Lou’s View

A few years ago, I gave a tour to some kids from the Fresh Air Fund, a group that many people seem to be familiar with. Children from low-income areas of New York come to rural-ish places like Clinton County, where they stay for a couple of weeks and get a sense of what it’s like to not live in a smog-filled city.

This is not really a new concept; it’s been going on for quite a while now. Articles from the Clinton County Times in July of 1925 showed me recently that this program is over a century old, though apparently the actual execution of it hasn’t always worked out so well.

On July 3, 1925, the Times reported about Reverend J. Merrill Williams, not to be confused with Dr. William Jackson Merrill, who was holding a clinic at the hospital two columns over. (I swear.) Williams was chairman of the Fresh Air Fund, and was excited about the upcoming arrival of the children. Hosts were expected to register by July 6th, to give the program enough time to get everything ready. The Times said,”It would be a fine thing if Lock Haven could lead the state this year in entertaining these children who need a vacation so badly.”

Lock Haven wound up leading in something, but it certainly wasn’t like they’d expected.

On the seventeenth, the children arrived in Lock Haven at the First Ward School Building. They were picked up by their hosts, or delivered by car if the hosts didn’t have a vehicle. They were expected to stay two weeks before heading back.

They had a good time initially; there were gatherings and picnics, and the Blue Bird Theater in Mill Hall pitched in by announcing that any of the children could attend a movie for free during their stay. It was wonderful.

The peaceful, vacation-like vibe lasted two days.

On July 25th, Times reported,”Fresh Air Kiddie Narrowly Escapes Drowning.”

One of the children, a young girl, was at a picnic in Castanea, near the reservoir. One of the other girls approached the reservoir to get a drink, because apparently it was both legal and advisable to drink directly out of the reservoir in those days. The first girl went running after her, and then got up enough speed that she was unable to stop. I’m going to guess that it’s because she was from New York, and therefore not used to running—In New York it’s impossible to run more than five feet without crashing into a building, a taxi, a homeless person, etc.

“Being unable to stop, [she] ran directly out into the water, the speed carrying her several feet out into the reservoir,” the Times reported.

Swimming being another skill it’s hard to practice in New York, the girl came close to drowning. E.A. McGill of Buffalo was nearby, on a vacation himself, and he ran into the water and rescued the girl. She was fine, but a little shaken up. The people in charge decided to make the rest of the trip absolutely, one hundred percent safe-ish.

Meanwhile, another one of the girls was staying in Mill Hall, and she came down with the measles. The Times said that she was quarantined, and noted that the quarantine actually would be lifted a few days after her scheduled return. Which seems to be like a weird way to get a few extra days of vacation, what with the near-drownings and all.

At the very end of the month, most of the children were packed on a train, labeled with blue tags, and shipped back to New York. Several of them got permission to stay a few days longer, even the ones who weren’t quarantined, because apparently even the risk of drowning is better than being in New York. The others, who left, were probably just happy to have made it out alive.