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July 1969 Scrapbook
Just about everyone watched the skies during the summer of 1969.
During the late night hours of July 20, the crew of Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk the lunar surface.
People like Gail Sykes, David Kiehl, Linda Harvey and Cindy Mendelsohn might have been space happy. They were certainly summer happy.
Sykes and Kiehl were members of the Guilderland Youth Commission. Kids from all over the Albany County suburb learned how to swim and shoot arrows, make handicraft, play dodge ball and play other games. Sykes and Kiehl were instructors.
Harvey was also in the swim of things. She was teaching kids how to splash down at Camp Lovejoy in Knox, in the Helderberg Mountains. Posted on July 30, 2012.
Gail Sykes of Schenectady, a member of the Guilderland Youth Commission in 1969, entertains a group of 5-year-olds at Tawasentha Park.
“The Hunger Games” were still decades away, but some kids were already into archery. David Kiehl of the Guilderland Youth Commission shows Kevin Kenyon how to hold a bow and arrow.
Cindy Mendelsohn, left, and her sister Sharri, right, prepare for summer fun with their friend Debbie Valentin of New York City. Debbie was part of the “Fresh Air” contingent of young New York City kids that visited Capital Region families. The Mendelsohns lived on Woodcrest Drive in Glenville.
Alfonso Council, 7, of New York City, center, jumps for joy with his Fresh Air “brother and sister Kirk Jordan, 9, and Casey Jordan, 6. Alfonso stayed for two weeks in the Jordans’ Glenville home in July 1969.
Jane Feldblum of the Guilderland Youth Commission (standing, far right) supervises arts and crafts kids, from left, Dale Houck, Mary Bohen, Bob Houck and Elaine Evon. Kids spent six weeks at Guilderland’s Tawasentha Park during the summer of 1969.
Young singers received $50 savings bonds from the local Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America that summer. From left are Barbara Phillips of Niskayuna High School; Sandra Gary of Mont Pleasant High; Donald Scavia of Draper; Ronald DeMatteo of St. Columba’s; Gale Wetmore of Scotia-Glenville; Barbara Ann Astembroski of Schalmont; James M. Rowan of Bishop Gibbons; William J. Moran of Mohonasen; William O'Connor, awards chairman; and Lou Ann DeVito, Notre Dame.
Linda Harvey of Camp Lovejoy prepares to catch a beginner swimmer at the camp in the Helderberg Mountains. Kids filled the place in the summer of 1969.
John E.N. Hume Sr., editor of the Schenectady Gazette, presents the newspaper’s summer journalism awards to, from left, Vicki E. Caruso of Linton High, Eugene S. Grecheck of Draper and Rose Venditti of Linton.
