Far left:
Jack Pearlman:
An original Tamarack
camper.
Left:
The Rosenwassers
met at camp,
married 10 years later.
For the young and the not-so-
young, camp summers mean
freedom, friendship, romance
and the Great Outdoors.
Blazing
Trails
And Memories
-JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER
ack Pearlman's friends
called him the "Russian
bull" because of his ro-
bustness and the thick ac-
cent he brought from a
small town near Minsk. He
was the one who would in-
stigate all-night hikes in the
most frigid temperatures, scur-
rying up trees and haystacks in
Palmer Park and along Seven
Mile Road.
At Fresh Air Camp, then lo-
cated near Mount Clemens, Mr.
Pearlman had a habit of taking
early morning and twilight dips
in choppy Lake St. Clair, before
he blew reveille and taps.
"I was screwy," he recalls.
After two summers as a
camper — "My mom was tickled
to death to get rid of me" — Mr.
Pearlman became an assistant
counselor under Abe Levine, who
has since passed away. That was
in 1914 and 1915, or 1915 and
1916.
Now 95, Mr. Pearlman be-
lieves he is the oldest living
Tamarack camper around, be-
cause at a 75th reunion of the
J
Fresh Air Society, he
and Mr. Levine were
recognized as the
last of the original
Fresh Air campers.
His fondest mem-
ories were of swim-
ming four - times
daily, "rain or shine."
He - even taught
David Arfa to swim
— no small feat, con-
sidering Mr. Arfa
wore an artificial
limb after losing .a
leg in a railcar acci-
dent.
Mr. Pearlman, a Novi resident,
would blow reveille in the morn-
ing, still damp from his swim.
The rest of the day would be tak-
en up in such activities as row-
boating and swimming, until
milk and cookies were served.
The National Biscuit Co., locat-
ed in Detroit, provided free bro-
ken cookies to the camp for
afternoon snacks.
After dinner, campers made
their way back to their cottages.
Before bed, Mr. Pearlman took
camper for the past four
another swim and blew
Julie Zack
(horizont al) with
or five years, last sum-
taps on his bugle.
frien ds at
mer at Camp Agree in
The camp staged reg-
Camp Agree.
Ontario.
ular peanut hunts.
She laughs recalling a
Those who gathered the
most got some kind of prize, Mr. canoe trip that led to a week-long
period of penitence and hard
Pearlman remembers.
Camp Maas, as Tamarack is work after she lost a friend's
now known, still leaves its clothes in a turbulent river.
After her group had paddled
campers with a huge dose of na-
ture. Best memories involve en- all day — Julie can't remember
tanglements, good and bad, with the name of the river — they
found a campsite and collapsed.
the Great Outdoors.
Julie Zack of Huntington But a gust of wind got them up
Woods has been a Tamarack again after her friend Beth Jack-
son's sleeping pad blew into the
black current.
Julie and Beth jumped into the
first canoe they saw, and made
do with the one paddle and one
life jacket on board. As Julie
reached out of the canoe, trying
to grip an end of the pad, the boat
tipped. All of its contents, in-
cluding the two campers and the
clothes left inside by another
camper, fell into the river.
"We were screaming for help,"
the 14-year-old recalls. "It was
really funny, but it was very cold
and wet."
Julie and Beth dried out, but
their friend's clothes had sunk to
the bottom of the river.
"She was sort of upset," Julie
said.
Michael Wolf, 10, of West
Bloomfield, attended Camp
Tamakwa last summer for the
first time. He proudly recalls be-
ing chosen to be a member of the
Beaver Council, which he corn-
pares to a school's student coun-
cil.
"There is a Beaver Council
that plans all the parties we do.