Many early alums have sent in brief remembrances of life around the Lake Fred Cabins. Here are samples, used by permission. If these inspire memories, please consider sending them to me, Thomas.Kinsella@stockton.edu, and I’ll post them here.
Jim Gedicke, class of ’75 writes:
“I did attend the Lake Fred Folk Festivals when I was there. They were great. The local headliner was a mandolin player named Lew London. I have heard that he still lives in the area and still plays in public. I bought Lake Fred Folk Festival T-shirts (stored now in a box somewhere).
When I decided to go to grad school at Tulane in New Orleans, I often wore my Lake Fred Folk Festival T-shirts to class, so much so, that to those who did not know my name, I became Lake Fred. In my second year in grad school, I would write a social activities column in the Tulane Business School newsletter simply called “The Lake Fred Column.” On graduation day, when my name was announced, the Dean added the words “Lake Fred” and I received the biggest applause at the ceremony, which amazed my family who attended.”
Lori Slayton, Class of ’79, responded to my initial email below. She opens by quoting a line from my introductory letter asking about the cabins:
“Tom,
Pictures of the cabins suggest that they were popular sites for social gatherings. . . .
Your comment makes me laugh, as if you were studying some ancient culture.
Yes! The cabins were a vital part of our social gatherings.
We called it partying then; looking back, I’d call it forming life long friendships, cementing in my memory the music and conversation that formed my values; learning how to interact with others in a peaceful, down to earth, open and friendly fashion. I was a Litt/Lang major, ’79 and there weren’t many weekends that we didn’t gather at the cabins, to hear a band, have a beer, and do what college kids do. We had no preconceived notions of the world, didn’t know about others through Facebook, or on the web. We did it the old-fashioned way, by saying Hey!, and then having a conversation. In fact, the first person that said “Hey,” to me as I walked into H-court on move-in day, is still a dear friend and was like a brother to me through my college years. We keep in touch and keep the flame burning so to speak. We’re all spread out, and haven’t seen most since those college days, but we’re close just the same because of the moments we shared at Stockton.”
Mike Krajewski, Class of ’74, writes:
“As one of the original students of 1971 I have a few memories of the cabins on the north shore.
The first is that we held a regatta which featured water craft built by students and faculty. We spent the night before the race working on our “boats” near the cabins and for us folks from North Jersey it was a time to hear the tales of the Jersey Devil and other stories of the pine barrens.
I seem to recall that one of the cabins was used for the recreation department and had canoes and row boats available. I loved the campus and enjoyed some of the other areas like the quarry lake [Lake Pam] and the cedar tree lake. My wife and I now reside in Louisville, Colorado and our relocation to Colorado was due in part to a trip sponsored by Dr. Phil Roos where we spent some time on the Pine Ridge reservation. We were in South Dakota for the short semester, Jan. 73 – Mar.73 but took a trip to Boulder, CO. for a weekend. We loved Colorado and decided to move west once we graduated, maybe only a pipe dream at the time but in 1975 we loaded up our van and drove to Boulder.”