Erv told a story at a camp fire. One was a story that had a character called
Little Black Sam-bow. Although it was
not demeaning anyone, today the story cannot be told around a camp fire. As it was his most famous story, I'll try to
write it with changes so that it may be politically correct. (Webmaster note: Click on “The Story of Iron
Jaw Fissy” from Wayne’s main page to read that story.)
Erv Kasian – Master of the Mini-Bikes
Erv started a new program with a new sport that was
very popular among young adventurous boys.
With two used mini-bikes that had been ridden hard and put to work
without ever an oil change. The track
was made around the basketball court.
The first mini-bikes were geared down so that they would make the turns
easily. Although the bikes were slow and
the track short, the program was very popular.
When the track was open boys would stand in line for a trip of three
laps.
The program grew to a dusty track on the very far
fields and four mini-bikes of which at least two were working at all
times. Erv spent much of his time
changing oil and tunning up the bikes.
The program was so popular he had to have a lottery to determine who
would ride each day. For several years,
the mini-bike program was one of the most popular program thanks to Erv.
Erv left Camp Waupaca after many years of faithful
service and disappeared. It took the
detective work of Bob Mowen to find him.
He had returned to his home town of Milwaukee and lived out his last days
in the Veteran's Home there. Today his
bones rests in the cemetery there.
Rest in peace Erv.
What would camp have been like if it were not for characters like Erv?
Erv the Handy Man
When remembering the work force that kept up
the camp one has to list Erv Kasian. Hired as a counselor Erv was also the go
to man to fix things from a faucet to a roof.
Every winter some water would freeze and break
a pipe. With a piece of hose and a couple of hose clamps it was fixed for the
summer. He replaced toilets and shower heads. He sometimes bragged at being a
great plumber.
One of the biggest problems for the kitchen
staff was the leak in the roof between the main part of the building and the
kitchen addition. In a heavy rain water poured into the room over the dirty
dish window and the dish washer. Erv to the rescue, well almost. He got a 5-gallon
pail of tar and poured it into a crack between the parts of the building. Next
heavy rain the leak named Niagara Falls returned. This sequence of events went
on for several years until Bill Wanty tore off part of the roof and rebuilt it.
The mystery to this day is where did all that tar go?
As the camp grew the first walk-in cooler was
no longer large enough to store all of the food that needed to be stored in a
cool place. Then another cooler was built that also became became full to
capacity. The solution was to purchase an ice cream delivery truck with a
freezer box. This worked for a while until the WWII surplus cooler unit began
to cause problems. Replace it? No. Erv to the rescue. Several times he got it
to run again, although there was a new knock to it each time. In desperation
Manny had to replace the unit with a new one. “A waste of money,” Erv groused,
“I could have fixed the old one.”