Erv Kasian – Craft Shop Czar

 

Erv may have missed his calling as he could have played the role of a street person in most any Hollywood film.  He didn't fit how most people might picture a camp counselor.  Erv was not a young college student or a retired duffer looking for something to take up his time.  He was a dedicated craft instructor and camp employee.  In spite of his sometimes rough demeanor, he did enjoy working with children. 

 

After his WWII service in the Navy, he started to work for agencies that helped children in Chicago.  Bob Mowen worked with him at the same agency and recommended him to be a Craft Shop Instructor at Camp Waupaca.  Erv was one who got camp ready to open and the fix-it guy after it was open.  The old broken-down cottage hidden at the end of camp was one of the most active areas at camp.

 

For years, either cabin 1 or 2 was Erv's summer home.  In the winter he was a “House Father” at a boarding school in Hollywood, Florida, staying at Camp Waupaca and teaching crafts at the Veteran's Home at King, Wisconsin, or living on a beach out of his van in California. 

 

No crafts program at Camp Waupaca was more popular than the one Erv ran.  The walls of the shop were covered with patterns for the campers to choose form.  Most of the craft work that I saw coming out were wooden guns. Whatever the campers made there, it is certain that they enjoyed making it.

 

When he was not in the craft shop Erv was the man who went to town for emergency supplies. How well I remember his old Volkswagen with the fenders that were barely hanging on headed out or into camp.  It looked like his bug was about to take off as the front fenders bounced up and down.  He fixed toilets that wouldn't flush or water lines that leaked.  Every summer he poured 5-gallon buckets of tar on the kitchen roof to stop leaks. 

 

A few times Erv told a story at a camp fire.  One was a story that had a character called Little Black Sam-bow.  Although it was not demeaning anyone, today the story cannot be told around a camp fire.  As it was his most famous story, I'll try to write it with changes so that it may be politically correct.  (Webmaster note: Click on “The Story of Iron Jaw Fissy” from Wayne’s main page to read that story.)

 

Erv Kasian – Master of the Mini-Bikes

 

Erv started a new program with a new sport that was very popular among young adventurous boys.  With two used mini-bikes that had been ridden hard and put to work without ever an oil change.  The track was made around the basketball court.  The first mini-bikes were geared down so that they would make the turns easily.  Although the bikes were slow and the track short, the program was very popular.  When the track was open boys would stand in line for a trip of three laps. 

 

The program grew to a dusty track on the very far fields and four mini-bikes of which at least two were working at all times.  Erv spent much of his time changing oil and tunning up the bikes.  The program was so popular he had to have a lottery to determine who would ride each day.  For several years, the mini-bike program was one of the most popular program thanks to Erv.

 

Erv left Camp Waupaca after many years of faithful service and disappeared.  It took the detective work of Bob Mowen to find him.  He had returned to his home town of Milwaukee and lived out his last days in the Veteran's Home there.  Today his bones rests in the cemetery there.

 

Rest in peace Erv.  What would camp have been like if it were not for characters like Erv?

 

Erv the Handy Man

When remembering the work force that kept up the camp one has to list Erv Kasian. Hired as a counselor Erv was also the go to man to fix things from a faucet to a roof.

 

Every winter some water would freeze and break a pipe. With a piece of hose and a couple of hose clamps it was fixed for the summer. He replaced toilets and shower heads. He sometimes bragged at being a great plumber.

 

One of the biggest problems for the kitchen staff was the leak in the roof between the main part of the building and the kitchen addition. In a heavy rain water poured into the room over the dirty dish window and the dish washer. Erv to the rescue, well almost. He got a 5-gallon pail of tar and poured it into a crack between the parts of the building. Next heavy rain the leak named Niagara Falls returned. This sequence of events went on for several years until Bill Wanty tore off part of the roof and rebuilt it. The mystery to this day is where did all that tar go?

 

As the camp grew the first walk-in cooler was no longer large enough to store all of the food that needed to be stored in a cool place. Then another cooler was built that also became became full to capacity. The solution was to purchase an ice cream delivery truck with a freezer box. This worked for a while until the WWII surplus cooler unit began to cause problems. Replace it? No. Erv to the rescue. Several times he got it to run again, although there was a new knock to it each time. In desperation Manny had to replace the unit with a new one. “A waste of money,” Erv groused, “I could have fixed the old one.”