What a strange two weeks they were.
There still were "white" and even Jewish families living in Queensbridge, not many but some of us were still there. Some of the kids were members of the Boys' Club which was located on 21st Street up past Broadway. That's around where Long Island City and Astoria meet. I went there a few times but I really did not like the place much, They had a nice swimming pool but I vaguely remember seeing fights break out the two or three times I went there and I decided I would pass this service up.
The Boys' Club of New York ran a summer camp for us poor kids up in Carmel, New York. My parents sent me there in the summer of my twelfth year, me quite willing to go too. The camp ran two week "trips".
I remember how I was a bit confused because I was the only kid from my block on this trip although the "colored kids" I knew all had signed up as well. When I got to the camp I saw that there were no "colored kids" at all. I had hoped to spend the two weeks hanging with my friends, especially Larry and Ronnie Gardner, but they were not on this trip.
There were only a few of us white boys from Queensbridge at the camp, the rest came from what were then white working class neighborhoods of Chelsea and Clinton in Manhattan.
Now this is going back over fifty years and I surely do not remember every hour or every day I was there. What I do remember is my counselor called "Bino"slapping me probably every day and calling me "Jew boy" and "Jew o". He loved asking me "so, how are things in the Mecca?" Another white boy from Queensbridge was this little Italian kid whose name I con't remember. He had a facial tick, always wincing. His mom had got him into some program to treat this and it was actually getting lessened. Bino, though, found the tick amusing and liked to smack this little kid around as well.
Then there was the fat little Jewish kid from Chelsea. He got it the worse I think, He was christened "Mister kosher" by Bino.
Bino and his junior counselor (whose name I do not recall) loved to have us boys dance naked around a campfire with our penises facing towards the flames. As I recall Bino was pretty impressed with mine. He even told another camper that Jew boy has a really big one and this praise came to me second hand.
All campers were expected to write out a postcard every day telling their parents that things were great. Every day at lunch they'd call one or other of the kids to take back his postcard and write a "better" one.
As my "trip's" boys got on the bus home a busload of dark skinned boys were already lined up to go to their assigned bunks. I saw Larry and Ronnie and we acknowledged each other with glances.
The Boys Club is of course very fortunate that those wee not litigious times like we live in now. My parents and the little Italian kids mother went to the Boys; Club office with us and were satisfied to be blown off by whomever it was whose job was to blow off such complaints.
And that's the story of Camp Clearpool. My mom told me that she thought Bino was Ukrainian and that they all hate Jews. Of course Bino had a few other issues, as I've indicated, but it was much later in reading Israel Shahak and even Israel Shamir who I think is a brilliant hustler who often tells the truth. that I got a much clearer picture of some of the things that must have been in Bino's mind. Not that I forgive him, I don't but after all those years it was helpful to learn that the Ukrainians actually had quite some legitimate grievances with the Jews.
There still were "white" and even Jewish families living in Queensbridge, not many but some of us were still there. Some of the kids were members of the Boys' Club which was located on 21st Street up past Broadway. That's around where Long Island City and Astoria meet. I went there a few times but I really did not like the place much, They had a nice swimming pool but I vaguely remember seeing fights break out the two or three times I went there and I decided I would pass this service up.
The Boys' Club of New York ran a summer camp for us poor kids up in Carmel, New York. My parents sent me there in the summer of my twelfth year, me quite willing to go too. The camp ran two week "trips".
I remember how I was a bit confused because I was the only kid from my block on this trip although the "colored kids" I knew all had signed up as well. When I got to the camp I saw that there were no "colored kids" at all. I had hoped to spend the two weeks hanging with my friends, especially Larry and Ronnie Gardner, but they were not on this trip.
There were only a few of us white boys from Queensbridge at the camp, the rest came from what were then white working class neighborhoods of Chelsea and Clinton in Manhattan.
Now this is going back over fifty years and I surely do not remember every hour or every day I was there. What I do remember is my counselor called "Bino"slapping me probably every day and calling me "Jew boy" and "Jew o". He loved asking me "so, how are things in the Mecca?" Another white boy from Queensbridge was this little Italian kid whose name I con't remember. He had a facial tick, always wincing. His mom had got him into some program to treat this and it was actually getting lessened. Bino, though, found the tick amusing and liked to smack this little kid around as well.
Then there was the fat little Jewish kid from Chelsea. He got it the worse I think, He was christened "Mister kosher" by Bino.
Bino and his junior counselor (whose name I do not recall) loved to have us boys dance naked around a campfire with our penises facing towards the flames. As I recall Bino was pretty impressed with mine. He even told another camper that Jew boy has a really big one and this praise came to me second hand.
All campers were expected to write out a postcard every day telling their parents that things were great. Every day at lunch they'd call one or other of the kids to take back his postcard and write a "better" one.
As my "trip's" boys got on the bus home a busload of dark skinned boys were already lined up to go to their assigned bunks. I saw Larry and Ronnie and we acknowledged each other with glances.
The Boys Club is of course very fortunate that those wee not litigious times like we live in now. My parents and the little Italian kids mother went to the Boys; Club office with us and were satisfied to be blown off by whomever it was whose job was to blow off such complaints.
And that's the story of Camp Clearpool. My mom told me that she thought Bino was Ukrainian and that they all hate Jews. Of course Bino had a few other issues, as I've indicated, but it was much later in reading Israel Shahak and even Israel Shamir who I think is a brilliant hustler who often tells the truth. that I got a much clearer picture of some of the things that must have been in Bino's mind. Not that I forgive him, I don't but after all those years it was helpful to learn that the Ukrainians actually had quite some legitimate grievances with the Jews.
