Yesterday and Today - Links

Links of Special Interest to Campers and Non-Campers, Nuns too.


A Trinity of Nuns at St. Agnes Villa
Dominican Mother House Amityville, LI, NY
During the '50's and '60's Religious Life was booming.  Girls from everywhere were “entering” even before they completed high school and parents were encouraged to help their daughters discern their vocation to religious life. After years of formation in the Dominican Mother House, the Nuns went to their assignments in schools, hospitals and missions. What do you do with a Nun in the summertime when she is not teaching or nursing?  You send her to camp! You send her to a Catholic Camp in the Borscht Belt, the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York.

Abandoned Convent
While we were swimming and hiking at camp in 1962 the Second Vatican Council began in Rome. With massive changes to the Church that ensued as a result of Vatican II the doors and windows of convents across America were flung open and the grand exodus began. Nuns, who up to this point pledged obedience to Mother Superior, left by the thousands claiming they were held captive and abused. Many left to pursue marriage and family or a professional career. Convents were left abandoned and religious orders began to rethink and reorganize.

Orders of Nuns like our Dominicans formed federations consisting of more than twenty cousin communities of Nuns from across the country. Successful attempts to reorganize and regroup helped save creative and forward thinking communities of women like the Dominicans, but the Nunneries of the mid twentieth century are gone forever. Fewer young women consider becoming Nuns and the cemetery at the Mother House is filling up.
Grave of a Dominican Nun
But not all is bleak in our Nun Story.  We recently found out that at least five of the nuns who staffed our little camp in the hills are still alive!  Here are two of our beloved Nuns looking well and happy.


Sister Mary Conrad, OP was Jane's Cabin Sister in the Intermediate Cabin.  She is in the top row, fourth from the left.






Sister Rose was our Canteen Nun.  She doled out all of those yummy sodas, candy and chips to us.  I wonder if she liked being at Camp better than teaching!
St. Agnes Villa Camp was staffed by the Dominican Sisters of Amityville, Long Island, NY. Their website is http://www.amityvilleop.org/.

The Borscht Belt - The Catskills

Right up the Thruway on Rt. 17, you'll find camp St. Agnes,
a Wurtsboro dream.
Wurtsboro, NY
In it's hey day, the "Mountains" were the New York Jews' paradise. Carloads of Orthodox Jews headed for the bungalows with clear lakes and handball courts while the upper crust Jewish elite headed for the hotels like Grossisnger's or the Concord to experience entertainment headliners like Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Tony Bennett, Joey Adams, Max Baer and many more.  A lot more goin' on then Rip Van Winkle ever dreamed!

Summer life in the places that brought joy to so many a New York Jew is chronicled in numerous publications. What is never mentioned is the scattering of Catholic Camps throughout the area.

Monticello, NY was a famous stop for the Short Line Bus and provided a variety of bars, restaurants, movie theaters, five and tens and an escape for the parents of St. Agnes Campers who visited the camp on weekends and on Parent's day. It was also the home of the famous Monticello Race Track. On Wednesdays the Counselors who watched over the campers had four hours off. An eight mile bus ride from Wurtsboro to Monticello gave them a break from bed making, life guarding and ground clean-up.  

Who knew that half a century later the Catskills would lie in economic ruin, the pristine hotels would be closed and in decay and the camps would be gone and almost forgotten.

Grossinger's in ruins today.
Monticello theater today.
If you plan on taking a little nostalgic tour of the Catskills, Sullivan County or Wurtsboro we've provided a few links to the area's travel guides below.  Who knows?  We may see you sitting by the Camp St. Agnes Lake, or sipping ice cold water from the underground spring, or pouring a cup of bug juice from your thermos, or eating a peanutbutter and grape jelly sandwich, or playing jacks on the cabin floor, or rollerskating in the Rec Hall, or saying the rosary on your way to the chapel...(It's all still there...we just can't SEE it!)





http://www.sullivancountyhistory.org/

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HERE IS A LINK TO A FACEBOOK PAGE ABOUT CAMP FORDHAM



http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=160194707331482


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HERE IS A LINK TO A FACEBOOK PAGE CREATED BY THE FAMILY OF THE CAMP OWNER, MRS. GLADYS WATSON


http://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Agnes-Villa-Camp/155269297838882


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HONK IF YOU ARE AN ACTIVIST
AND CARE ABOUT KEEPING THE CATSKILLS UNFRACKABLE






http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/

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IN HONOR OF CHRISTMAS, HOW ABOUT HEADING TO A LOCAL SULLIVAN COUNTY WINERY FOR SOME CHRISTMAS CHEER?

http://www.bashakillvineyards.com/













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