Joey

From 1951 until 1960, Gabe Paul was the General Manager of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.  During that same period his nephew Joe (Joey) Paul from Rochester, New York, spent his summers at Camp Eagle Cove (see post) near Inlet, New York.  I was a bunk mate of his in 1955 when we were ten years-old (only 65 years ago).

Years later, Joe contributed photos from Eagle Cove during his time there to an Internet website about the camp.  I was in some of the photos and I was among his fellow-campers whose names he remembered.  When I first googled my name, I found the Camp Eagle Cove website which included photos of me during those years.  

In 2006, Joe and I exchanged emails.  He (a graduate of SUNY at Buffalo) was living in San Ramon, California, still working as an in house counsel for a Houston based energy company.  Joe kept the above photos while he moved around the country, from Columbus to Boston to Salt Lake City to Pasadena to Pleasanton (CA) to San Ramon.  "I never left them behind," he said.

Joe recently wrote me that he is now retired and has settled in Carlsbad, CA, which is located between San Diego and Los Angeles.

However, one day in 1955 I almost killed Joey.  All the boys in cabin #8 were resting after lunch, unsupervised.  He was (as I recall) picking on me.  Why me?  My bad attitude (being at Eagle Cove was not my idea) made me a target for abuse from the rest of my bunk-mates who enjoyed the camp.   

Being picked on at camp was not unusual for me.  However, this time I reached a breaking point.  We got into a wrestling match.  I got the upper hand, put Joey in a choke hold and he started complaining he couldn't breathe (sound familiar?).  I released him when he promised not to pick on me again.  

Joey almost immediately started to do it again and again I got him in a choke hold.  I added more pressure this time.  Thankfully, I released him and this time he kept his promise, at least for a while.  I'm convinced I could've killed him.  Thankfully for both of us, I didn't.

The last time I saw Joey was 1959 when we were together in the most advanced camper lodge (fourteen year-olds), named for the Siwanoy tribe.  A photo of that group was at the Camp Eagle Cove website which is now sadly gone.