Athens Y Camp – Going Back After 60 Years

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Athens Y Camp – Going Back After 60 Years

Athens Y Camp 1957 Back: Schley Ricketson, (L) Unknown Counselor Front: Greg Poole (L), Billy Wilhoit and Joe Ricketson
Athens Y Camp 1957
Back: Schley Ricketson, (L) Unknown Counselor Front: Greg Poole (L), Billy Wilhoit and Joe Ricketson

 
 
In the 1950’s, summer in a small Georgia town was a Tom Sawyer-esque existence, I didn’t want to go to camp. But the mother of one of my friends talked my mother into sending me. First, at the ripe old age of six was Camp Pinetops. A camp run by the legendary Cobern Kelley, but in Athens, and only two weeks long – starter camp. The next year we were eligible for the month long sessions at Tallulah Falls – big boy camp – Athens Y. Each year it was the same, I didn’t want to go, but once there, I didn’t want to come home. The paradise of youth, indeed.
 
 

Greg Poole - Athens Y Camp - July 16, 2017
Greg Poole – Athens Y Camp – July 16, 2017 – Trying to recreate my 1957 pose in the photo at the top of the page

 
 
It hardly matters when one attended, I found out today that Athens Y does not change. They still do the ice cream hike and tell the Vandiver-man story. The lake, the aluminum canoes, the cabins are still faded green, the place is a time capsule. I hope my grandchildren, who are attending this summer, will be able to say the same thing in 2077.
 
 

 
 

 
 

Greg Poole, Cobern Kelley and Joe Ricketson (in the fashionable coonskin cap) at Camp Pinetops 1954
Greg Poole, Cobern Kelley and Joe Ricketson (in the fashionable coonskin cap) at Camp Pinetops 1954

 
 
 
 

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Greg is closing in on 15 years writing about and photographing UGA sports. While often wrong and/or out of focus, it has been a long, strange trip full of fun and new friends.