April to December 1958
WRH Diary- April to end of year 1958
April 1, 1958
April Fool’s day-Scott put Black pepper in the sugar-gee but it tasted awful on my cereal. Ron fooled the girls with a spider April fool joke. I told the boys of my biggest April fool disappointment-when dad played the joke on me about a Pinto pony. Worked all day with members of the mother’s club getting the April 1 issue of the Boys’ Club paper out into the mail. Limited to a single sheet because of the heavy demand on mimeo paper using up all my supply. Felt bad about having to announce discontinuing Day Camp and about a 40% cut back in other phases of club program. 1st backward step the club has ever taken-like losing a right arm. Brought about by board’s stand at $45,000 for annual budget. Without additional staff we cannot keep up with expanded program. Current staff will reduce hours and we will do the best we can. I feel the apathy of the community has spoiled the confidence of the Board. I recognize the need of a good campaign to educate the community to the true BC picture.
April 2, 1958
Drove into New York city. Not a pleasant thing to do with heavy traffic and poor roads. I am very thankful that I do not have to go into NYC on a daily basis as others do. I have been appointed chairman of the Boys’ Clubs of America National Community Service committee. Also I have been appointed as the Boys’ Clubs of America’s representative to keep America beautiful. I spent an enlightening hour in leanring of KAB’s program and discussing ways in which Boys’ clubs could assist them in their program.
Next stop was the national office of BCA. From there we walked to the Gramercy Park Hotel and attended the last luncheon meeting of the Metropolitan Boys’ club Workers Association. Beautiful day-all the more reason I should hurry back to Long Island and Locust Valley.
April 3, 1958
Back at the desk working my way through mountain of mail and holding staff conferences concerning Boys’ club week. My big meeting of the day was one called by the Nassau county council of Social Agencies. It was called to invite independent Social Agencies to discuss the newly created Long Island Industrial Fund. It was agreed that the fund was very high handed in its method and approach to the problem. Certainly no qualitative basis of validity was used in selecting the agencies to participate.
I learned enough to know that I will get a letter off to the fund tomorrow asking for recognition on the part of the Grenville Baker Boys’ club. Dean Arthur Katz of the Adelphi College of social work school asked me to help on a committee to draft a proposal to the fund for all independent agencies.
April 4, 1958
Stopped at the club for a couple of hours and hurried on to a 9:30 AM dental appointment. In cleaning my teeth Dr. Olson found two cavities hidden by scale. He used his new high speed drill. It sounds very super sonic- I was afraid that the whining sound it made would split my teeth via supersonic vibration. Drilled and filled, no Novocain as many ask for. Must admit that the new drill is very efficient. Beginning of a short Easter vacation for the public school children. They are out of school today and will return next Monday. We open the club at 1 PM on public school holidays. We are on the threshold of National boys’ club week-I think we have a good program set.
April 5, 1958
Bill Kinnear took the day off to get ready for his wedding tomorrow. He and Jane have finally decided to go ahead even though Janes’ mother has thrown fits and tantrums. The kids have tried very hard to share their plans with them but she has rejected everything, every time. Sort of a lazy Spring day. I took three 5X7 colored pictures up to the Friends Academy gym to enter them in the Operation Democracy annual art show. I caught a quick preview of the show and know that it is going to be the best they have every had. Helen and I saw Yul Brenner in “The Brothers Karamazov”. it was a terrific picture full of depth and with a very wonderful new German actress in it. (Maria Schell was the actress and there are no known comments from Mom on what she thought of any of the buff young actors.)
April 6, 1958
Easter Sunday and buckets of rain fell all day long. Bob pouted and was sulky all day because I wouldn’t break my word to his parole officer and let him to to Freeport. But no soap, he went with us to Easter dinner at the Keith Evans home in Bethpage. Keith is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He is a strong church member-re-activated!!.. he flys for Trans World Airlines, out of LaGuardia Field to European Countries. They had the John Hughes (John is a Co-pilot for Pepsi cola co.) from Westbury as other guests. Lovely dinner. Lousy day. Kids spent the day playing in the basement. Poorly attended Sacrament Service.
April 7, 1958
Spend the day getting ready for alumni night. Did not expect to see Kinnear come in about 4 PM, but a short honeymoon he had and at 4 he walked in. I had the hamburger patties all made and the beans already too bake. Set the tables and chairs up for supper. Had about twice as many alumni couples as we had last year. We started things rolling with our 1950 alumni 1950 varsity basketball team play our 1957 – 58 varsity. A real outstanding game. The 1957-1958 varsity finally squeezed out a 2 point victory. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and some slides of boys club activity. I think that our alumni group is about ready for organization. They will be an excellent group once we get them working with us. I’m excited about the possibilities.
April 8, 1958
National boys club week seems to be off to a flying start. We are getting a lot of educational coverage from newspapers, radio and television. Yes here a full page in one of the local papers and a picture in Newsday. We spent several hours going over summer program and assigning staff members to various phases of that program. Our big problem is our athletic field. We need more diamonds to handle our athletic program. I will have to get the board after this.
We had 2 good programs for today. Kinnear had a good games party for midgets and juniors in the afternoon. In the evening Kinnear and Cullum joined forces to conduct an athletic night for intermediates and seniors. This last program proved very successful and will lead us to more of this type.
April 9, 1958
Had another small cavity filled. Dr. Olson is a nice fellow. Weak trend for conversation. Sends his children to a Lutheran School in South Dakota. Spent a great portion of the day setting up a special display in the gym. Motorboat and motor-arts and crafts display-career club table-library display-(Bill Cullum set up a large athletic display)
It is all for the parent’s night program we have planned tonight. As it turned out we had an excellent program and exhibits but a lousy attendance. There were only some 30 odd parents plus our regular Wednesday night group of members. Staff and members in the program were very disappointed. Can’t blame them. I too felt bad about all the hard work and practice only to find a small parental interest.
April 10, 1958
At the club early to help the custodial staff and the mother’s club prepare for the Rotary luncheon. It took us all morning to set up tables and chairs, cover them with paper covers, set up place settings, etc. by noon club rooms A&B had undergone a big transformation. Lovely luncheon tables, flowers, nice music on the P A system and a group of hungry Rotarians. We were served a most delicious luncheon by the mother’s club. Our program came as a novel and complete surprise to the Rotarians. Little speaking on the part of Bill Hinckley and lots of music and songs by the boys’ club band and our soloist Bobby Caristo. (He sang professionally under Bobby Hamilton)
April 11, 1958
I worked all day on bringing the unpaid vouchers bill up to date so they would be ready for our accountant and treasurer within the next few days. Bill Kinnear had an excellent games room program in the form of a Swap Party. Held it in the library with Mr. Bartolotta assisting. Country dance at the Boys’ Club in the evening ended our co-ed club program.
Helen and I took Bob and Ron and Scott to the movie in Glen cove and attended the operation democracy buffet at Mr. and Mrs. T. Strieberts. He was the head of the overseas information bureau for about three years for President Eisenhower.
Enjoyed a lovely Buffet Supper-we took our cocktails in the form of ginger ale and soda on the rocks. Went on to the Friends Academy gymnasium to the annual arts and crafts show. Excellent show. I had the personal pleasure of entering three of my own colored prints-10Teton Peaks, 2-Elk, 3-ccrabapple blossoms in the show for the first time.
April 12, 1958
Club closed all day while the staff prepare for award night. Takes hours to attend to all of the details. I checked and double checked all names of boy champions, volunteer workers and special guests. “Golden Boy”- boys club Oscar- goes to Mr. Smithers this year. R. Brinkley Smithers is Vice-President and a founding member of the Boys Club.
We featured our banquet of champions with a nice display in the gymnasium, a delicious turkey dinner served by our mother’s club and an outstanding program in the gym featuring biddy basketball skills, music by the Boys’ Club orchestra and the Boys’ Club of America film-“A Place to Grow”. All this plus and introduction of our champions and the volunteer leaders. We wound things up with some slides about our Boys’ club and said goodnight. Mrs. Geo. F. Baker was an unexpected but welcome guest.
{This entry was the last regular entry for the year. There were a few others spread out and I will put them next with dates.}
May 28, 1958-Wednesday
Spent the morning attending to some last minute details. Took binder and $300 check to Morris Z of Ranger Realty of Glen Cove. Did some shopping-checked the mail and drove to Rotary in Oyster Bay. President of Oyster Bay Rotary has an Oyster business. He treated to a special Oyster Luncheon. I was asked to come back in a couple of weeks and talk about match covers. Quick change of clothes, picked up Bill and Jane Kinnear to drive to the airport and Ed Diffenbach to accompany me and hurried off to Idlewild. Took a trans Canadian airline plane-1 hour late- and flew to Montreal. Rained hard in Montreal. Had dinner in the beautiful New Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Took the ocean limited (Canadian National Railways) out of Montreal. We have sleeper accommodations. Enjoyed a nice evening of conversation and reading with Mr. Pratt and Ed and then had a nice night’s sleep.
May 29, 1958
Cloudy morning-threatening rain. We are following the banks of the Restigouche River toward Campbellton-Bathurst and New Castle, New Brunswick, Canada. Enjoyed a hearty breakfast in the dinning car. (I am very fond of train travel and love to ear in dining cars) short morning of reading (Mr. Pratt is introducing me to Rudolph Steiner) of cancer reports done alone experimental lines with mistletoe and then we are in New Castle.
Kiah Copp met us and took us directly to his home. It was nice to see Mrs. Copp again. She had a lovely lobster bisque in creamed sauce ready for our lunch with fresh strawberries as dessert. Stopped in Simpson-Sears (Canada’s Sears and Roebuck store) to pick up a catalogue. We need some bunk beds at the camp. Did some shopping at the Dominion store so we would have groceries and header in too Holmes Lake. 75 miles via the old Renous Game Refuge road. One stop to register with the Forestry station and straight to the winter camp. In spite of the rain the camp is beautiful. Good old Hiram Allison had camp looking like a million dollars. Fires in the stove helped bring out the pleasant odors of wood, game, man and memories. Wonderful nights sleep!
May 30, 1958
Up about 8 AM. Nice breakfast and started the rounds of inventory and puttering. Checked all the boxes I had left stored and found all gear in good shape except for one box a mouse had gotten into. He chewed a corner out of everything he found. If he had chewed a little farther on the box of .22 ammunition perhaps he would have blown himself up and saved me a mess. Talked a good deal with Mr. Pratt about the future of the camp and what would become of it. He doesn’t think Mrs. George D. Pratt will continue to come up much longer. I put in for the idea of converting it into a camp for our club members and increasing our numbers to about 50 campers each of two periods.
Ed cleaned up the carburetor and gas lines of the Ovan generator. I worked on repairing fly rods. Turned cold with showers. We fished a few minutes at the boat house-no luck. Toured the main camp and met the new care takers. Went over the canoes to repair.
Saturday June 14, 1958
The annual boys’ club dance is being held at Mrs. Charles Pratt’s in Glen cove. Jerald Holley 9an old school mate of Helen’s and I-who is visiting us from Idaho) and myself helped make a few of the last minute details and shoved off for Troy N.Y. We took in the Yankee-Detroit ball game at Yankee Stadium and drove to Poughkeepsie NY. Jerald met an old army buddy (Larry Heaton) and we three and Mrs. Heaton went out for dinner. Lovely steak dinner. On into the night we drove stopping about 2 AM at a motel near Hudson. Destination is Troy and the home of her Boys’ Club director Andy Semansco. We plan to look at his camp-to which we will send boys later this summer.
June 15, 1958
Up and on the road early. Called Andy to tell him we were coming. Pleasant drive. I’m always impressed by the beauty of Up State New York. Warm welcome by our good friends. What a beautiful view they have. Their home is located on a lovely hill overlooking the Troy-Albany Valley. Lovely lunch followed by a trip to the camp. A walk to the waterfront was most invigorating. We returned to Andy’s home where Andy Jr. put on a two hour show for us. Beautiful voice-we really enjoyed the song fest. Drove to Yonkers where we had a late dinner. On to Locust Valley by 2 AM. Bit bushed from driving.
June 20, 1958
A big day in the Hinckley house. We sent Jerald off to Idaho and his family via United Airlines. Don O’Rourke took him to the airport. I scurried hither and yon buying supplies for our Canadian camp. Helen answered lots of calls about our house-which is for sale. I took Scott to the throat specialist in Glen Cove. Scott has nodules on his vocal cords and must maintain complete silence to rest his chords. I scooted in to Manhasset and picked up Mr. Millham and then Helen. We drove to Howard Leap’s home and had the formal closing on the new house we bought. #3 Millford Drive, Lattingtown, Locust Valley NY-$29,000 home. We will be in hock for a long time but 3 baths- a split level and lots of closets really sold us. 1/3 acre with lots of trees and a nice lawn. What a wonderful blessing to come to us.
No other entries in 1958. In the book was an article on Don O’Rourke who did not play high school basketball, only Boys’ Club ball but was awarded a scholarship to Ricks and became an all star and averaged 20.4 points and 18.6 rebound per game and had four year colleges interested in him. The article also mentions Walter Larking an Dom Giovinazzo who were Boys’ Club youth who were athletes at Ricks. I know Don went on to play at Idaho State and Dom went on to Utah State.