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Rachel Podl, 13, sat down with her grandfather who shared with us some Robin Hood history

71-years

My grandfather’s first summer at Camp Robin Hood was in 1943 when he was 14. Though many things about camp have changed, whenever he goes back, he can still remember his many summers very clearly and fondly. As Andy Friedman’s nephew and the first cousin of Miles, Drew and Major (Andy’s children), my grandfather came to be known at camp as “Stanley Brown Friedman.” Before he went to camp he had only played team sports, so he loved all the new activities that were available at camp. For example, he went on a boat for the very first time. World War II was going on when he was a camper and because there was a shortage of gasoline, all of the boys biked out to local farms to help pick crops. He also competed against other camps, like West End, whom we still play today. After winning the Big Cup in 1945, Stanley returned back to camp in 1947 to be a counselor. The year that camp burned down, my grandfather went early to camp and spent his time replanting trees and cleaning up camp so that it could open that summer. With the locals’ help, Camp Robin Hood reopened for the summer of 1948. He continued to work there until 1951, when he went into the Air Force. Upon his return from the service in 1957, he attended dental school during the school year and worked at camp in the summers until he graduated, bringing along my grandmother, who worked as Duff’s assistant. All of my grandparents’ sons attended Robin Hood (their daughter – my mom — went to Hiawatha), and my Uncle Steve won the Big Cup when he was 14. Then, my grandparents came along with us to Family Camp in 2005 and have visited my brothers and I while we’re at camp. Meanwhile, my brother Matthew won the Big Cup in 2011, making three generations of Master Campers! My grandfather could have gone on for hours telling me stories about being a camper and counselor at Robin Hood. I can really tell he meant it when said, “I love camp; I really do.”

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