Paul Goldfinger photo. October 12, 2021. Kitchell Field. Oakhurst at the Jersy Shore. Click to enlarge. Blogfinger.net. ©
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net
” Rising Treetops at Oakhurst (formerly Camp Oakhurst), located near the New Jersey shore and 55 miles from New York City, serves children and adults with special needs, including autism and physical and intellectual disabilities through summer camp and respite programs. ”
They have been helping disabled kids and adults since the early 1900’s. I drove by their 111 Monmouth Road campus many times and was drawn to their seemingly abandoned facility this past summer, but evidently they are open all year to provide respites. support services and programs such as sports.
Kitchell Field reminds me of summer camps and ball fields that I saw in the Catskill Mountains (“Borscht Belt”) when I worked at the Hotel Nemerson in South Fallsburg, N.Y. It brought to mind softball games when hotel athletic staffs would compete. And the male guests would choose up sides for games.
Soft ball, basketball, and hand ball were big New York City sports and were popular in “The Mountains.” After athletics came endless card games (with small change at stake) for the men, and mah jong and sunbathing for the women.
When visiting softball teams came to the hotel, they often brought “ringers” with them—“windmill (underhand) pitchers” who would come up on weekends from “The City” just for the games. They got paid, and there was gambling at the competitions .
So I look at the empty Kitchell Field and I see the ghosts of ball games past.
Dr. John:
I read how you worked at Hotel Nemerson… I don’t remember that hotel but I grew up spending summers in South Fallsburg. My grandfather owned Pollak’s Fallsburg Country Club, a hotel and bungalow colony across the street from the Flagler.
Great summers. Wonderful way to grow up with 20 cousins and aunts and uncles and some folks I still keep in touch with from those years. Last summer there was 1967, he went bankrupt I’m sorry to say due to unpaid taxes.
Winter “resort “ was in Lakewood, and my dad managed both, my mom was a waitress. I was a busboy, bellhop, waiter… ah the good old days.
Best,
Barry Sokol
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