Dredging up old memories is an inescapable consequence of packing for a move.
This one goes back 47 years to when I was 14 years old - about a month shy of my 15th birthday. I was raised Presbyterian and my parents regularly sent me off for a week of church camp every summer. The venue of choice was Camp Pyoca (Presbyterian YOuth CAmp), just south of Brownstown in southern Indiana.
I enjoyed the swimming and boating and hiking and checking out the girls, but the religious stuff was pretty much wasted on me. I wasn't much interested in spirituality at the time.
That's me in the second standing row, second from the right with the glasses and horizontal stripes, looking pretty damned confident, if I do say so. The girl covering my left arm in the first standing row was Ann Ohlrogge from West Lafayette, Ind., who would become my girlfriend for part of my high school years. Ann's father was an agronomy professor at Purdue. Her brother John followed in dad's footsteps and was teaching college level agronomy in Michigan the last time I checked. Ann graduated from West Lafayette High School in 1963 along with Larry Parker, who now lives three houses south of me and also rides a BMW motorcycle. Ann went on to Earlham College, a Quaker-founded college in Richmond, Ind. She married a banker and is now a Presbyterian minister and counselor in suburban Chicago.
The only other person I recognize in this photo is Martin Burkle, who graduated from Delphi High School in 1962. He's the guy in glasses, third from right, first standing row. I have no idea what became of him, but I could probably find him with Google, since his is a pretty uncommon name.
I Googled Pyoca and see that it's still in operation, but I don't recognize any of the buildings in the facilities photos.
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