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BACK IN THE DAY - 07/27/2008
(by Bryan La Placa - Webmaster and Argus Managing Editor - July 30, 2008)
The summer camp social experiment
NORTH JERSEY – Here’s a look at what was published in Suburban Trends around the end of July over the years.
1963 – Prayer ban
The West Milford school board voted to discontinue the reading of five Bible verses and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in classes in accordance with the state’s prayer ban directive.
Board President Leslie Chase commented that the board members had no choice but to accept the prayer ban directive and uphold the law.
Mrs. Essie Stonacher, a mother of two, asked “everyone” to write letters to State Senator Anthony Grossi with an appeal to change the new law to allow prayer again.
On Superintendent Mario Grippi’s recommendation, the board voted to set aside one minute of every school day for “meditation,” so that children who were “well trained at home” could use the silence as they saw fit.
Board members said that they thought it was mandatory to abide by the new law, but indicated that they individually opposed it.
Civil rights
Morris County’s senior assemblyman, Joseph J. Maraziti, appealed to Governor Richard Hughes to call a special session of the New Jersey Legislature to enact an amendment to the Fair Housing Law. The amendment was to eliminate discrimination in the sale of rental of private housing.
In a telegram to Gov. Hughes, Maraziti said:
“I respectfully urge you to call a special session of the Legislature to enact the Fair Housing Bill A-314. One hundred years have elapsed since the Civil War; 96 years have come and gone since the Emancipation Proclamation; 93 years since the adoption of the 14th Amendment which purports to guarantee equal rights and privileges to all, regardless of race, color or creed, and yet a large segment of our population is still deprived of their full and equal rights.”
“This principle of equality and justice for all is basic to our American tradition — it is basic to our American system of Constitutional Government and therefore it is an issue on which no quarter can be given — an issue on which no compromise can be made.
"Justice demands vigorous forthright action by the officials of government.
“Speedy enactment of A-314 will pave the way toward elimination of all discrimination!"
Bill 314 had already passed the state assembly but was locked in the senate, where it had been buried in the Senate Institutions Committee for six months.
More on Camp Midvale
“Camp Midvale – Tempest in a Teapot: sensationalized stories exploded as myths,” ran the headline.
Someone reporting under the name “Mary Richards” (Reporters wrote under pen names all the time back then.) paid a visit to the camp to investigate claims that it was a biracial pedophilic communist orgy.
A group called “Camp Summerlane” had fled its camp in North Carolina under a hail of bullets and rocks when local hoodlums decreed that they had to get out of town, and the police down there would not protect them. So they settled at Camp Midvale in Ringwood, the present site of the Weis Ecology Center.
“The facts seem to be, after a visit to Camp Midvale in Ringwood where 70 campers and counselors ousted from Camp Summerlane in North Carolina now reside, that the members' only hopes and dreams are to spend a pleasant and undisturbed seven weeks in the country, relaxing and enjoying the beauty and wonders of the out-of-doors. To see them all now, a quiet, orderly group of youngsters ranging in age from 6 to 16, it seems hard to believe that stories, such as circulated last week, could ever have developed,” it was reported.
“One accusation was that the girls wore ‘sexy clothing.’ The most popular combination seen among them was a pair of Bermuda or Jamaica shorts, topped by a man’s tailored shirt, which reached down below the hips. Bathing suits were of the usual styles for young people – some two-piece, but most of them modest one-piece models,” Richards reported.
She said that yes, there were campers of a variety of races.
According to Gertrude Howard, manager of Camp Midvale, "Our camp is open to all races, as long as they observe our rules. It is a cooperative camp, owned and operated by the membership and has never been segregated.”
Howard added that many church groups also used the 194-acre camp and its facilities.
Both Howard and Jack Finn, another manager of the camp, said the Camp Summerlane members had been nothing but “very well-behaved” since the battered and bloodied refugee group arrived on July 1, 1963.
Camp Summerlane, also an integrated camp, was organized by the Rev. George Von Hilsheimer, a Southern Baptist minister.
“This year, for the first time, we leased a camp in Rosman, NC, which had been owned and operated by a friend of mine,” said Von Hilsheimer.
According to Von Hilsheimer and Peter Strong, camp manager for Summerlane, all went well when arrangements for leasing the camp were made.
Then at the end of March 1963, a group of the Summerlane adults went to the campgrounds to make repairs and prepare the site for the summer campers. Strong and Von Hilsheimer said that in the first few months, the camp group had good relations with businessmen and local organizations there.
"But toward the end of our stay, rumors started that we had six families of colored people from the hills in camp. Other rumblings were heard, but there was no reason to feel that we should give up our plans to camp there,” according to either Strong or Von Hilsheimer (the source article doesn’t specify).
The story of the hill families was totally untrue, they said. However, after the unfavorable comments began to increase, it was decided to send most of the colored children to Camp Midvale along with another group of children that were originally scheduled to go there anyway, the article stated.
“Though they had several colored children of an intermediate age group with them in North Carolina, these were ones whose race was unrecognizable due to their pale skin tones. The violence which took place at the camp after the arrival of the 55 children and 15 adult counselors has been publicized throughout the country,” it was reported.
And that’s true. Do a Google search for “Camp Summerlane.” There are more than 1,500 Web sites that tell the story of that “cruel summer.”
Von Hilsheimer described Summerlane as a “democratic camp” and added, “We believe that democracy assumes integration.”
The campers hailed from all parts of the United States and were made aware of the camp through newspaper advertisements and brochures.
An early Camp Summerlane brochure available online says, “There is no censorship of any kind,” and “There are no rules concerning purely private behavior.”
Kids reportedly had as much say as adults in the decision-making process of the community.
Aside from its liberal rules, it was reported that Camp Summerlane followed “much the same pattern as other summer camps, with arts and crafts, games and sporting events.”
In the evenings, the campers typically listened to talks by nature experts, and during free time, campers could go and buy candy and ice cream. There were no alcoholic beverages of any kind allowed in the community.
Mary Richards seemed particularly taken with Von Hilsheimer, who was 29 at the time of the Suburban Trends article’s publication.
“Tall and slender of build, he has dark, well-groomed hair and wears black-rimmed glasses,” she reported.
Born in Florida, he was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister at the age of 13. He later went on to study at the University of Florida and the University of Chicago. His wife Dian was from North Carolina and the couple had a baby boy.
“In addition to organizing and taking part in the activities of Camp Summerlane, Von Hilsheimer is head of the social agency, ‘Humanitas,’ which he describes as "a lay brotherhood of service, whose members must tithe and give a substantial amount of their time in service to others,’” it was reported.
Von Hilsheimer’s plans for the future of the camp included organizing a year-round school to be located on the grounds of Camp Midvale encompassing all 12 grades.
This school would embrace the Summerhill philosophy of education espoused by progressive educator A. S. Neill in his book, “A Radical Approach to Child Rearing.”
A photograph that accompanied the article showed Von Hilsheimer giving an interview to a CBS television reporter. Another photograph showed the camp’s two large German shepherd guard dogs.
As for the rest of the camping season at Camp Midvale, Von Hilsheimer said, “We plan to stay.”
But his utopia was not to be in Ringwood either. Camp Midvale suffered from repeated harassment and accusations from the community until 1966 when the camp’s main building burned down.
The campers said it was arson, but Police Chief Roy Van Tassel wouldn’t allow an investigation to proceed.
The camp had been the subject of suspicion, and even got the attention of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, because of alleged communist teachings going on there.
1988 – Sacrificial bulls escape!
Two bulls that were stuffed into an undersized van and headed for sacrifice in a religious ritual were safe as their fate was being decided.
Riverdale Patrolman Robert Rosendale was patrolling along Route 23 South on a Saturday afternoon when he noticed a van “that appeared to have a large load in the back.”
He initiated a stop, and as he approached the vehicle, a bull’s head emerged from a broken window on the driver’s side.
“It was pretty unusual!” said Rosendale.
He ordered the three men in the van, Faizul Khan, 28, and Nazim Roghubir, 28, both of Brooklyn, and Nazeer Ally, 44, of Queens, out of the vehicle.
The men explained to Rosendale that the castrated bulls were to be sacrificed and then eaten in an Islamic ritual the next day in New York City.
But New Jersey law dictated that animals could only be slaughtered in a certified slaughterhouse, and Rosendale said, “The manner in which they were being transported was inhumane.”
One unnamed official said the group’s intentions would have been legal in New York, it was reported.
Police called in state animal warden Carl Warncke, who was accompanied by former state forest warden Frank Scardo of Oakland.
"When we got there, we found two full grown bulls that weighed well over 1,000 pounds stuffed into this van and almost dead. I don't know how they did it — they just stuffed them into the van," said Warncke. "One was facing the back and his blood circulation to the legs was completely stopped because he couldn't stand up. The second one was hanging himself on the post of the window by the noose that was around his neck."
In addition, the second bull's leg and tail had been closed in the door and were bleeding.
Due to the condition of the animals, Warncke said it took some time to remove them from the vehicle, despite assistance from two other policemen.
"We were standing in the middle of the highway with two bulls stuck in a van and dying, so we did the only thing we could. All of us, including the police officers started pulling and dragging the bulls out. It took us quite awhile to get them out and by the time we did, we were all filthy,” said Warncke.
A neighbor saw the event and came out with pails of water to try to revive the bulls, and that worked. The bulls were then kept in Pequannock while officials figured out what to do with them.
The men were charged with animal abuse crimes.
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