Friday, July 17, 2020

The Brooklyn College Newman Dude Ranch and Ski Weekends [[[ Recollections of a few "facts" -- foggy memories -- and maybe a little fiction in outline form ]]]

[NOTE: THIS IS AN INCOMPLETE ARTICLE AND MORE INFORMATION IS BEING GATHERED  ---  IF YOU HAVE ANY INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT ANY BC NEWMAN  DUDE RANCH OR SKI WEEKEND,  PLEASE PROVIDE IT TO THE ADMINISTRATOR FOR THIS BLOG AND/OR  BC NEWMAN ALUMS' FB PAGE  

>>>  BETTER STILL,  YOU CAN PUT WHATEVER YOU THINK NEEDS TO BE ADDED, SUBTRACTED, CORRECTED, REFINED OR PARSED IN ANY WAY IN A COMMENT FOLLOWING THE ARTICLE <<<  ]


[[[ SORT OF A PROMISE:  THERE WILL BE BETTER HEADLINES & A BETTER LAYOUT WHEN THIS FEATURE IS CLOSER TO BEING "FINISHED" ]]] 


1967 Ski Weekend at Kutsher's

---  Dorothea Lyden (later Houston) was a roommate with Linda Mollica (later Maslowski) ---  when Dorsey seemed to be missing for a few hours,  Linda sounded the alarm and people went searching for Dorothea all over the hotel ---  it turns out that Dorothea was found at the pool doing laps without telling anybody 

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1967 Dude Ranch weekend at the Rocking Horse Ranch

There certainly was a lot of doo-doo on this trip ---  the cesspools overflowed right next to about one-half the rooms between the AM and midday on Saturday ---  Then there was Ann Thompson, who on a group ride rode her horse into the rear of another horse that promptly shat all over her leg;  it upset Ann so much that she fell off her mount into an even bigger pile of horse dung.  Her cowgirl outfit was white when she started, but not when she finished --- all that, and she had to walk her horse back to the barn  ---  there was a broken toilet fixture, whose parts were moved from one room to another  ---  there was a massive pillow fight that wound up with a broken bed propped up by a stack of bibles and the room full of feathers

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1968 Ski Weekend in Rutland, Vermont
                            
---  very small group that included Jim McCall. Jim Reilly, Bob Fasano, Dennis Cunningham, Dennis Greene and Doug Durans, and Dorothea Lyden, Ginger Troisi  ---  Bob Fasano brought a gallon of deep red Italian wine (a good amount of which spilled on Bob at some point, after which he was sometimes called "B.A.B. Fasano" for "Blue Ass Bob" (it was really purple), ---  There was also a rumor that there was a game of  "mixed strip poker"  where everybody came out a winner (or is that loser) after one of the guys decided to do some "streaking"  ---  I wasn't involved, and my only source has lawyered-up.....  All of it was a few days after "The Pueblo Incident" and a few of the guys joked about heading to the Canada border,  but a quick inquiry made everybody realize that Canada was quite a distance away.

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1968 Dude Ranch weekend at the Peekskill Dude Ranch   

---  very large group  run by Jim McCall, that included for only one night,  Father O'Sullivan, who roomed with John Zuhlke  ---  also there was Joe Saunders  (the Man in the white toga on the balcony;  aka "The Great White Whale"), John Murphy, Dorothea Lyden,  Dennis Cunningham, Bill Mackey, Egilda Terenzi and a cast of thousands  ---   Lots of stories and I don't know most of them even though I definitely was there  ---  Since I was "in charge" I do know that we got banned for some reason or something.....


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1969 Ski Weekend at the Columbia Resort (the ski weekend with almost no snow)

---  very large group most likely run by "John Murphy"  ---  however,  Dorothea Lyden and Lenny Houston were listed as "responsible parties" ---  resulting in their accompanying Jacquie Hegsted to a local  ER after hurting her knee skiing  ---  Overall group included Liz Buckley, Karen Sorensen, Joanne Flanagan, Jaccquie Hegsted, John Grillo, Charles Wisniewski, Rosemary McCall,  Joanna Saccardi, Mary St. Jacques ???  --- I arrived late on the first night and found my door broken in;  I was told by C "B" W that Ken Garry had thrown my "room mate" >>> "Skeevy Stevie" <<< [that's a whole other story involving John Murphy] through the door because he was so annoying (another source told me that it was Frank Arena that did the deed, again using the aforementioned "Skeevy Stevie" as a battering ram.....). ---  The second night, Saturday, several of us went out to toboggan on the icy hillside, when we were intercepted by the resort staff, who seized and locked up the toboggans, because all night "skiing" had been cancelled  in order to try to make snow.  The resort's foolproof plan to secure the  hills from a nighttime assault by the tobogganers that night failed,  because BC NEWMAN FOOLS ARE INGENIOUS.....  Later that night, a small band of merry Newmen, made hearty against the chill by deep drafts of a variety of spirits, removed the fiberglass roof from a shed and took it to a remote and un-patrolled hill that had what seemed to be a good coating of ice.  Several very exciting high- speed runs were taken down that hill, each ending in a wipe-out for the four or five riders on bare frozen dirt and gravel.   It continued for about an hour until the fiberglass "toboggan" started to break up and the aches and pains to about six or seven of the rotating riders came through whatever stage of drunken stupor they had reached prior to their  enterprise..... Frank Arena and Lenny Houston were involved but didn't ride on the fiberglass roof panel.....  ---  the next morning, some other enterprising Newman fools took some dresser drawers and used them to slide down the icy slope inside the empty swimming pool;  not the best idea, the pool was too constricted and it had concrete walls  ---  the transportation back to Brooklyn was hours late in arriving and the bar at the Columbia was soon full of BC Newman whiskiers, and their Irish Coffee and Sloe Gin Fiz drinking friends with their luggage for an improptu Bon Voyage party ---  the bus trip home had its lighter moments; one involved a young Newman miss who needed to take an emergency pit stop,  so the bus just pulled over onto the side of the road and the much stressed miss went a short way into into the night-dark woods; however, young woman's relief of the moment gave way to an unexpected show for some of those on the right side of the bus, when a car travelling on a nearby road through the woods fully illuminated the distressed young miss with its headlights,  but only those on the right side of the bus got to share her surprise.

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1971 Ski Weekend at The Laurels  

---  organized by  Kathy Rogan (later Hurley) ---  Kathy was so worried about everything going well, that she didn't  remember that much about it. Mostly she remembered that they gave  her a free trip when Newman went back the next year.... It seemed an all-around success and the 1971 Newmanites didn't wreck the joint ---  Martin Fiasconaro, Tony Cilento and Joe Romano roomed together for the ski weekend in January of 1971, which some of that crew referred to as "The Legend of the Green Hot Pants".....