 He's the guy, right? So the exciting news is a CCC book on Vermont's coming out. It will be his 12th book. And he's written three on CCC camps, the Adirondacks Connecticut, where he's from, and Rhode Island. And I'm going to turn it right over to you, Marty, because they want to hear you, not me introduce you. You'll be talking about yourself anyway, other than retired teacher. So who better be a historian than a teacher, right? And so we're really excited about this program, looking on all these different places in Vermont. Of course, Waterbrave and the biggest, really. And thank you to Ann for her tireless work. And I know others have worked as well, but I just know Ann and all that she's done. So I'm thrilled. So without further ado, Marty, take it away. Everybody, sign it back there. And once I sign it. Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to be here. I mean, I could not ever dream of writing a book on Vermont. I fell in love with your state when my son went to a college night, and he saw this big board of a skier. And it was for College of St. Joe's in Rutland. And he said, that's where I want to go to school. So I made the trip back and forth. And then his last two years, he asked his grandparents, and also us, instead of paying the dormitory, if he could buy a house and rent out rooms and make some money to pay for it. So he did this. And I think he paid $40,000 for it, and then he sold it for 84 in two years. Because he basically needed cosmetics, things. And of course, he did a lot of skiing. And then he wound up in Colorado for 15 years. But now he's in Connecticut with my three grandbabies, four-year-old twin girls, and little Luke. So we're happy he came back with his brother, who just got engaged yesterday at 47. I thought, there's no way. No way he's going to give up the dating game, but yeah. So I'm originally from around Wilkesburg, Pennsylvania. I don't think we have any. Where? I was in State College for a couple years. State College? Anybody in Pennsylvania? Somebody's from Sunbury, OK, right there. My dad grew up in York and went to college in Race Town. Where? Race Town? Junietta, middle of nowhere. Oh, Junietta. Oh, not my car. And I went to King's College, which is run by Holy Cross Fathers. They have Sacred Heart College, Stonehill, Notre Dame, and also Portland. So I studied history, love history. I mean, then I went to New Jersey, taught fourth grade instead. I couldn't get a job teaching. So I got a job teaching fourth grade. Then I taught seventh and eighth grade history. And I loved US history. Then I got a master's in reading and did mostly remedial reading. Tried to get my kids interested in reading, especially those kids. They just love motorcycles, et cetera. So I took them to Raceway Park, which was in our town. It was all drag strip. David, let me bring a busload of kids, my remedial reading students. Then I found out that the next town had Wally Dahlinback, who was an Indianapolis car driver, called him up. I said, would you talk to my students about racing? He said, sure. So he came, sat down with my remedial reading students, and then a couple weeks later, car number seven, Wally Dahlinback. Was on TV, you know? So all you have to do is ask, and you get them. So then he showed a movie of him and STP, Andy Granatelli. I don't know if you remember. Yeah, you nodded the head. And then I went to the Catskill Mountains, a little town called Delhi. I was. That's where my other son of grandparents is from. What's their name? The Bergens. They run the dairy farm. Yes, down in the. On room 10. Get in the hamlet of Frasier. Which is my great, great grandma, great, great aunt Jesse Bell's dowry. Unbelievable, the Bergens. OK. I was at another talk. I can't remember last week. And I mentioned Delhi, and this girl said, oh, my relatives were Treadwell. And I said, one was a doctor. And I said, was a doctor hiding? He said, yes, that was our family doctor. So it was just. Small world. One of the two families from Treadwell. Unbelievable. So then I taught school there, seventh grade reading. And I wanted to get the kids interested in reading. So one boy came up to me, said, Mr. Podskutch, this book, My Side of the Mountain by Jean George, is all about Delhi. I said, you're crazy. This little farm town. It had a junior college, Delhi Tech. And I looked in the book. Yes, it did. Came from New York City looking for his grandpa Gribley's farm, how he lived out in the woods, in a hollowed out tree, tamed a hawk. It's all fictional. And spent the fall, winter, and spring. So I looked in the back of the book. She's from Chapaquan, New York. Where the hell is that? So I got information for 555-1-2-1-2. And I got Jean George's phone number. So one night, I dialed the number and a lady answered. I said, is Jean George there? She said, speaking. I'm just a teacher from Delhi. Oh, Delhi, what a wonderful town. This is the one she just picked, some Catskill town. So I said, we're poor. We can't afford an author. How would you like to come to our first book fair? Oh, I'd love to. So she won the Newberry Award. If you look in there, the gold things, twice for My Side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves. And she wrote 100 nature books. So here I had her. I told other writers, Jean George is coming. I had 12 writers beside her one day, K through 12. I did this for 25 years. They all came for free. One time, I had Eric Carl stay at my house. Oh. Made of French toast with maple syrup. And my daughter sat on his lap and read The Hungry Caterpillar. I had Ann Martin, the babysitter books come. I'd have, like my daughter, let's love those books. So my whole idea was to get kids interested in reading because I went to Procure schools with the nuns. We had no library. There wasn't a library in town. You read one story every other day. You looked up the vocabulary, answered the questions. How the hell would you ever want to love to read? So this was my way of getting, and guess what? I became an author of all things. I, let's see, turn it on. I went to a fire tower. It was on Hunter Mountain. I don't know if you've ever been to Hunter Mountain and the Catskills. Ann's been there skiing. They have different festivals. We climbed up in October. It was a little rainy, drizzly. It had turned to snow. We got up at the top. And a little guy came out of the cab and he said, hey, guys, you want to come in and get warmed up by the fire? So he sat by his wood fire stove and gave us a glass of water. He said, this is the greatest job in the world, where you meet thousands of people from all over the world, and you get paid for it. So I was just talking to Mariah back there and she said how she goes to the fire tower. Has anybody else been to a fire tower? OK. I was telling them to guess what my phobia is. Fire, fire, fire. And I've written three books on fire towers. But the only way I got up, a couple of them, is by closing my eyes, holding onto somebody, and then opening my eyes. And the wind is blowing. Oh, it's a gorgeous sight. Let's get down. Christine, one of them in the Adirondacks gets 80 foot. But some of them down in Florida, 125 foot high. And I don't know if it was 150. I mean, it's just unbelievable. So that was my first claim to fame. The pointer doesn't work. Here's a little Delhi. It's right near the Delaware River. Neuroni on it. And up here is Cooperstown. One of the authors that I had come was Kenny Smith. He was the head of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was retired. So every year he would give me four tickets to the induction ceremony and the game. So I got to meet Ted Williams, Robin Roberts, and all these famous baseball players are right there. My son got Ted Turner's wife, the actress. Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda. I'd be sitting next to Mel Allen, the Yankee. It was just, I was just loaded. All you have to do is ask. So then I decided to go up to the Adirondacks, six million acres of Vermont land. Right? Where you've got, they made a lot in the 1880s forever wild. You can't cut down trees on state land. And they had 57 fire towers there. So what I had to do is I wound up doing the southern towers and the northern towers. And besides the Catskill one. And then I also had a guy come, a comic book illustrator. So he said, Marty, let's do something together. So I said, let's do the Adirondacks. This would be great to do if he was still alive, but just on Vermont. And we did look at this. Every week you do something like this. I mean, he was just fabulous. 50 some years doing comic books. He knew all the top guys. So we did that. And so we wound up getting two volumes. We did it for five years, 52 pictures like this for five years. So now it's on its third string of five years through Adirondack newspapers. They love it. Then somebody had these pictures of CCC. That's how I got interested in the CCC. And I'll probably die as a CCC fan. Because this Vermont will be my fourth CCC book. And my next one, if I live next year, I'm at 80. If I have this thing already written on Massachusetts, a lady did this in 98. She researched all the camps, history, and the projects. So all I have to do is, it's in a library. Nobody reads it, you know? So I had these pictures. I traveled around all these towns giving talks just like I'm doing in Vermont. Anybody have any information? Ah, Scott. Scott, look at this guy. From Barry, OK? Scott, would you mind just telling them for a few minutes about your grandfather and show them what you've got? Well, I've got a big thing, a bunch of stuff over here. I ended up buying my grandfather's house after he passed away. And I'd heard about CCC stuff through the years. But we had five kids, and nobody claimed any of this stuff. So I was a recipient of it. And I basically eventually started looking through it all and becoming more and more interested in it. And he was the education director for a number of camps in this area. He was in Waterbury, he was in Rickard Mills. He was in Forty-Thin Allen. And tell them this one. This one's unbelievable. I've never seen one this big. Guess where it is? Wow. Waterbury. Waterbury. Wow. That is something else. That's a crew. Isn't this something? And it's where the swimming pool is today. Can you believe this one? Look at the size of this. How do I get that picture? It's in the bottom right. Is it saying a callister photo in the bottom right? I can't read that. Could you? You've got glasses. Ellis or? Oh, by O.W. Hills, Montpellier Hills. Isn't this something? So I put a newspaper article in about 10 newspapers and Scott responded. Other people have responded about stories about their fathers, et cetera. And so I've got to find out some way of scanning this. I do it in pieces. And then my friend knows how to stitch it together. Some smart phones have a panorama. Yes. Yeah. They do post smartphones. Yeah. Cell phones. Mariah, you know what I do? Yeah. Hey. Yes, that's Ellis. For all your panoramides. Wow. Wow. Really? What? You could do it with an iPhone. And you could probably find a scanner that could accept the whole thing. Isn't this? But look at this photo album. So his grandfather, where was he originally from? Italy. Oh, he was from Italy. OK. That's where he grew up. The carver on the front. That's in Barry. He was Gino Carmoly from Burr Carmoly in California. And so it was, you know, Barry City, everything's grand. Oh, my god. Is it this? Can you imagine all this stuff that's out there? But most of the boys who worked in Vermont came from Massachusetts because they needed, they didn't have enough boys to do the work here. And I'm sort of running away with myself. But you were lucky to have this guy to be your head forester, Perry Merrill. Oh, yeah. OK. Now, I bought his first book, you know, about the CCC. I thought, oh boy, it's going to have everything about Vermont. One page maybe. Two pages. Nothing. OK. I got to talk to you about it. He's got a bunch of the marks on it. This one's a little bit better. OK. But he was a poor farm boy from the Adirondacks, from Westport. OK. And then he had to work hard. And I think he went to Syracuse, where this young man is from. OK. Did you do forestry? Did you do forestry? Ecology. OK. We're at, in Vermont? My research was in the Adirondacks. In the Adirondacks. What was your thesis? I don't know. OK. But USF. But this guy, when he came, he started, you know, he went to Syracuse Forestry. And then when he came to Vermont, he started at the bottom, worked his way up, became the head forester. And he was able to garner by it, get a lot of state land. So when the state, when the Roosevelt came in, what he did, he had all these plans of parks and things to do in this state land. He also was concerned with the Lewinowski River, the flood of 1927, which your town was devastated and a lot of other towns on the Lewinowski River. So he went to Washington in 1933, all these plans. This is what I have to do. I'm ready to go. I just need, you know, some boys and some money, OK? He even had the plan for the dams on the Little River. And what's the river in Montpelier? The North Branch, thank you. And also the Eastbury Dam. What river? Or was that part of the beginning, Brad? You don't know the body or why, just the mountains. But they had these three dam projects all ready to go. So you know what happened? Since he was there, he pushed for it. He got it. Now, we're going to give a little contest, a little prize. And we're going to have Judy to keep track. We have a little prize to give. Where's my clipboard? I think it was, OK, you just flip it to the back, Judy. And you're going to keep scoring. Just good. Now, you get 10 points if you get the, I forgot what my next question is. I got to have a question. OK, OK, now I remember. OK, now, everything was based on population. Now, pretend you're in seventh grade and you raise your hand nicely if you know the answer. OK, Anne? OK, the first question is for points. So I have to know everybody's name. Well, we'll give you the name. And you want me to do this after the name. You put their name down and then we'll keep track of how many points they get. And at the end, remind me, because sometimes I forget to give the prize. Now, could be a big lotto ticket or something to $124 million, OK? Now, the thing is, OK, what state? Everything was based on population. How many states were there in 1933? Yes? 48. 48, and your name? George. OK, 10 points. George gets 10. OK, I've got to find him first. No, you just put it right. No, no, turn it over. Start a new blank paper. What if there's more than one state in the back? OK, George, 10 points. OK, next question. What state at the largest population and they got the most CCC boys? Yes? I guess New York. OK, Mariah, 10 points, New York. So they had 60 some camps, or about 67 each year, OK? The more poor boys that you had, the larger population, the more you had. Now, Vermont, I don't know what the population was, but they were only allotted 750 boys. Each camp had about 200 boys. So that would be 246. That would be only three and a half camps that they could have, OK? So now, he was able to get more from Washington, OK? And for the month pealier, the big water dam there, Wrightsville and Barry, I'll tell you what. It'll be coming up. I don't know. I'm going to jump into the conclusion. So here I am. We're going to go back. We're going to go back. There I travel around, and people would take me in for the night. I'd go to another town, give another talk. Now, tonight, where am I staying? Do you need a bridge? Cambridge, OK? I'm staying at Mary and Peter's house. Tomorrow night, I stay at Sheila and Peter's house. They're two different Peter's houses. That's when they were telling me I'm staying up here. I couldn't get it. Finally, after about three emails, we finally figured out that they're two different marriages, OK, but they were. But this way, because for me to stay in all these towns and get motels and gather this research, forget about it. So I get to know the people. So I got that book done. I interviewed about 100 CCC boys. So I saved these stories, because a lot of times, the kids would read the story that I have in there about their fathers. I didn't know that. My father never told me this. So I came to Connecticut. I came to Connecticut because my daughter was having a baby. And my wife was originally from Connecticut. This picture, not too far from where I live, but the camp was by the side of the hill. And boxing was really popular. And they had bleachers sitting there and watching the matches. And one guy, somebody, a nurse at the soldier's home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on route 91. I could see the big building. She said, I got this guy. He's 98 years old. And he said he was in the CCC. Would you like to interview him? So I did. And I got his story. He said, Marty, I quit school after fourth grade. They called me trouble, because he's just always getting into trouble. One day, he got into the wrong crowd, climbed up on the roof, broke into a store. The cops got him, took him to the police station, called up his father. His father's pleading with the policeman, please do not send him to jail. And the policeman said, there's one choice, one chance. If he joins the CCC, he won't have to go. So he went to the town hall, signed up for six months. And he said that was the greatest thing happened to him. He didn't go to jail, and he learned how to discipline, because these camps were run by the army. So this guy's still alive. He just celebrated his 99th birthday two weeks ago, and his son took him to the Newt Casino. Probably in a wheelchair. But they're out there. There's somebody here in Vermont. We could find them about 99, and one guy in Connecticut, he just passed away at 104 in December. Another guy, I had two guys, 103. So if you know of anybody, but most of the guys, I really should send notes to Massachusetts newspapers, because that's where some of the boys, and Rhode Island. A lot of boys came from Rhode Island and worked here in Vermont. So I did that book, and these were the different camps. I live in a town that had, he stamped and had two camps right here. So I traveled around, and it took me seven years. But this was so heavy. Probably did too much writing. Nobody wants to read it. But the 21 camps I got done, then I went to Vermont. Or no, Rhode Island. Anybody go to Rhode Island? One. That's it? Oh, you bent it. You got out of water, Barry? Oh my god. Because people just stick in their little towns. They don't get out of there. Where do you go on Rhode Island? My brother lives down in Bristol. Bristol, nice. Oh, it's beautiful, right on thing. So then I traveled around, and I got seven camps. That was blinkin' easy, OK? But I only got two guys. This one, I had another 100 guys. And when you read the stories, it's just unbelievable. I had to quit school to help their families. My mother had eight sisters and one brother, and her father died when she was eight. How my grandmother ever did this? Now, I had grandparents. So they came from Wilkesburg, a coal mining region. So my father's side came from Slovakia, worked in the coal mines. And the other one, mother's side, came from Lithuania. And these were the countries under the oppression of the Russians, just like the Ukraine are today. Terrible, huh? Do you remember growing up in the 50s and 60s praying for the conversion of Russia, I don't know, in churches? Oh, if they could only get, you know, and then when it happened in the 90s, you know, when all these towns got their freedom. And then I was in Jamestown. Jamestown, there's an island next to a new port. This lady at the bookstore, she said she was from Lithuania. And she said, read this book. And I read this book about the smugglers. They would smuggle in books into Lithuania that were in the 1880s, 90s until for 40 years, they could not speak Lithuania or read a book in Lithuania. They had to sneak them in. And the Russian, Tsar Nicholas, wanted everybody to read Russian. And he didn't speak Lithuanian, but they kept it. They were able to bring in eight million books. They did not kill, you know, just like Ukraine. Look at these people. Those poor ones in Mariupol, how they survive for how many months, the barrage. And then what's gonna happen to them now as prisoners? Oh my God, we are so lucky to live in freedom and how many people searching. So I did that book, got that book done, The Depression, as I said, was very, very difficult. Okay, 25% of the people unemployed, Roosevelt came to power in 1933. He was the former governor for 10 points of what state and 10 points, New York. He was a conservationist. He liked the plant, just like his cousin Teddy. He said, I'm gonna propose to create the Civilian Conservation Court. And he did, but it was called the Emergency Conservation Work Act at first, okay? And he said, he went to Congress on March 27th. He asked, I want 250,000 men in camp by July 1st. In March. It went to the Senate and it passed four days later, just like our Congress today. Oh my God. Jerome, I don't understand why these people laugh. But can you believe that? Who was the first in Roli? Who was the first in Roli? I don't know. It was someplace, I think, in Virginia. Good question. Any time you have a question, and I know a little bit, I don't know, even though I've done three books, there's so much to learn. Just like I learned something, Brian. How many of you know, Brian? Lett Lindner. Lett Lindner. Lett Lindner. Okay, Brian. Having at the McGillicuddies, and I got into a fight, that's what happened to me. Some guy at the bar, and I just hit me so many times. No, I went to a dermatologist. And I was a tennis coach for 30 years. We didn't wear sunscreen. Remember that in the 60s, 70s? Or sunglasses, or a hat, you know? So that's what, I'm getting the skin basal cell, yeah. So that's what happened to me. But the Department of Labor was chosen to choose the boys. So Roosevelt saw there were so many boys unemployed just roaming the streets, quitting school, eighth grade. I mean, fourth grade. They would go, and one guy near Saratoga, he said, Marty, my father fell off the roof there at a Ford plant, he couldn't work anymore. He went up to his bedroom, got his birth certificate, and how many remember the smelly, inky, radicator? He was like, do you remember that, Judy? No, anybody, Dan remembers that. And anybody growing up in the 50s, you would dip this in almost like this little glass rod and you would dip it on there. They didn't have light up, they had inky, radicator. And it must have been, what stuff it was in there? Crop, maybe Clorox or something like that. And it would eradicate, and he changed the date. He was only 14 years old, little guy, and he signed up and joined. And he was working in the Saratoga battlefield, okay? So, the Department of Labor, you had to be 18 to 25, okay? And you would sign up for six months and you could stay up to two years in the CCC, okay? So remember all this stuff now, because it might be a question. No. No. He chose the Army because they would give the boys clothing, shelter, food, medical care. Medical care. Can you imagine getting free medical care in the 1930s? Look at how many people don't even have it today. So, here he is, okay? Fetchner was the head of the CCCs, okay? Here he's coming in the Army. A lot of times, sometimes they had carpenters give them a job, like building the camp here in town. Maybe they had carpenters, or they might have even had the boys working with carpenters to build the buildings. Then, in 1932, who could tell me for 10 points was the President of the United States before Franklin Roosevelt? Herbert Hoover. Who said that? Who? Robert. Robert, 10 points. Herbert Hoover, okay? And what was his theory? What did he promise? A chicken and a shot. Who says that? Okay, what's your name? Jim. Jan and Jill. Jan and Jill. Jan and Jill. 10 points each. A chicken in every pot. What was the slogan for Franklin Roosevelt? Raise your hand. Yes. It was a new deal. The new deal. Very good. So, Mariah is on the board, okay? They had the bonus army. These were veterans of World War I promised to get a bonus in 1945 or 46. But in 1932, they didn't have jobs. They marched on Washington with their tents, their shacks, okay? And they said to Congress and the President, please give us our bonus now. Who did Hoover send to deal with this bonus army? Brian Lindner, 10 points, okay? Douglas MacArthur, okay? And he drove them, shot some of the guys to the army, burned their shacks and tents. 1933, they came again. Congress. Franklin Roosevelt, please give us our bonus. Who did Franklin Roosevelt send? What's your name? Gloria. Gloria Nixalsis, there you are. 10 points. There's pictures of her sitting with you. Cause you're from Washington. No, I'm not. Oh, who's the girl? Oh, you're the one from Washington. Yeah, I like Eleanor. Yeah, Eleanor, she was the ears and the eyes for Franklin because he had polio. So she sat down with your old imagineer driving up in their old car, you know, her big car and sitting down with the veterans. Now, what's your problem? Now, if you're the president and you have protesters marching down Washington, would you let them keep marching? No, you've got, you know, you might have no some presidents that don't care, okay? About protests. But this Roosevelt said, oh, we can't have protests. Let's keep them quiet. So we're going to have camps not only for the youth, but veterans. And right up here at Little River, you had veterans up there of World War I. You imagine the older guys and they not only were there, but they were also at Wrightsville Dam and the Berry Dam and in Montpelier, Scott, doing what? Building a dam. They were fixing the, Brian? And the closed-in dam. The closed-in dam. Anybody ever see that factory? The closed-in factory? Longo and Husky? Oh, what's the river? Immapilier. Immapilier. Yeah. I don't know if they still make closed-ins there? They just stop. They stop. Because I went to a Costco or something or some store and I'm looking to see where they made, but I think it was China. Where? The Chinese. Chinese. They're lousy. They're lousy. You're going to have to start up the factory, Jill. Friends of the closed-in factory. Okay, so he started this. Now, we have veterans coming right here. I just can't believe the age. I'm trying to figure if they were in 1918, they were at least 18 years old, right? Maybe a little bit older, maybe 25. So that was 1918, 25. Could be 100, but the number there. So if 1918, they're 25, how old were they in 1933? We get 10 points. 10 points. Help me. It was sort of like 35. 35, Mariah. Oh, Mariah's cute. 35, they couldn't mind it. Somebody put me on camera and I was the only person I could see. And you know what, they might have been also the Texas border war. I met somebody, I meet so many people. Somebody said their grandfather was in the Texas border war, fighting with the Mexicans. Okay, so that was taken care of. And can you imagine, 5,000 veterans came to Montpelier in 1933. And Anne, tell them what happened when they saw some of them getting off the train. Oh, that was in Barry. Oh, Barry, what happened? Well, there were a lot of American heroes as they had never seen black people before. They didn't know what they were. So, but can you imagine white and black? And of course, they were separated and showed me up here at the Little River. You had all the whites and then across the street, right? Across the brook. Across the brook was the black camp of 200 men. Okay, so there they are, veterans of World War I. So not only did we have the youth, but we have the veterans camps too. And look at this one, this picture, this is the Barry. And you see what they're using to build the Barry dam? Picks and shovels and a couple trucks. No steam shovels like they had up here, do you? But can you imagine building an earthen dam and wheelbarrows? I forget how many, I read how many wheelbarrows they had at that camp. The labor. Okay. The granite grout from the quarry on top of the hill. Say that again, Brett Scott. They use the grout from the granite on top of the, the granite quarry on top of the hill and use that in construction. Because the center, what was in the center of the dam for 10 points? Yes. Is that a granite? No. No? Yes. Is that a gravel? No. I know clay. Clay. Oh, we got lots of that here. Clay, okay. Two tickets. And then you would put the gravel and the other things on the side. And then the walls or the sides, if you go up there, just all these stones laid flat. But the work, I mean, that picture is just incredible. And look at the age, the look of the guys, the veterans pictures there. They give it physical exams because the army's running it. And one of the requirements, I think you had to be at least five foot one or two and not more than six foot five or six, six. And you had to have four masticating teeth. They didn't have dentists, you know? If you were poor, you didn't go to a dentist. If you had a cavity or a bad tooth, Neck it out. Pull it out, okay? And there they are getting the, where did they get the uniforms and clothing for 250,000 veterans and boys? Yes, Ann. But they had to do this in two months. Where could they get enough to clothe 250,000 prisoners? They had to get the clothes from World War I. That was in stockpile. So nobody got any clothes? Nobody got any clothes. Okay. And look at, and can you imagine some of these kids with waistlines of about 24 inches or 26 inches? Okay. They had to tighten it up. But now they've got shoes without holes in it. One boy, listen to this one. One boy in New York, he said, Marty we're so poor we couldn't afford a coat. So in the winter, they shoved newspapers in their shirt. Honest to God, they couldn't buy the books. Sometimes they had to buy books. They didn't go to school because they couldn't buy the books. It was bad. And here, Marshfield, okay, when they were getting up to Groton, that is unbelievable. How many have been to the Groton State Park? That is so, I went up with a guy from your town, Frank Spalding. Anybody know Frank? Yeah. He was in charge of all of the camp projects, the state projects, okay? He took me up there and that road from Ricker Mills over to Marshfield, six miles was all built by the CCC. Wow. Can you believe that? Okay, so there they are arriving. So the boys were transported from Massachusetts and Rhode Island up to Massachusetts, or Vermont, sorry. Now they are getting close. And I was fortunate they didn't wear these working. But these were, I forget where I got this one and also the hat. Now see the stripes on there? Okay, now we're gonna get to a question now. Every camp had approximately 200 boys, okay? There were five barracks usually, question for 10 points, how many boys in each barracks? She knows at 40. Is that Mariah? Mariah. This is helping me study some of the things. She studied last night for the test. I was practicing my mental math. Okay, now you could just picture 40 boys in one big room. If anybody was a teacher, can you imagine 18 to 25 year olds, 40 of them in a room, the smell, the noise, okay? Now, so the captain said, they got to go 40 guys. They got to go 40 guys. All right, Scott, you're gonna be the leader of barracks number one. And instead of getting a dollar a day, $30, you're gonna get $45 a month. And you got the double stripe. Like that? I'll take it. And your name? Phil. Phil. Phil. You would be his assistant. Phil or Bill? Phil. Okay, Phil, you're gonna be his assistant. You get $36 a month instead of $30. And you've got to keep those 38 guys in line. Make sure the beds are made, clean. 10 o'clock, the lights go out, okay? And so, that was, they were called the leaders and assistant leaders. Okay, I'll pass this around. Nice wool. And Scott said he also has one. Yes. Yeah, look at the lining and everything. Now, this is what, they will wear them at the dances. If they're hitchhiking home, if they weren't too far away from home, those guys from Massachusetts, forget about it. Well, they were stuck here. Okay, what? Yeah, that was easy. I remember growing up, my mother said, no hitchhiking, no hitchhiking. I never hitchhiked. Maybe I did more. No, I never did. I was scared, I was scared. And today, no way would you ever want to hitchhike. You don't even see people hitchhiking. I have a shake. Have you seen somebody? Yes. Oh yeah. They're starting again. They're starting again. Wow, okay. So they got, now picture these, look at the size. They have about three stoves. Now, here's a tough question now. You know, you can use different types of fuel. What did the army like the best to heat these stoves with? Mariah. And why would you like, why did the army like coal? Yes. It's cheap and you can move. It's easier to move, but the big thing, how many have used coal? You could bank the fire and it could go all night, okay? It's not like you had to keep feeding, you know, with the wood. There were places too that they used wood, okay? Cause there was a lot of wood. But the army, if you'll notice, some of these pictures, a big pile of black. It was the coal pile. So Marty, does Mariah get 10 or 20 points? Just 10. Just 10. Sorry, I didn't see the button. She's a ringer. We had one, we had a tough one on Sunday in East Granby. It was tied. Going into the last minute was 60 to 60, yeah? Okay, so they were six months and you could stay up to two years, a dollar a day. This was more money than the army was getting. I think it was $26 a month. And the unions were out fighting it a lot because they thought these boys are gonna be taking jobs away from them. And this is the Northfield Barracks, okay? Northfield had a barracks, you know, a CCC campus. And they also had an infirmary or a clinic, okay, dispensary. And one boy, instead of planting trees or doing road work, his job was to stay 24-7 and take care of the sick, okay? And they even had a little room right off of the dispensary where he had his own bed. They had to have a doctor going around doing dentistry work, an army doctor. And can you imagine this doctor would, you know, for the drill, he'd be going with the drill. And you know what the old time drill? Ah! Remember the old, I dreaded going to the drill. dentists and the needles to remember those this one dentist he had this big jar that I would go to and he'd have them in that liquid the big needle and I cried wouldn't I took the pain look at this camp I could not find the bellows falls camp I'm looking bellows falls the historical sighting nothing then in the library the guy looked up he looked up all of the newspaper clippings and he found that it was in the north Westminster part of the town and I'm driving trying to find the camp going up towards Saxton River and then all of a sudden I could see a truck parked on the side guys pulling on a driveway I pulled up alongside of him and I said do you know where the CCC camp was he said yes I do he said you go down the road towards town and right when you see the flagpole in the dentist office make a right you go over the bridge and there is the camp so I did this I went down found the flagpole went to the and I saw a couple guys I said is this really the way to get to the camp he says yes but you can't go this way because there's a bridge out you got to go back to bellows falls route 5 and then right before you could get on to 91 there's this dirt road going up you go up to there and you'll see two big stone pillars that's the camp bingo I drove up there and they sell one house then another house but I couldn't see anything then I'm driving back towards that first house and I looked in the woods there the wood there there was the chimney then I knew this was the camp okay and it was called CCC road so I knocked on the door and the lady came out she said yes we bought this land from a guy who was in the CCC he bought it from the town and she's the state representative she owned the land where the CCC camp was but this newspaper clipping of me searching for this lady from bellows falls called me up I've got pictures look at this and I think this was the road I came in on and there's the chimney that I saw there okay usually could have been in the mess hall or the recreation hall but I'll tell you it's it's a challenge trying to find it and the thing is they'll say it's the bellows falls camp but it's in northwest minster okay they army calls the camp after the nearest post office so therefore when you see and I have this is this is my word these are all the camps I got how the heck am I gonna do it kids think my seventh grader sure but look at these are all the spots the yellow are the ones where there were side camps meaning the boys instead of it was a you know 20 30 40 miles pretty far away they would just set up tents and work there and come back to the main camp on the weekend but this is what and then somebody was from who's told me they're from the Northeast Kingdom okay so there was the East Burke camp and the West Burke camp and the Maidstone the Brunswick camp do you know about those towns not Brunswick okay so not too many up there but look at the look location on through here so that's my adventure yes you talked about the camp being near where the swimming pool is wasn't there also a camp up near the dam there we'll get to that okay and then next week that's too hard to do we'll get to that is just to tell me when we have to leave well you can go in an hour and the library closes at eight okay and I've got to leave at 8 o'clock to get at my bed and breakfast somebody's taking me in in Cambridge Mary and Peter it's 50 minutes to get there okay but isn't that a neat picture I'm telling you I mean it's just like oh just like when Scott came in his grandfather all these camps that he was the education advisor because in 1934 the the governments in the army said what the heck are we gonna do with these kids they're illiterates okay let's teach them skills so at night that's when they had classes isn't I just oh man mess hall wreck hall and see these are the garages and look at the boxing ring and see look at the bleachers this one guy this from whole yoke he said he was a boxer right he was at the camp he said we'd have these gloves we'd be boxing and then the boys would throw in nickels and dimes on the thing but here we were trying with our clothes to break up over there close the money we got from the boxing but boxing was really big one guy from Bellas Falls he claims his dad he sent me all these clippings about his dad but I can't find anything to show that he was in that CCC camp but he was in the army I think I don't know well but I push the wrong button okay okay Elmore okay look at this camp see they first started in July in 1933 and they stayed in army camps or tents sorry and so it got cold by you know September and Europe and Vermont so they while this was happening they were building barracks then they would get up six o'clock in the morning and everybody would in inspection and then raising of the flag at 8 o'clock checking to see did they especially on Mondays they all return you know sometimes some little cutie pie you know back in the hometown maybe it wasn't too far kept them back a little bit so or some guys they had this couple guys from New Jersey they went down to the anybody ever go to the pine barrens or an Atlantic City and okay well I think it was from Hoboken there were about four guys they signed up they went down to the pine barrens and it was terrible so after about four days they just and the army didn't chase them and you know who one of them was Frank Sinatra he did make it he said this light was not for me and here is at the Waterbury garage up there by the dam and can you imagine all these trucks were always kept in garages and they kept them at a little pitch like that with a block of wood with a rope so if there was a fire and they would come out one of that little trick here's the north field the north field was at this the fairgrounds in north field I don't know if anybody know where that is okay I've got to go to find and it was right there the buildings were right on the fairgrounds this one is the Weston camp and here they are it looks like they're going off to fight a fire okay get the boys so whenever there was a forest fire or field fire they would call the boys to help out because they weren't volunteer firemen in those days okay and the state didn't this was a way of helping and then I looked online I saw the Weston camp there was this guy standing in front of the sign that said this is where the Weston CCC camp was and the guy was Horton what's his name Horton starts with a no Lyman Horton okay Lyman Horton is standing so I call up he says yeah yeah there was a camp right near where my parents started the store I think in 44 okay and even somebody I talked to they said they rented out the room in the back where the cheese shop is you know I gotta remember all these stories you know but that was that was a kid that when you have to bushwhack to get into Lyman told me look at St. Alden's boys going off to work okay get ready for the trucks so I got to go up there maybe tomorrow I could sneak up there to see what they've done there the big jobs they did was road building building dams okay and because they needed roads to be able to fight the fires and also take out the wood too lunch time they did eight hour day but an hour for lunch and 10 point question what was their favorite sandwich baloney spam spam wasn't invented yet to work to come on I'm going to guess corned beef no keep going yeah what's your name Jan it's 10 points she's gonna be one of the leaders peanut butter and jelly okay they built bridges they did this construction see they would hire a local man they called him the LEM local experienced man LEM and one lady from Montpelier called me up she says my my grand my father was the mason who built the towns in camp so I mean this the more towns I kind of keep going to towns you get more stories okay then the dinner bell rang and all you could eat family style one boy he said Marty we'd be standing there as the mess sergeant would be saying a prayer he said we'd all be looking there and I was looking what's the biggest pork chop to grab but can you imagine these boys gained five ten fifteen pounds and they were using their muscles okay they learned how to work they had discipline okay look at this isn't this picture isn't that he had pet dogs this is the western camp look at the pet dog I bet you he got a lot of food but it you see it's just like our children and grandchildren's bedrooms so I've got my two girls they're now teenagers so I'd say alright Karen Lydia if you make the bed you get your dollar a day just like the okay papa got to learn their ccc's cuz I take them to ccc camps isn't that neat picture and of course there's no insulation so you could just imagine especially they were built sometimes just on those pilings you know and there was air going underneath so it was cold okay St. Albans some of these boys would bring their instruments okay and they would have bands this boy he was in charge of the what do they call it where they sold the cigarettes can't eat the canteen and he his job was to order and in the evening sell and on the weekends that's all he had to do and he was an assistant leader ten points how much money did he get who said that first Jill okay Jill gets 10 he said you did is that true okay okay so he would order the pipe tobacco cigarettes the some of these boys rolled their own to they'd have contests like boxing or if it was billiards pulled guess what the prize was carton of cigarettes and that was a big thing okay smoking you know nobody knew the dangers of smoking they had look at pool tables ping-pong and the money that they made at the at the canteen went for maybe to buy a pool table or ping-pong or even uniforms for sports Saturday night they could go into town if they get you know they were behaved they're the boys loading up on the trucks and maybe it's going to the movies going to the little ice cream place maybe to meet some girls yes it and going north it's at the northern end of the lake well that's the part you know where the park is that's right behind if that's where it was oh where the camp was up on the hill and I didn't make it because the road was so icy Frank and I were driving and it was in December we were going up and just couldn't go we have to go behind where you can't there's a road that goes up and that's where it was I never made it to it but that's where the camp was Elmore and then if you go further that's where the fire tower the boys didn't put up the tower but they built the cabin and the trail I think Windsor camp Mount the Scutney okay here the boys looks like they're also dressed up ready to go and a lot of times these boys met a girl from Vermont and from Massachusetts they wound up marrying them okay or if they went out West California Montana whatever they wound up to stay there and marry the girls and when I met quite a few people said if it wasn't for the CCC I wouldn't be here that's where my parents met okay look at boxing in poltney and poltney was a soil conservation camp okay it was the only one where they did a lot of rip-rapping along the the rivers you know and poltney to his near where they get the shingles like slate yeah okay and look at this the East Barry the vets skiing a little hell basketball team baseball team see the uniforms they in order to buy they made money at the canteen some of the boys just stayed in the camp and did the cooking okay and I met one got family down in Connecticut their father was a cook there wound up being starting a restaurant KP duty kitchen patrol Sunday they would go to a church there's a picture from this one-boys album how of the church there in poltney the congregational church or sometimes an army chaplain would come excuse me I think that said Paul what yeah I think it was Paul Paul where's Paul that's a little bit of poltney must be because that's where the boy was in poltney camp no further south okay he must have went to that church thank you very much so I don't screw up education classes typing was very popular some of them got their GED some got just their elementary eighth grade diploma some were truck drivers so they were able to get truck driving jobs when they left cooking photography some of these camps had their own dark room they were able to develop their own pictures there look at the vets up at your Smith camp taking classes at night look at the Dan B classroom that gorgeous and the waterberry raised pigs now Brian could you tell them what you learn about the pig raising well Mariah's an expert Mariah you want to tell her that she's studying to be a doctor eventually there was an outbreak of trichinosis which is a parasite that comes out of not entirely cooked pork and the outbreak at the that at Camp Smith was so large that at least 10 people ended up getting transferred up to the Army Hospital at 4th e.m. Allen up in Colchester and then like I think what something like 30 50 more in camp were were sick as well but not serious enough to need to go up to Colchester and what ended up being interesting and why it's so notable is because it actually ended up being featured in the New England Journal of Medicine like if you look look it up you can you can find it on a scholar it's really neat thank you Mariah so that's the pigs with the events camp were boys also at that same camp good question there were at least one youth guys 18 to 25 that were also at and it was the Jericho CCC camp that came down from Jericho after only six months and came and worked there good question thank you so they learned how to drive a truck and each camp of 200 guys they had about 15 trucks you know they were a mixture of Army trucks and state conservation and guess what I got I was in at one talk there in Connecticut and this guy brought this in I said how would you like to trade that for one of my books this the way I got and when these boys were driving they were working for the Army so if they were stopped by the police or state police they couldn't get a ticket because they were working for them and they had governors too I don't know if they were able to change it you know keep couldn't go past 35 but there were a lot of truck accidents and boys died because he had an 18 year olds driving or 17 year olds driving especially imagine Montana and Idaho on those crazy roads I mean even in Connecticut going to this one town they were going to movie and it flipped over and also Madison 10 minutes up okay newspapers okay happy days is one Scott found on it each camp had a camp newspaper they usually came out once a month and this is a great way you could get them online so you could just look for a CCC camp newspapers and you could read some of the camps in Vermont are there or whatever state and happy days came out every week newspaper from all over what did these boys accomplish these are some of the things for by 1936 different projects they did I have to read the book okay fine tree diseases look at hundred thousand one billion trees throughout the United States big one you know the caterpillar or let's see yeah ten caterpillars you know how terrible they are oh man just stepping on those and the guts and everything falling out but they would eat the trees blister rust was another one now big question in Vermont what's the largest tree in Vermont growing tallest tree who said our forestry man your first name Brad gets Brian it's 10 points okay Brian what's your last name f wait a minute what that's Scott Fitzgerald right here are you related holy moly you didn't know that your brother was here okay well this one they found out if they could get rid of the current and gooseberry bushes because they were like the middle part of this fungus because the the the fungus had to go into the current and gooseberries so they had the boys going through in the springtime pulling up any gooseberries or current bushes that were within 900 feet of white pine if they did that they would not have blister rust and nationally you could not raise these current bushes I know new Connecticut they have one farm I guess they have special permission to have the current current jelly okay then another thing the caterpillars were a menace they have the boys climbing up the trees looking for the egg masses what did they paint these egg masses with she could be she's a good reader yeah can you imagine they had like a tin can with with the creosote in there and paint them to kill the millions of eggs that were in these and oh then they put burlap burlap around because when it gets hot the caterpillars would crawl underneath there and they would squish okay they fought fires now I found out I don't think Vermont had fireholes waterholes did you ever see any Mariah these holes in the forest and around next you do Connecticut you do who Brian you yeah Bob those with the old cesspools they both got towers fire towers seven news towers for Vermont okay truck trails this is the one from Danby Mount Tabor all the way to Peru and it's a gravel road that they built okay and here's the crusher look at this isn't this gorgeous this is in Townsend anybody ever go to Townsend they live there now it is gorgeous and that's the one this lady in Montpelier her father was the mason that L E M local experienced man who worked with these boys and here there's a fireplace that's a shelter then the bathroom but look at the stonework what is where is Townsend Townsend it's in the Townsend State Park oh okay town's at State Park it's a hard one to get to I have to go on a dirt road I had a hard time finding it but it's gorgeous look at Mansfield base large built by the CCC still use our Ricker pond shelter not shelter national forest in Shrewsbury that road that goes from Shrewsbury all the way to Plymouth there is a gorgeous place this all you have now is the chimney it was a great place for picnics etc didn't use it the only place this is the water the well is still there as I was there I might as just all grown up I'll said okay yeah and look at Calvin Coolidge State Forest and then I'll said the lookout so mills they would take the lumber and make wood they fought you know came when natural disasters occurred 36 blood look at the Pierpont Pierpont bridge 38 so they needed help people to clean up the basements anybody ever clean up after flood my parents had the 72 Agnes I think it was okay and that was the year we got married 1972 it's gonna be our 50th anniversary July 8th and I went to this right before our wedding our wedding rings were in Wilkes-Barre jewelry store flooded so we I think we had to go to Barker's or something James Way store to get our wedding rings because you know I think it was good but they had a little cottage on the second floor the river came Susquehanna got so high the mattresses you ever move a mattress that had been oh get it cut it in half and yes just about lifted the throat out the window because it was so sodden with water and mud but you know okay the greatest generation right they loved it these are all the towns I don't know if you could be able to see after why you would come up the different towns that I'm working on where there were camps and everything I'm not exactly sure of everything but it's a working with progress anybody want to help me go on a road trip yes I got something better the 102 now when you are in the 251 club you pay your dues $12 and they give you a roadmap you buy this book for $20 and you get little history and interesting places to visit and you keep track of it and we have a dinner luncheon once a year or you come to Connecticut 169 club 169 and then you keep track right there look at that cover isn't it awesome who could tell me for 20 points what town yes mystic 20 points and if you get tired of doing that one you could do Rhode Island we only have one guy who's been to Rhode Island it's gorgeous you've been look at this this this there's a there's a hotel at the top and it's called the Inn at Castle Hill one night $600 a night 125 yeah 125 Adirondack chairs looking over Narragansett Bay it's just because it's got all these little islands etc it's just coastline okay so I got it all from I got it all from Vermont okay I joined it but I should should keep track of it myself Barry City had one now we got one minute to go there's the there's that see the entrance way they did that one Townsend State Park and that's what's that famous guy Rudyard Kipling know in what's that town no it's some other little town it's above Brattleboro did you know that he wrote the jungle book in Vermont look at this one I gotta go to that one tomorrow or no what Friday Brunswick Pavilion Colchester Dandy Dandy there's a big road did they build any buildings that it's a mobile or yeah it's coming up it's coming up okay East Burke I got to go up there Elmore yeah that's a beautiful lodge there backhouse Jericho Ludlow scheme fire tower okimo then Marshfield new discovery Mendon middle sex Montpelier Bailey Dam Montpelier right still look at that look at this one the legacy they left there Moscow I don't have too much information on that one but the trap family rented it for 10 years Maria huh Johannes von Trapp called me up and he said yes they rented it and they had a music and singing camp for 10 years there were you there Northfield Northfield Roxbury ooh I gotta go okay look at the North Shrewsbury that's the in it there's this elementary school there now Northfield see that's that I remember I was telling you just a well as well north pepper okay almost done with a closing up here Peru have good state saw mill Dandy Cavendish Plymouth Coolidge Pultney soil camp sandbar Ricker Mills Alice State Park Plymouth Ripton they had they built it but they ran out of money Congress in abandoned nobody ever went to this camp Rochester St. Alden's Sharon ooh this one when it was closed Dartmouth professor and Harvard and Dartmouth guys tried to run a camp there it was both for anybody poor or rich it only lasted six months but that that's that Sutton Burke okay barracks North Tetford under hill that's where I'm going to try to find tomorrow yeah oh look at that nice they did the sandbar what a very damn look at this wow that's what it was and they started building it up 15 steam shovels there's the camp 2,600 veterans and you could walk and in Brian and different historical society have made trails for parts of it look at it from the air these were barracks look at like a you 100 veterans in it 100 look at that isn't a credible 2,600 up there building it look at that and gardens look at they were and there's the blacks camp they had ice skating that was the ski jump that they built there look at the movie theater they had the infirmary how big it was and then the fire for administration died finished President Roosevelt came the veterans leaving the Waterbury dam the legacy we have you could go you see that Waterbury your teacher now that is your town thanks to Brian's pictures right down where the swimming pool is look at that notice the mutt mountains familiar they were camel some Mount Phylo smuggler's notch and Granville Gulf Hubbard Park Waterbury sidecamps at Alice State Park Waterbury sidecamps stole in Moscow they also built nose dive yeah what was the other one you see the Bruce trail the Bruce trail look at them there they are cutting the trail they also built the stone shelter from your camp look at all the skis places built by this this is unbelievable all due to Perry Merrill he went to Austria saw the skiing over there look what he brought to here then you go to Mount Phylo up there look at the view great shape those buildings and this is look at Waterbury that's where it was West Burke they said that architecture was really far out for 1930s Weston camp anybody ever go to Gondale Forest camper Wilmington I still haven't found the exact location of this camp Windsor Mount of Scutney look at the nice shelters oh and right next to it Wilkes State Park right still damn then the world came we no longer had needed the boys in the woods we needed them on the battlefield camp square clothes not officially but look at the legacy ever go to Red Rocks outside of Denver oh yeah that is awesome well they took these this area with two big Red Rocks and they how they carved out seating for 10,000 people I was there for Steve Miller band and this British guy 10,000 people going crazy underneath the stars yeah so you ever get have you been there yeah yeah oh man it's fabulous then you said you've been down to Virginia they built that look at the beautiful places look there's that towns in place you could come to Connecticut to our museum open on Sundays the only building left is right here the officers quarters and it's open 12 to 3 so anybody who wants any of these books this is my house on Lake Book of the Bog in Connecticut and there's my grandchildren here's Anna and Lily and Luke and Kira and Lydia and Matt just got engaged my daughter Christie and my wife Lynn and my baby Ryan so thank you so much for having me come up here this is a prize from my town where I live in now East Hampton is called Belltown USA they ship bells sleigh bells all over the world and this is the bell they give on the polar express from Essex to all the kids and then they cowbells etc congratulations thank you so much question I am hoping next year the 90th anniversary I hope and I told Brian this is one of the last five to six states that do not have a statue honoring the CCC's we have the clock you do not have the the statue of the worker CCC worker that's the best I can think of would be the monitor barn where the VYCC works out of it's not very well or you said St. Albans real sand sand sandbar would be the other some place where the boys built you had 26 parks that were built by the CCC here in Vermont but we need a group to start raising the $24,000 so that we here could have one you could have one right here oh my god I get the goosebumps thinking no up there by your but the people don't get out there some place where people go more people travel for sandbar yeah listen my guests are waiting for me does anybody want a book of the Adirondacks or any of these there are any book is $20 if not class dismissed question you're at 30 yeah well the sorry that was after that was after the contest thank you very much for coming and if you know any more send me an email I have a card here