SUMMER CAMP IN THE ADIRONDACKS

By Jerome Kessler

Some of my fondest memories of summers in the Adirondacks are about Lake Ipititi’pititipi’titipiti’tipititi’Pu, where I went to camp for several years.

At one end of the lake was the town of Ipititi’pititipi’titipiti’tipititi’Pu, population somewhere between 150 and who-cares.

Camp Ipititi’pititipi’titipiti’tipititi’Pu was located at the other end of the lake, about five miles away as the crow flies, or about three times that far if the crow was pushing a VW bus with a flat tire and an empty gas tank.

The town was picturesque: two blocks of Victorian buildings and another two blocks of slums. The general store, on the main street (appropriately called ”Main Street”) sold sarsaparilla, maple candy and oversized return address envelopes. The other prominent buildings included a bar, a laundromat, a hairdresser (located in the old barber shop) and a gas station/auto repair. There was no school or library. For those amenities, one had to drive nine miles away to Lake Placido Domingo, named after an early Mexican settler.

One time, a retired reporter from Albany tried to start up a weekly paper in town, but his typesetting gear didn’t have enough i’s p’s and t’s for the masthead.

Locals had no patience for visitors who called the town “Ipititi Pu”, or, worse, “Pu”.

The Town Motto was: “If you don’t have time to say the whole name, you shouldn’t be here. Go back to Frisco, where you belong.”

According to folklore, a tale told around campfires, there was a local man, a hemophiliac who stuttered. One day he cut himself shaving. He called 911 for the paramedics, and reached an operator in Lake Placid who was new to the Adirondacks. By the time he told her where he was, he bled to death.

A local historian tried to research the origin of the name, and contacted an elder of one of the Native American tribes which populate the Adirondacks. The elder said, and I quote, “Don’t lay that crap on us! Like it’s always the Indians’ fault! Bullshit! That was the name when we got here.”

When they answered the phone at the Town Hall, they’d say…”Town Hall”. Well, how would you answer?