I guess you could say that my first trip to Culver was before I was born. My parents used to take weekend getaways to Culver back in the days when the Culver Inn was comprised of the old front desk building, East Lodge, and West Lodge. I was told that they had gone there a couple of times the summer of '53 when my mother was pregnant with me. Dad had gone to Naval School at Culver, and was supposed to be in the CMA class of 1935, but the depression intervened leaving his Culver experience confined to summers. After graduating from high school, he spent his college summers on the Summer Naval School faculty.
Up until I was 11, we'd spend a couple of weekends every summer at Culver, enjoying the lake, taking cruises on the O. W. Fowler, or the Yarnell, with breakfasts and lunches at The Shack. Dinner was usually a trip to the Three Sisters for deep fried walleye. For a kid, it was a BALL.
In the summers of '64 and '65, I went to Woodcraft Camp. It was around this time that the Culver Inn expanded to include the motel. (I'm sure Bob Hartman could probably tell you exactly when the motel was built; all I know is that when I was in "Tick Camp," that's where my parents and brothers would stay.) Sure, it was kind of a drag spending 8 weeks away from my friends at home, but it was still fun. As I recall, our classmate, Bob Pentzien, was my bunk mate in '64.
My next Culver experience happened in the fall of '65 and '66, although strangely, it was from the other side of the playing field. During my 7th and 8th grade years, I attended Park School in Indianapolis. I was already slated to go to CMA come the fall of '67. (In fact, I had a little "pre-admission" certificate hanging on the wall of my room at home, signed by, I believe, John Henderson (Jim's dad,) who was head of admissions at Culver when I was a kid.)
Anyway, my two years at Park I started playing soccer. I believe it was Park's first organized middle school soccer team, if memory serves. I strongly suspect that the soccer program at Park was designed for parents like mine who did NOT want their kids playing tackle football. The first year, fall of '65, our middle school team had a bunch of 8th graders and we were ok, by Park standards.
Let me stop here and say that soccer for kids was nothing like it is now. There were not very many schools playing soccer in Indy; in fact, we were, to my knowledge the ONLY middle school that had a soccer program.
As a result, each year, we had three games: a "home and home" with CMA and a road trip to Divine Heart Seminary, just up the road from CMA in Donaldson, Indiana. That first year, '65, loaded with 8th graders, we salvaged a tie at CMA, then lost 2-1 to CMA at home. Our last game, our lone victory, was played in a late fall concoction of freezing rain, sleet, and cold at Divine Heart. I only remember a couple of guys from the CMA team that year: Mario Fernandez, '70, who would later harass me mercilessly my plebe year and this rather large guy named Deutz, who was no longer at CMA by the time I got there.
1966, however, was another matter. With all of our 8th grade talent from the previous year gone, there were only 3 of us with any playing experience on the middle school team. Though I had played wing the previous year, I was drafted/selected/cajoled into being the goalkeeper. Suffice it to say, I was less than sterling as a keeper. Above that Park School, the Panthers, should more appropriately have been named (as my brother Dan would later call them,) "The Fighting Science Fair Guys." We were the "Geek Squad" before there was one.
I will never forget the two games with CMA that year, mostly because I had Johnny Tucker, (who looked about 8 at the time,) Ken Kredens, and George Tanner in my "grill" the whole of both games. George had just a bit more hair than he does now. If they'd had Rogaine back then, he'd probably have been a user. I suspect Johnny Adams may have been involved in my "mugging" that day as well. As for Kenny, as poetic justice would have it, he'd later end up as 'keeper for CMA, and a damn good one.
Not to throw my Park teammates under the bus, but our defense in front of me would best be called "matador." I think, in the second game, I got my nose broken (not the last time that would happen,) and I remember saying to my parents after the second of the two 3-0 losses, "Well, you didn't want me playing football..."
The next fall, 1967, I was a plebe in A Company. Our counselor was one Elzie Kemp Moore, who, interestingly enough, had been on the Culver faculty when my Dad worked on the Naval School faculty back in the late 30's. My Dad thought the WORLD of Col. Moore. That should tell you all you need to know about Kemp Moore. Poor man had ZERO chance of keeping up with the bunch of miscreants who were a part of A Company. Hell, the poor man couldn't even make it up to the third floor of West Barrack without a substantial "rest" on the second, so you can imagine some of the hijinks that were going on up there. The class of '69 had the distinction of sending "ol' Blob" off to his retirement in mid-year, but not before leaving us with a couple of memorable quotes, most notably his accusation that there were some up there on 3rd floor West who were, in his words, "smoking LSD."
I believe that class also convinced Bob Hartman NOT to be a counselor anymore, because after that year, Company A was merged with Company E. Some guys like Mario Romine opted for other units and he joined the merry band in C Company. Those of us who stayed would fall into the clutches of Carl Eckert, also know as "Carp." And we all know what Carp eat. 'Nuff said.
What Kemp Moore could NOT do, Mel Estey could do in spades. My second year at CMA, Mack Rau and I had the room at the head of the stairs on 2nd floor West and quite often we would see Col. Estey, call sign "Viper," sneaking up the stairs after Taps or just before Reveille in the hope that he would catch someone on third floor doing something naughty. Considering the crew that lived up there, his pursuits were quite often rewarded. The strangest thing about Commandant Mel was that I do not recall ever seeing the man smile. I'm sure he must have, particularly when handing out E.D. or putting someone on citizenship probation, but I cannot recall it.
It would be unchivalrous of me not to mention the first time I met my wife, Kris, who, I did not learn until we reunited in 2001, was also called "Tisser." During my plebe year, we took that oddball poli-sci type class called "America's Challenges in the Contemporary World" taught by Alfred Myers, also known as "Wild Thing," (speaking of oddballs.) I suspect that was my first real awareness that there were ANY females in school at CMA, although I knew they were there. It's just that with the plebe system, getting used to classes, and learning more stuff than you can imagine getting crammed into your head before "3 minute bell," there were just some things that you forgot.
I also have several memories of Tisser's Mom, Florence, who was one of the Academy librarians back in the day. She always struck me as a stern, no-nonsense woman who, quite frankly, intimidated the Hell out of me. This was still true later, during our junior year, when Tis and I dated for a few minutes. And, when Tisser and I got together in the early 2000's she had the same effect on me during my rare and feeble attempts at playing bridge with the Tanner clan, although otherwise she was a delightful person.
The last reunion I attended was our 25th. During the all class dinner in the Lay Center, I ran into George, and I inquired how Tis was doing. He said that I ought to call her and catch up. That night, my lady-friend and I passed on the class party and went out to the "Tick Camp" to party with the younger classes. I really did not want to deal with the potential for charitable "arm twisting" that I'd heard transpired there. Besides, Pierce Ward was, what we call in the south, a "big ol' boy," back in the day.
At any rate, we all went our own ways after that weekend. I returned to my new home, Myrtle Beach, broke up with the lady-friend, and spent the last of the 90's building and running a video poker casino on a piece of land I bought on the North Carolina/South Carolina state line. I had two condos, one in Laurinburg, NC, which was home base, and the other on Shore Drive in Myrtle Beach which was my "getaway."
One day, while I was down at the Beach, I got a voice mail on my Laurinburg phone from Tisser. It was garbled and I didn't get much of it, other than that she was in Michigan and could be reached at a phone number there. By the time I got back and returned the call, she had left Michigan for parts unknown (to me,) though I left a message with the fellow who answered the phone and told me she wasn't there anymore. (As it turned out, it was her son Chris.)
More time passed and I never had heard back from Tis. So finally, I called, you guessed it, the CMA alumni office. They gave me her email, and we began communicating online in early 2001.
One thing led to another and as May approached, I invited Tis and her "significant other" down to spend a weekend at my place on the Beach, as it turns out, the same weekend that our class was celebrating our 30th reunion. I guess I picked the "right" reunion, because shortly thereafter, she shed the "significant other," and 6 months hence we were together. We got married in April of 2003, at our favorite Beach Bar, Ocean Annie's.
Our wedding was a mini-reunion of sorts. I had a picture taken of the "Culver Crew" which included George, Florence, my two brothers Dan ('74) and Alan (CMA '81), my friend and old Indy "running buddy" Randall Hilbolt (CMA '72) and Pritt Bardes, (CGA '72), and which, if I can find it, I will have with me at this year's reunion.
Tis and I were last back at Culver in the summer of 2004, for a Tanner family reunion. As fate would have it, while we were getting together on the shores of Lake Maxincukee, Hurricane Charlie was coming ashore in Myrtle, the only hurricane to make landfall in Myrtle Beach, since I moved here. We were both amazed at the changes that had taken place, as I am sure we will be this year.
All of that makes this trip, our first to a reunion since we've been married, kind of a closing of the circle, as it were. We're looking forward to it!
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