Family Vacations

In upstate New York vacation homes, cabins etc are termed "camps". The term camp was used early in the 20Th century to refer to a temporary summer home used by people from New York City. These were generally located in the Adirondack area and usually on lakes. My Dad spent his childhood vacations every year at the Teller camp on Lake Delta, NY. The camp was owned by his grandmother's brother Dr. Howard Teller. This vacation tradition continued into my childhood and many a happy time I spent swimming in Lake Delta and fishing from a boat with my parents. Prior to the building of the New York State Thruway we used to go by car from Fort Lee, New Jersey to Rome, NY and Lake Delta. It was a 12 hour trip through many small ethnic communities in the Catskill Mountain area and on through the Mohawk Valley. We would stop a variety of places for rest. We stopped at the Beech Nut gum factory for a tour and got lots of free life savers and gum, as we watched them make and bottle baby food. We also stopped at the Catholic shrine for Saint Katherine Tekawitha, an Iroquois indian. The grounds were beautiful with a round church that represented the Iroquois nation. There were a number of German restaurants in the Catskills and we would often stop for lunch. For a little girl it was a long trip. I kept saying, "When are we going to get there?" One year I didn't say a thing and they thought I was sick. But in truth I had my little brother Arnold that year and he kept me and everyone else busy.