A Brief Time Capsule of the 8th Annual Camp Waupaca Reunion Visit

 

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

·       Rick Passman takes a cab to Paul Warshauer’s Harwood Heights residence. The reunion begins at 4:00 PM with a mafia hug between Don Riccardo and Don Paulo. They drive passed Warren Metzdorff’s home in to Grimm’s Pub in Wautoma, Wisconsin. They boys meet a cute bimbo named Tina. On to the Baymont Hotel check on and free cocktails!

·       We have dinner and a horrible Karaoke couple tries to entertain. To no avail. Calls are made to others to join us.

 

Thursday, August 28, 2003

·       Kenny Saunders leaves Chicago at the crack of dawn. He arrives at the Baymont by 9:30 and Rick, Paul and Ken go to the Waupaca Grill for breakfast. More grease per pound of eggs one will not find!

·       The three boys walk downtown and shop in Waupaca. Warshauer buys fudge in a gift shop previously occupied by the old Drivas Rexall Pharmacy. On to K-Mart to purchase towels and shoes for our journey to the Red Mill. Kenny and Rick relive many old memories by going under the waterfall and into the air pocket!

·       Back to the Harbor Bar and we meet the beautiful Molly the waitress.

·       We keep calling Warren who tells us Bob Mowen will arrive. They might come to camp as the Rec Hall will be demolished!

·       Mike Lurie arrives from Minneapolis and we join the good widow Kramer for dinner at the Waupaca Woods Restaurant in the mall. Ken and Rick are still warming the seats at the Harbor when we arrive later.

·       We meet Libby Eisenhauer, cute bar maid who lives in Minneapolis. Kenny, Mike and Paul close down the place.

         

Friday, August 29, 2003

·       Mike and Paul go to camp early. We meet the Wanty electrical contractors and the general contractor who will DEMOLISH THE OLD REC HALL! They give us permission to take anything we want out of there.

·       Downtown Waupaca for lunch at Weasels and Mike and Paul have pizza buffet.

·       We go to as gift shop and see “Camp Waupaca Playing Cards.” We immediately get the idea to create our own deck of Iraqi like playing cards with 52 notable people at Camp Waupaca.

·       Warshauer returns to his former glory as Rear Admiral and takes out a Sunfish sailboat on Lake Stratton. Great winds and very peaceful! Mike and Rick return to the Harbor Bar. Calls are made every fifteen minutes now to Hoffman Estates to see if Warren and Bob might attend.

·       By 7:00 We attend a party for Matt Wanty who is getting married in Texas later next year. This party is a chance for all the relatives to attend at Danny Wanty’s house. We meet all sorts of Wantys including Brenda and Sonya Wanty. Steve Wanty has a baby named William who is less than a year old! Great party and Waupaca staff are made to feel welcome.

 

Saturday, August 30, 2003

·       We all pile into Mike Lurie’s car and go to Steven’s Point. We take the back roads to Steven’s point and recall great memories of Ray Krysh driving back from the Portage County Fair in Amherst!

·       We arrive on Water Street and Beer Street (real names!) We catch the Point Brewery Tour just as it is starting. After the great tour we receive three glasses of beer, each. We buy loads of souvenirs! Then on to the Steven’s Point Square for drinking at Joes, Mugshots and Butter’s Bar. We meet Eve and she tells us all about the old Fox Theatre closing.)

·       Back to the Baymont Hotel. Warshauer goes back to the Widow Kramer’s house for a nap. He is too cheap to stay in the hotel!

·       We meet former camper Dan Lyon who has just arrived! On to dinner at Simpson’s Restaurant with Cory Kramer, her daughter Kathy, Mike, Rick and Paul.

·       The boys all head to the Casino to hear a blues and jazz group. Lots of old people. We meet some gate crashers and a sheriff who weighs 300 pounds easily!

 

Sunday, August 31, 2003

·       Up early and Mike, Rick and Paul head to Camp. We take doors, windows and lots of bricks out of the Rec Hall. Dan meets us later in his Acura. We all must drive through Andrea Wanty’s driveway and through the back path.

·       We visit the remnants of the old barn and see doors, frames and the old Wagon that used to sit in front of the Mess Hall during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

·       We all drove to the Subway and grabbed lunches. We ate on the shores of sand bottomed, glacier formed, spring fed, crystal clear Lake Stratton. Weather was perfect!

·       Then a trip to the old beach and Dan Lyon wondered where the old pit was! None of us had ever heard of the “Old Pit” so he proceeded to call us puppies!  “When we were at camp we didn’t have windows…we had yellow tarps and NO heaters…and we liked it! We didn’t go into town at all during the 1950s. We had horses right here at camp and we camped out on the far fields…and we liked it!”

           


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