More snow fell today.
Fortunately for me I had no appointments to consider nothing and no
reason to go outside the premises of my apartment complex. Any snow
removal which has been accomplished yesterday now is all in vain when
the days new snowfall. A good day to hang out and do some research.
Couple days ago I reached out for an old friend of mine. You and I
have known each other for about 50 years. He has cerebral palsy and
you know I have spinal cord injury and we become old man which is
really hard to fathom. Anyway, I want to follow up with Henry for
some time, his name is Henry we met at Camp Easter Seals which I did
a fairly good job of describing in a posting about nine
years ago. Every couple of years I get an itch to develop Some
sort of document or media representation of that period of my life.
And let me be specific and saying not necessarily of my life of all
the campers lives who went through time at Easter Seals. As much as I
may have just been this place in my 2009 posting the truth is I loved
my time at this place. I'm infected now with the desire to make
contact with other folks from that same period of my life. In my
research of this facility I'm shocked that there is not more
information available. Thus far I've been able to find one video
which is rather crude but identifies the camp and its reason for
being.
Camp Easter Seals which
became camp Roger C. Larson and which is now a camp for the Coeur
d'Alene Indian tribe was run and maintained
by Washington State University or WSU. Staffed by faculty and health
sciences students mainly occupational and vocational therapy
students. I know that WSU has the historical records of this facility
and staff who attended for the years. They probably also have a
treasure trove of images taking over that time. I think for the next
couple months or whatever I'm going to start making inroads to see if
I can get a hold of some of those images to document if nothing else
my time at this facility. My friend Henry spent a lot more time at
this facility than I do with years. I think I only went there twice
over the summers. I'm sure my friend as many more contacts that can
shed more light on this history.
In my own personal
research I found two images of Henry and myself taken and I believe
in 1968. These images were taken on a path from our cabin (72nd
K cabin) to the docks where we swam every day. I have included with
this post the video an gives a good representation of camp and some
of the activities which we participated in. Heartbreaking, for me,
the video does not show as much of the buildings as I would've liked
but does a good job of showing some of the activities. I apologize
for the video being as crude as but keep please in mind, this video
was made in 1962. I just wish the audio was present but you get what
you get.
My buddy Henry
Me (1968
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