 I'm from around Wilkes Fair, Pennsylvania. I don't think they have any Pennsylvanians here. Nobody in that Pennsylvania comes to Vermont. We've got Texas. Yes, where are you from? Chester County. Where? Chester County. Where's that at? It's outside Philly, in the center of the world. Oh. How did you like the Eagles last night? Did they win or not? I didn't do those things. Finally, when I went to bed. I was a Philly's fan. Then I switched, then I became basketball the Knicks. I talked New Jersey next after I went to King's College in Wilkes Fair. Then I talked 4th grade in New Jersey. Where? Clifton. Clifton, Northern. I was in the middle of the state. Old Bridge, East Brunswick. I'm from here, but I live in New Brunswick. In Flemington. Oh, Flemington first. I remember. Then I met my wife, who was a farmer from Dutchess County. And also a nurse connectivity. And also Connecticut. We decided we didn't want to live in New Jersey. Where are you from originally? East Montpelier. originally? Yeah. You don't look like you're from East Montpelier. I was there. Oh, East Montpelier. I thought you would be from New York City. Where are you from? Massachusetts. I live in East Montpelier. That's where Michelle is. Well, we decided we wanted to live in some place else. Catskills, we got a job. In a little town called Delhi. And Michelle, could you shut these lights? I don't know. Sometimes people know where this little dinky town is. Let's see. Right there, near Onianta. I don't know if you ever heard of that one. Hardwick. Hardwick College is there, Onianta State. And some people go to Binghamton, and there's all of them up there. We're in No Man's Land. Country. We had a junior college. And we had farmers. And so it was a mixture of kids. So it was neat to raise my kids, three kids there. And we had the Catskills. We thought we were also in the Catskills. This is the surrounding area. And we bought this old farmhouse. Anybody have an old farmhouse here in Vermont? Hey, so you know what it is, fixing up farmhouses. And so this was a farmhouse, then a college, or dormitory. I guess something like that. From a guy who owned it from Long Island. Where's our Long Island people? Somebody was from Long Island. That must have been yesterday. I was in Bennington Museum yesterday. And so we got this. It was really bad shape. Empty for about two years. Wouldn't have smashed. And so 1974, we got it for 27,500. And just gutted it. And fixed it up a little by a little. You know, as the kids came along and it was a good place to raise kids. And then up at the top of this mountain, I didn't even know it was a fire tower that came down in 75. And I didn't even know it. That would be my first book that I'd ever write. Book about fire towers of the Catskills. And these are all the books that I've done, mostly in retirement. So the thing is, don't sit down. These travel books, you know, you have the 251 Club? Well I said, well I did six books on the Adirondacks. Get the people to visit all the 102 towns. And it's a journal, and you also have to get it signed, stamped or signed. Then I went to Connecticut and I did this one. And who could tell me, now we're going to have a little contest, a little prize. Michelle, is she still here? All right, who could tell me what town in Connecticut is on my cover? Who said that? What's your name? Richard gets 10 points. It's Mystic, but this part of Mystic is in Rotten. And the other side, the bridge where the guy took the picture is in Stonington. And then a guy said, after I did all these books, I did books on CCCs. The Adirondacks, Rhode Island and Connecticut. So I am very lucky and honored to be here. I mean I'm driving around, looking at the scenery, you know. How many people could drive around and just go and interview, meet people, and gather the stories of the 35 CCC camps here that you have had, you know. And like today, or yesterday I was in Pennington. And then on the way I stopped in Pultney. And Pultney had a CCC camp. But it was a... Anybody know where Pultney is? Anybody go there? Big thing was Slink. Slink roofs. And right where the camp supposedly was, there was a guy, you know, the company selling Slink. And the guy was showing me how they punch the two holes in it. Just tapping it and puts the two holes in it. So I'll pass this around. This is their CCC camp yearbook. And you people, before I forget, this is a yearbook about the building of the three dams to stop the waters from coming into the Winooski River. And the CCC built these dams. So this is a 1937 yearbook. This is... I got this on eBay. Maybe just a little more light so they could... Can you see? Okay? We'll keep all lights out. You okay? Okay. So then I left New Jersey, where the school that we were teaching in was called Jonas Salk Middle School. And I got to meet him. That was something. How many remember in the 50s getting the little cubes of sugar? And then somebody said, oh, we got the shots. Okay? But this was built by the WPA during the Depression. A lot of schools and town halls. And WPA is different from CCC in that the WPA they were older men, usually. They did home every day. They did projects, sewers, roads, buildings. And I was a reading teacher and I went to Pro-Kiel School. I don't know if anybody else had nuns, but we didn't have the books that they have for kids today in libraries. So I never liked to read that much. But when I got to this little town of Bel-Hive, the kids said, Mr. Podsketch, this book, My Side of the Mountain, won me a Newberry Award and the children chosen from librarians all over the United States was all about Del-Hive where I was teaching. Anybody ever read that book? Oh my God, that's one of my favorites. Really? Yeah. Well, this is a story about a boy who leaves New York City, hitchhikes up Route 28 there through the Catskills, to the Cannon Free Library, our library, and he searches, maps how to find his Grandpa Gryffindor's farm, what he thinks, and how to live during the fall, winter, and spring all by himself, by nature. It contains a hawk. And so it was written by this lady, Jean George, and she also wanted for Julie of the Wolves. I don't know if anybody read a story about Alaska. So in the back of the book, I said, or this librarian said, Marty, let's have a book fair. The schools have book fairs and they have an author come. But how the heck are we going to afford an author? It's hundreds, thousands of dollars. So I looked in the back of the book of My Side of the Mountain. She was from Chapaquah, New York. Anybody know where Chapaquah is? Hillary Clinton Country. Right. So it's very rich of Westchester County. So I dialed. I got the information from, you know, the phone numbers, how we used to get. Today you get it from the internet. But then you had to dial 5551212 in the area code. So one night I had the courage and I don't know if I was drinking or what. But I dialed the number and a lady answered. And I said, is Jean George there? She said, speaking. I'm just a teacher from Delhi. Oh, Delhi. What a wonderful town. So I said, we're poor. We can't afford an author. How would you like to be our first author? She said, I'd love to come. So here I had Newberry Award winner coming for free. I told other writers. I had 15 other writers. I had kids from K through 12 in our school system, all listening to authors in one day. And I did it for 25 years. They all came for free. So I wanted to get my kids interested in reading. Guess who became an author too? Their teacher. That all happened when I went to a fire tower. How many have climbed the fire tower? Wow. Boy. Who is? So when I climbed this one in 1987, I think I got up to about here a minute. I don't know if I'd get this high. But this is 65 foot high. Some go there's one up in the Adirondacks 80 foot. And out in Florida I think they're 150 feet. You know where there are no mountains? 150 foot high. So it was in October like October but towards the end. And when we were halfway up, the drizzle turned to rape of snow. So there was about four inches of snow and then a little guy came out of the cabin, the observer and he said, guys how would you like to come in and get warmed up and have a drink of water? So we sat down and he said, this was the greatest job. He hired firemen from New York City and he got to meet thousands of people from all over the world. And you get paid just sitting up there and watching for a smoke. So I told the publisher I said, somebody should write a book. They'd probably be interesting. So 10 years later in 97 he said the publisher called me and said, Marty they're trying to save the towers in the Catsfields. How would you like to write a book? Bingo. I'm an author. It took me three years but I got it done. And then I went to the Adirondacks your neighbors. Some of you people, I guess you can't see but when you're right around here by Lake Champlain you look across, I remember visiting a friend on this side and it was I think I was Wake Robin anybody ever see it stay at that place? It's a senior citizen place. I was giving a talk there about fire towers and you could see some shiny one spot and snowing in the other. It's just awful same thing you get the same views here. So I did the books on the 57 towers there so I had three books done and then I used to have publishers coming and I had this comic book illustrator. He said, Marty let's book together. Anybody collect comic books here? This guy he did a lot of things even outdoor life. Just look at these. He did 251 with me. I wrote the captions and sent him pictures. Look at this. So I've got those books. Then somebody had pictures of CCC guys in the Adirondacks. So I went from gathering stories about the men and women up in the tower just like you had in Vermont and New Hampshire in Texas all over the United States you had fire towers to the men who saved, you know, built up our forests. Because I was in Mendham. Anybody ever go to Mendham? By Killington? This forester took me this morning and we went up this road, not road. Have you been up there? Not road. And it turns to dirt and then there was a Girl Scout camp but before that there was a CCC camp there. And they did a lot of 900 acres they were planting of trees and then when they left the Girl Scouts made a camp. How many have been to Sharon? You know, there was a girl there still is a camp there, not Girl Scouts, but a camp I was there about a month ago and they still use some of the buildings of the CCC camp here. How many have been to Burke Mountain? Anybody bikers? Are you a biker? Boy I tell you, you go to Burke Mountain, you can't believe how many bikes for there mountain bikes. Now the fat they do it even in the winter time, you know, they're tired and that serpentine road going up to the top to the fire tower built by the CCC and the guy said you know the lodge anybody know where the ski lodge there in Burke is? You know what it is? Four CCC barracks squished together with two in the front and that was the lodge, the ski lodge so I've got to get after the guys there at the life insurance place with the conservation department to make sure they save that building because otherwise what happens is just burn them down you know, they can't take care of or vandalism. So I traveled all over and people would take me in for the night and I would gather, just keep getting stories just like this, I don't have no book in Vermont. You people just in the audience, raise your hand if your dad or somebody in your family was in the CCC okay, and where Susan, where was your dad? He was in St. Albans and what do you remember about that? The only thing he told me was that he moved to Cemetery he had a full layup when he was a kid so you had you couldn't join the military but he was in the CCC so you moved to Cemetery and the only thing he said one time was that he saved somebody from drowning and I had to go to exponent lessons at the age of three because he was going to have his kids drowned at St. Albans they built that back house anybody go there? I've seen pictures beautiful back house there how many have been to Crystal Lake? I was there two weeks ago you know that beautiful back house it has stone and layer of brick stone, brick built by the CCC's I think those bumps I'm just so excited traveling like today I went Menden and then one step one by Killington at State Park, Michelle Is it Alice? No, Gifford Gifford Woods you know that beautiful stone building there where the ranger is that was built by the CCC it's got the bathroom then an open area with a fireplace and then the ranger there's three of them that I've seen same design Grafton Grafton Grafton, anybody go to a little town of Grafton? Beautiful you take this dirt road have you been to that the park there? No okay, so I got that book done and I got the passion I mean I can't stop I'm in Vermont and if I have the energy I'm gonna be next month 79 and if I still have energy I'm gonna do Massachusetts 70 camps and I have to go to Cape Cod whether or not to go to the Berkshires and then I've got to go to I think Martha's Vineyard at one luckily I have a Prius and I get 55 miles per gallon so tonight as soon as I leave here I've got three hours and 36 minutes to get back to Connecticut but at least you know it doesn't cost much on the gas people take me in who's taking me in tonight? that's what happened one time in the Adirondacks the guy was supposed to take me in he said Marty I've got bad news we've got company okay, he said anybody want to take Marty in for the night? and the guy raised and said I'll take him this is the way because you can't afford I mean last night was the first time I had a motel in Vermont because I didn't know everybody in Rockland every day so I had to get $160 for a motel for a motel I found this place brand new $79 anybody said it's a motor lodge $79 nice and clean so if you're ever there then I went to Connecticut where my wife is from and look at this the side of the hill they had benches watching the boxing boxing was really popular okay so I did the 21 camps of Connecticut and the little town that I live in had two camps and then the guy said Marty could you find where my dad was I had to go to Rhode Island in one day one day I visited the seven camps so that was easy and then I got that book done but I didn't grow up in the depression I was born in 43 but my parents in your parents most likely had a rough time my mother had eight sisters and one brother and her father died back along coal mining he and my grandmother came from Lithuania and my other grandparents came from Slovakia so when they came to the Wolfsburg area, the coal region what do you do the crappy jobs just like all the immigrants that come we're looking for people I guess who's taking the jobs we had the immigrants to take them the great depression it was terrible 25% of the people unemployed soup kitchens you know kins, you know your fathers if they were at that age a lot of them they're poor you had to quit school at eighth grade or less I had this one guy he was from around Saratoga his father was working on this Ford plant here in Green Island fell off the Ford plant heard his back he couldn't work anymore the kids had to you know get the little jobs he was 14 years old he had to help his mother so what he did is he went upstairs his bedroom got his birth certificate and he you old people might remember Inky Raticator like Clorox a little bottle with a glass thing and you could use that to eradicate the date and he changed it to be 18 because he had to be 18 years old so here's this 14 year old joining and of course they took him he had to be a certain height and they started big guys picking on him from New York City luckily a big guy where's that big guy here there's a big guy there took care of him then he said you could sign up for 6 months and then you could go for another 6 months up to 2 years ok so he went his next trip who wants to go to Utah this little guy maybe he was by 15 now he's on the train can you imagine poor boy going out west seeing Utah and he helped build the lodge where the Olympics were held and he skiers what's the big what? no it's problem Michelle not too close no I don't know that one park city park city there you went to park city he helped build that lodge they were shooting cannons but this is what they had to do 8th grade that was it so Roosevelt was elected and when he ran for election who did he defeat for 10 points raise your hand if you know Herbert Hoover what's your first name Dan gets 10 points Herbert Hoover now for 10 points what was Hoover's slogan when he ran for president a chicken is every pot what's your name what's your first name did she have a first name in a coronary garage I think it's a tie Susan gets 10 and what's your name you said it what's your first name Nancy 10 points who could tell me I couldn't believe it one audience didn't know this what was FDR's slogan the new deal what's your name Steve 10 points the new deal he promised that he's going to start create the civilian conservation corps to be used simple work more important than those material gains will be moral and spiritual value of such a work he went to congress on March 27th and it was called the act was called emergency conservation work okay four days later it passed the house and the senate yes just like us our congress yes does every state have buy in to this offer next question how many states were there in 1933 who said what's your name the mic gets 10 points 48 states so there were in the 48 states plus where else territories what territories who said Puerto Rico what's your name Nancy Nancy 10 points she's trying to give it to her partner and who who said Puerto Rico Richard gets 10 points Richard gets 10 points how many went to Puerto Rico and went up to the rain the road going up like that I went into the museum the whole park I get the goosebumps really there's some guys possibly still alive Puerto Rico or living in New York City or some Florida that came and they helped build that park who could tell me the other places territories that had CCC is it the Virgin Islands correct what's your name Meredith for 10 more points named the three Virgin Islands anybody okay nobody gets points they're too many and I went to St. Croix and I said what did they do and they said they planted mahogany trees they built parks you just have to go there I just happen to be on vacation and I you know I said anybody else want to retire or anybody want to go on a road trip with me this week I'm going to Rhode Island my travel club is having the 39 club let me know when you go to Hawaii alright what's the other territories that had Hawaii who said Hawaii what's your name Maureen gets her first 10 points where else Alaska and that's David Dan so he had all these and you know Alaska I had to be in Alaska anybody like Gold Rush I went from Vancouver and up to from Skagway all the way up to White Horse and then up to Dawson City and then over to Fairbanks and then I went to Denali and I'm riding on these buses guess what that little park there the first park that they stopped at built by the CCC even the park there where they had the dogs and their totem poles were in disrepair guess what happened CCC under the guidance of local experienced men they rebuilt the totem poles met me you didn't think you'd be getting all the snow I could be here for days but we got to be short and you are so lucky that you had this Adirondack boy okay where in the Adirondacks did he come from Adirondacks you know my mother used to work for him the size of the totem poles really nobody came what city what a little town in the Adirondacks did this poor farm boy come from Westport on the Lake Champlain yes you didn't know that well the making of a the making of a forester okay he rode his own bike his auto bike if we all started from the cheap seats we have another one okay he rode this other one they they didn't get them they got them really cheap seats and he also rode this one okay just hardly anything about Vermont but a whole story about the CCCs and that might be in our library Michelle okay but when I went to the park today you people are on the ball because your state conservation department put signs like this at the parks where they were built by the CCC the 26 of them 26 a big sign was built by the CCC okay and this guy here this poor boy came for 20 points who could tell me where did he what college did he go university for forestry yeah yeah yeah yeah alright okay okay we gotta go back but he was able to go to Washington your kids are at least a week they weren't sleeping so he went to Washington 1933 in the spring he had the plans for the dams to prevent the runus from overflowing because the electric companies the power companies had them he said look it I need to do these projects oh that's a good idea and these parks that need to create I got this forestry he was able to convince Washington because all the other states that I know of was based on population what state for 10 points at 1933 could get the most boys because of population the more people you had the more poor people you could have more who said somebody said something New York what's your name Merritt in 10 points so they had the most but yes who Vermont because he had the plans and everything he was able to get a lot of boys but he didn't have enough voice to work what state probably had about 75 percent come from there to Vermont Vermont that was second Massachusetts Massachusetts, Susan correct not many people there we had to send people off to Maine we had to send them up there so you had all these Massachusetts boys coming and they would come and of course they would have dances and they would have dances in the nearby town and guess what happened the local boys see these boys coming all dressed up these city slickers you know guess what happened they lost their girlfriends and a lot of times they wound up marrying a girl from that town I was in Pellows Falls and Marty was in the audience and he said my father came from Massachusetts New Bedford came from that area working there met this girl he wound up marrying her and of course the boy goes with the wife right that's why I'm in Connecticut and so that's the other thing a lot of times people come and say if it wasn't for the CCC I wouldn't be here because so Massachusetts really loaded now the Department of Labor was going to choose which ones were on relief they called it and who was the person in charge of the Department of Relief under Roosevelt Harry Hawkins Harry Hawkins Harry Hawkins no woman she was a woman who was? Francis Perkins who said that? Francis Perkins Francis Perkins is correct and points, your first name again? Nancy Nancy I'm fighting out the Army was chosen because they could feed cloth, shelter free medical care in 1933 can you imagine that? free medical care free medical care where's Bernie? where's Bernie here? is it true Bernie's not running percent? what? oh that's Lady oh Lady I saw something on the news that he wasn't running I thought it was Bernie ohhhh Lady okay so each camp had a doctor a doctor okay these were something that's right there right there right there to take care of the boys now each camp had 200 boys approximately a lot of them were coming up from Massachusetts some Rhode Island even in New Hampshire too coming up to help New Hampshire now is the question Rhode Island Vermont had four barracks got four barracks 200 boys how many boys in one barracks? who said that? what's your name? Bob are you an accountant? 50 50 is correct now in the other states New York Connecticut they have five barracks how many in one barracks? what? again genius now just picture 40 guys or 50 guys in Vermont in one barracks one big room 18 to 25 if anybody was a teacher high school I was seventh grade for a teacher for 30 some years oh sorry and all you had in an hour was one kid one a boom boom just to record I remember this one kid it was my fourth period when he came it was dynamite so how could the army they would have a captain from World War I and what do they call it second lieutenant to watch all these 200 boys so you have 50 guys in the barracks the captain would look around what's your name? Larry Larry you're going to be the leader in barracks one and instead of getting a dollar a day 30 dollars like everybody else you get 45 what's your name? Ed Ed you're going to be his assistant barracks one $36 $6 more than the rest of the guys but you too have to keep those 48 guys in line beds made everything cleaned up imagine getting these teenagers out of bed at six in the morning so that's what they had to do now who said that? Ed Larry I quit 30 bucks that's it do you take the job? I will I'll take it you'll take the job don't forget the ladies of the evening okay the ladies of the apps is true they would have the checks after they came back from town the doctor would have to check for BD yeah now I found this I can't even remember I had two I can't find the other one but I wasn't in the army any army men or women here what does this mean? two stripes all right you don't want these two stripes? $45 all right so now these uniforms didn't come out until later on and Roseville saw how real glad they were I'll start these in the cheap seats this was around 1935 and 1936 they had these nice and look at the way it's sewn it was really nice and they would wear these hitchhiking home if they weren't too far maybe 30 miles, 40 miles 50 and they would wear their uniform and those are the days people hitchhiked right and they would get rides if they had the uniform on I think I only did one time I picked up somebody on the New Jersey Turnpike because he had a uniform but my mother always don't go hitchhiking don't go hitchhiking it was just today you don't even see people hitchhiking do you? they have their own cars now the bonus army came in 1932 with Hoover okay after the war they were promised a bonus 1946 when they were older they would get some money but the soldiers didn't have jobs these veterans from World War I they came to Washington they had their tents Hoover what did he do? looks like he burned he was sent in MacArthur actually he sent to remove them from federal buildings in MacArthur went overboard and started shooting everybody and started pushing them burning them and he was not told not to do that it was shipped into his dam what dam okay thanks okay so dam gets 10 points now 1933 we have a new president the bonus army we don't have jobs we need money just like people today with the inflation help us help us Roosevelt who does he send to take care of these bonus army starts with an E I was an hour Eleanor Eleanor is correct Eleanor he's not sending soldiers in like some people would need to because of riots etc he's sent in Eleanor drives in what's the problem you don't have a job she goes back tells FDR and if you're the president do you want to have protesters all over the United States in the world protesting you want to keep your politician right so he said we're going to have camps for the young guys 1825 and veterans of World War I and guess who came to Montpellier veterans of World War I that's who built your dams did you know that 5000 I get the goosebumps came to Montpellier to Barry and built those dams with their hands especially the East Barry dam they had shovels, wheelbarrows couple trucks sludge hammers, picks and I looked at the size of that dam that's moving a lot of dirt they got better in Riceville dam they got more equipment and then when they did the Waterbury dam they had really lots of equipment that was in 35 okay so there we have veterans okay and here's the East Barry dam look at this look at the shovels they have a couple trucks, wheelbarrows hundreds of wheelbarrows and then it was year round that they worked even in the winter time can you imagine that how many have you passed my yearbook around no the yearbook from the dam I mean it's just unbelievable what these guys did okay and they had physical exams they had to do a certain height I think about 5 with 2, 3 like Susan your dad used to say was short and I think maybe 6, 5 or 6, 6 and one physical quality you had to have 3 masticating teeth uppers and lowers 3 total or 3 out of each 3 at least 3 on top and 3 on the bottom everybody starts laughing why why laugh at this because they didn't have the money the parents didn't have time to go take them to the dentist for their cleaning like we do today my granddaughter 4 years old had a cavity goes to the doctor filling $300 in New Canaan $300 $300 okay there's the uniforms there's the clothes from World War 1 yes so I don't see any African Americans in this were they segregated they were segregated in New York Pennsylvania and down south but in New England I thought we were you know good people the reason they said they just weren't that many so they didn't have 200 guys to make a camp in Rhode Island and Vermont and Maine so your camps were integrated for New England Rhode Island Connecticut my father was at the Plymouth Camp Plymouth Camp Plymouth Camp by Scottney well but and down wait a minute you're talking about the Shrewsbury Camp no I'm talking about Coolidge that's by Scottney Mount no where she's talking about the Plymouth Camp Plymouth Camp I know the Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge that's the escutney I've seen it so what's your question well I was just going to say he talked about working with African American men they were mixed and one of those guys used to come to our house he was from Rhode Island and my wife came up to our house every summer they stayed friends he apparently had saved my father had saved the man's life he was caught under a tree out in the woods my father somehow I forgot to ask the other people too who else their father or grandfather yes Susan she told the story who's there my grandfather was at CCC he was an education director and he went to many different camps and was the education director Rickard Mills, Groton, Burke Waterbury that box back there this metal box is full of a bunch of stuff I gave to Marty several months ago to make copies of stuff he's got a bunch of scrapbooks with pictures and long photos of everybody in camp that's a week this is a book do they have educational programs? they had high school stuff reading, writing, everything Scott, where was your grandfather from? Italy but then he came to Vermont he grew up he lived for a little while and then he came to Barrie to Barrie is it okay to pass this around? you're very careful what was he doing before this? this is unbelievable he was an education instructor they look at the color I mean I passed the grand place today thinking about this color his grandfather Carby because you had a lot of people from Italy they were very good with stone so at a lot of these parks too they needed a mason to work along with these boys and sometimes they were Italian sometimes they might went there's some lady her dad helped build a one in Townsend mason and I thought I met her oh god, I got 10 minutes okay there's the Marshfield I haven't hit that town though but that's where they came by train to work at Rotten State Park there and that six mile road was built by the CCC can you believe that? I don't know I don't think so I don't know I don't think so but look at this, now they had nice boots underwear nice woolen clothes and he would sign up say in April and he would go until October so you're working in the spring in the summer the guys that signed up for November October through the whole winter and then your six months was up in April so you had to have good clothing and the Army gave it to you and there's the barracks they'd have stoves and see these windows the way they opened this was definitely Brian, could you tell them about that? yeah Brian is the historian from Waterbury and he knows the stuff about he's built the stuff about the Waterbury den the CCC barracks across the country had those windows that tilted in and as Marty said to your death death traps there was a huge publicity problem for the CCC because barracks had burning and young blacks had dying Christmas night 1935 in Waterbury as the officers quarters burned the CCC boys because they couldn't get out those windows but you see everything is neat just like our children and grandchildren, right? I'll take you to the rooms then they had a medical care they had a doctor even they had a traveling doctor a dentist to go around in camps and they had a boy like the guy who's the president of the historic society he has his dad's records pictures about 50 pictures of his dad signing up Rochester newspaper his dad's picture in the Rochester paper signing up to go you should see the collection he has a pdf file of you know a powerpoint so they would just stay oh sorry they would stay there and help and take care of basic medical things they would show his father giving a shot ok now here's the bellows falls the people didn't know anything about this, ok? where it was etc I just would stop along the road and ask people until I finally found where this was it was on a dirt road you know where exit 4 is or 5 on 91 for bellows falls ok if you get off that and there's a nice place gas station and bakery and pizza and stuff there's a dirt road right next to it it goes up to the top and this up here is where route 91 is but some ladies saw my newspaper story I said I'm looking for pictures etc and I got that's all I got to meet Scott and get his grandfather's stuff and so this is the basic idea if you see a chimney in the woods that was probably the wreck hall oh wait right there the wreck hall ok this is the kitchen and there's the mess hall all the trucks would be in garages they didn't leave them out and they would have a blacksmith there working on anytime they needed a material Elmore camp the summer of what was it? the summer of July, August, September they didn't have any barracks yet they had to live in tents, army tents so sometimes yes I just want to be clear did the conservation corps evolve into the army corps when it was here? no David the Army Corps of Engineers ok then 6 o'clock ok and everything they'd have inspections the captain would come maybe once a week or so look at everything was neatly arranged at the tables in the tent then they also had to do the cooking in a tent too and then they would have at the beginning roll call raising of the flag and then today when they would dress nicely for dinner look at this is the water barrier look at all the trucks when they were building the dam did you know the north field camp was on the fairgrounds on the fairgrounds I stopped in Norwich 2 weeks ago and I thought where is the fairground they said it's right here no it's not in front of the school it was I had the two towns screwed up and then if you go to Weston you know where Vermont Country stores began there was a camp there so what they needed too they needed a guide to go on the truck and teach them basic skills maybe a longer they didn't have a job a what else did they need oh masons carpenters and these LEM local experience meant they were happy to get a job to work with like a squad maybe 12 boys to doing a project look at here's St. Alvin's Susan is your dad there sure I don't know when that was taken big thing road building because they had to get the trees the bad trees out and also when there's a forest fire to get into the woods 8 hour day what was the favorite sandwich of the boys peanut butter cheese 10 points Nancy Nancy 10 points what was that peanut butter and jelly peanut butter and jelly yeah look at this I think this was up by I don't know by Willoughby or was it by Burke dams they built small ones they built and this is the one in Townsend and this lady some place around here her father supervised LEM teach them how to use heavy equipment then they would come for supper okay they had some boys they had to learn how to cook for 200 people three meals a day and then they would go back to their barracks relax okay and they had pet dogs too and then they ate really well and to see everything is nice and see those windows they aren't the windows but see all the thing they had was this home of soap it's like pressed cardboard something like that home of soap I remember my dad used it and that was the only insulation and on the walls were outside tar paper that's it in the room the boys would bring their bands their equipment instruments this boy was an assistant leader he was paid $36 a month and he had to order the candy cigarettes, pipe tobacco shaving equipment it's such a like that you could just see them the tar paper okay why do they have ladders on the roofs fires why chimney fire how many have heated with wood and heard that note you know when the kreosov catches on fire my brother-in-law's house burned down because of a kreosov fire there was a crack in the what town did they go to from camp they went down probably the lake there maybe they oh wait a minute they go around the around the hills what's that town towards Stoke they had that old Bezier theater is it still there in what's town Morrisville there it is there's the Windsor camp that's the camp your dad was in okay and then they look at the sports the money they made at the camp team they would buy sports equipment and play other teams ccc teams even town teams and look at the soldiers in East Berry Dam with their ski slope and it was your guy that had around that boy who went to either Sweden or Norway in the 20s saw people skiing he came back it's right in the book came back and said we gotta get these people doing something in the winter bring money and look at the money that brought people to and basketball the basketball teams would go to the high school close by the Grange Hall to play there's the cooks and there might have been a priest or a minister some lady last yesterday she said what about the Jewish boys the Jewish boys were there too but I don't know if there was a rabbi that maybe went around or maybe there might have been a synagogue in town not too many then education classes yes how many years all together did the ccc last 1933 to 42 July because now we were in World War II we needed the boys so Scott can you tell a little bit more about your dad or your grandfather including Tom I got Chris as he was he got a baseball team we did all those places we showed him a section where they had typewriters and the antique people to write and read if they didn't know how they had getting their GED for high school or even an 8th grade diploma some were even taking college classes there were college boys too that were in the ccc they had a library let's see if we can check look at a nice library look at the veterans there at Waterbury Camp taking classes at night they even raised pigs okay then they had to teach them how to drive trucks and look at all the trucks they had that amazing some would be army trucks and some would be conservation trucks and each camp had usually a monthly camp newspaper which will start in the back you can find these online just look under for a ccc camp newspaper and it tells you the state and then you can get the camp and look at this a guy came to one of my talks in Connecticut he found this or I don't know he must have sprayed it I said do you want to sell? No but he took one of my books instead so I got okay it says this driver is required to drive carefully and has the ccc mp now if a boy, like a boy said he was driving in Lake George and the police stopped them for doing something wrong and the boy said you can't give me a ticket and the police said yes you are you're getting this ticket he went back and told the captain the captain went down to the chief and said he's working for the army you can't give him a ticket and they had governors to keep them at a speed like 35 miles I think but I don't know if they changed it but a lot of truck accidents with the kids 18 years old driving flipping over boys died gashed teeth one guy told me in Oregon driving in Oregon and those Colorado those roads with no guardrails flipping over boys died when the barracks caught on fire just like Brian said there we're almost done and you could get these online or eBay happy days it was a national newspaper news from all over the 48 states Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and what did these boys accomplish look at all the work, fire breaks they tried to stop the gypsy moths beach improvement braiding parking areas picnic grounds walks, fish rearing searching for missing persons hikers, hunters surveyed a lot of boys learned how to survey and became surveyors and some boys just became truck drivers when they left us and some cooks look at here the whole United States 100,000 billion trees planted and you could tell these trees you know the height of these trees whether it was or right in nice orderly look at fire towers 3400 like that one on Burke mountain that was built by the CCC the one on Elmore oh the one on a scutney too I think I think hold it might be wrong now I have to leave now because otherwise I could come back again with the book and I'll tell you more but I got 3 hours and 36 minutes to drive home to Connecticut and you people I've worked really hard today in the offices in the quarries etc so before you leave if you'd like to be on the list or to get the book when it comes out I was thinking I got to get it done next year the 90th anniversary so I'd like to thank you all for coming anybody who wants to buy a book a mine on the table $20 or $2 for $35 yes question Marty can I make the announcement hmm okay I asked Marty where my name is George Edson I'm chairman of the Montpelier Historical Society and we have a meeting a public program this Saturday at the Pavilion Auditorium and the name of it is the Golden Age of Vermont State News Coverage and there's going to be a panel of Chris Raff Diane Derby Peter Martin Steve Terry many of you would know we have the EV show two o'clock at the Pavilion Auditorium free love to see you there and I got some sheets of more more detail I've got a couple pieces of paper coming and there's free newspapers the CCC Legacy it's a national organization we try to keep it alive to look at my books look at the map where all the CCC camps were up there and please sign my paper class dismissed