"Our World."

About Camp Dry-Kye

Visits to Graham Lake: July & August 2009

Quick note from your Webmaster.... The week after Butsy and Tommy were fishing the life out of Graham Lake in July I went up with my family and visited "camp." It was a very emotional few days.

We visited downtown Ellsworth including a visit to the Grand Theatre... including a look inside. We "camped" at the Cedar Cabins per Tommy and Butsy's recommendation and had the end cabin that looked directly back on the camp!!!! We easily paddled a canoe over to and around Indian Island, wetting our fishing lines in the process (we are NOT great fisherpeople).

We made a pilgimage around the lake by car, including putting a canoe in at the public landing off the West branch and paddled over to Mose Haslem's. A short walk up the hill at the "Blasted Heat" we found the well!! THE WELL!!!!! IT LIVES IN THE WELL....!!!

On Tuesday we met with Chris Sylvester at KidsPeace and toured the property completely... pouring out stories. We walked the entire property including going around the rim of the sand pits! More of a report and pictures coming.

Report: Gathering – May 9, 2009

For those who couldn't make it, we had a great time last night at Joe Tamulis' house. As usual, Joe was a terrific host. There were 14 of us, and it was nice to see Abdullah again, thanks to George McNamara who went out of his way to pick him up and bring him.

Tom Seawell made CD's of some of the old pictures which are now HERE on the Web Site (click this link)!!!!!

Sometime this Fall -- probably in November -- we are going to hold a Get-Together in honor of the 100th birthday of Dirty Old Ben. We will find a place that will be convenient to get to and have a catered affair. Wives, girlfriends, children, etc will be invited and we will plan a program that will let them know how we spent our misspent youth, and maybe they will understand the bond that makes us a "Band of Brothers." Please let me know your feelings regarding this, and if you can make it. More details will follow.

On another note, this Wednesday, Tom & I will be heading North, and will spend my 70th birthday on Thursday fishing Graham Lake. Thanks to Tom, this has been a tradition for my decade Birthday (50 & 60 & 70). We have two week-long trips planned this year. We will be on Graham lake from June 20 - 27 and July 25 - August 1. During thew July week, we will have our grandchildren with us part of the time. A first for Tom's, and the third year for my grandson, who has become quite a good fisherman.

Keep in touch, and if you can find anyone who has gone to Camp, let me know and we will put him on the list.

Butsy

New Idea

Update from Butsy: We now have 52 Campers in the Dry Kye Association and are still looking to add more. If you have any names, please let me know.

Tom & I had lunch with Dennis Kunian. Denny (I can't get used to calling him Dennis) came up with a great suggestion: To set up a Foundation in memory of Ben, where we could donate as a group to some community project that would keep the name of Ben Kimball and Camp Dry-Kye in the public eye. Since Ben was so involved with opera, perhaps we could do something to support the Lyric Opera Company or the Boston Opera. We could set up a non-profit/charitable foundation to which we all could contribute. Dennis volunteered to handle publicity and printed matter at no charge.

June 2008 Trip Back In Time

Dirty old Ben is still looking down on us and probably giving a "Har De Har Har." Tom & I spent 7 days on Graham Lake last week. We stayed at Lakeside Cedar Cabins, and except for a small bathroom, it was great. Beats camping out and sleeping on the ground at our age. We almost lost Tom, however. It was very fortunate that I didn't bring my .45, as there was a noise coming from the other room that I thought was a moose, and I would have started blasting away.

Anyhow, we arrived on Saturday, and spent the day setting up and going to town shopping. Early Sunday morning, we went out fishing, and within 5 minutes, Tom caught the first Bass. In 3 1/2 hours on Sunday, we caught all 7 species of fish in the lake. Trivia Question: Name the Species (Trout doesn't count, as they are only available very early in the year).

We fished every day, except Thursday, when the weather was a little rough so we took a trip to Blue Hill so Tom could buy some pottery.

We were catching mostly Bass, and we ate them for four nights. We decided that come Hell or High Water we would get White Perch, so Friday we went up river and caught a whole mess of them, which we had for dinner on Friday night.

Tom brought his Vacuum Sealer, so we have fish in the freezer to eat later in the year.

One of the highlights of the trip was when we were trolling around one of the islands and we passed under a tree on which sat a Bald Eagle about 20 feet above us, just watching over his domain. After we passed him a second time, he turned around on the branch and let go some mighty turds. We also saw a family of Loons and a couple of Heron.

All in all, it was a great week, and we have booked the cabins for next year. The date isn't finalized, but it will probably be around the same time -- the week of Father's Day -- so mark your calendars if you are interested.

Keep in touch.
Butsy

November 2007 Get-Together A Success

For those who couldn't make it, we had a fantastic get-together at Harry Footer's restaurant Brazille – 27 former campers and counselors attended – click here for photos from the event. It was nice seeing friends from over 50 years. Some were not as recognizable as Tom Seawell, so all wore name tags with dates of camp attendance.

We had a great meal, terrific service (thanks to Harry Footer), saw some old pictures and slides that brought back a lot of good memories and enjoyed some nice conversations.

Tom and I have been talking about possibly setting up a summer reunion in Ellsworth. If you have any interest, let me know which month would be best -- either June or July. We are probably looking at sometime in June when traffic is lighter and rooms are more available. We could possibly take a few guys fishing, and maybe we can find a place for Monster Caps (No Real Weapons Allowed).

Out of 238 total Campers, we currently have 48 in the Camp Dry-Kye Association. I will put out a listing of names that we are still looking for, and if you know them you can send me their phone numbers.

Check out our Web Site, and if you have anything you want put on (such as stories, pictures, etc) you can send to our Web Master Cliff Kolovson at cliff@pointed.com. He also has CD's available of Ben reading The Wendigo, The Willows, and Mose Haslem's.

- Butsy