Retro Cool CAT Stokes Campers — Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect

Some sixth grade Fair Haven boys at Stokes
Photo/David Struve

Well, the iconic Stokes trip happened last week; and, by all accounts it was a trip soaked with fun … and rain.

The tradition has been altered over the years. Most recently, the trip’s time of year changed. It now happens in the fall when it used to happen in late spring. It also now takes seventh-, not sixth-graders, tripping in the woods for a week of hands-on outdoor education. And there are no RFH senior counselors called CATs along for the trips of more recent, well, decades.

Nonetheless, the longtime tradition is and always has been rife with tales of the trip.

This featured snapshot back into the woods in 1978 at Stokes focuses on a few RFH counselor guys (and a sixth grader) who seem to have happened upon some sort of sight or adventure. Lost boys? Perhaps.

They obviously spied something quite interesting on their trail. Though, it could have been a prank in the making. Those were quite popular in the earlier Stokes days.

Do you know which one is still living in the area? He actually went to Stokes twice — once as a camper and once as a RFH CAT.

Remember the CATs? They are no more, but you had to get hand picked to be one and this group of 1978 CATs was quite the motley crew. Who are the other boys in the pic? And, really, what the heck were they looking at? Jersey Devil?

And who knows what the popular campfire song of the era was at Stokes? It’s a doozy. Hint: The first word in the song title is Hang. We have a feeling it would probably be banned in later years’ trips. The truth is that the kids didn’t even know what they were singing about. And the Jersey Devil was real to them. Ahem.

— Thanks to David Struve for this classic pic!