Fall 2014 Knoll News:
Spotlight Profile: Charlie Cleary
Like so many other memories of fun born of youthful exuberance, the ’72 Camaro more commonly known as “The Gold Tooth” has a special place in a long list of WLC ties that bind for Charlie Cleary.
For $75 each, Charlie and three other counselors had joined in creative collaboration to add mobility to their summer camp experience. The Gold Tooth was the result. The wheels would be short-lived for the counselors though; the Gold Tooth would not survive a close encounter with the camp bus.
Long after the summer of the Gold Tooth, its memory lingers. It’s the same way with much of the WLC experience. Decades after the fun, the memories linger, mellowing into something deeper: appreciation.
Introduction to WLC for 11-year-old Charlie Cleary was not so different from the experience for most boys, with mom, dad and two younger brothers all loaded into the family car along with dad’s Navy trunk for the drive to Camp. Imagine the sense of adventure rising as the car neared the Camp, left the paved road, and kept going along a dirt road before finally reaching the camp.
Team sports were big at the Camp then, and Charlie quickly found his way to the soccer, baseball and tennis teams. There were also more exotic offerings like archery, sailing, waterskiing, and canoeing, activities that helped to make Camp special because they weren’t part of everyday life at home in Needham, Massachusetts. The introduction to WLC went so well that first summer that the three Cleary brothers would each spend ten summers on the Knoll. Charlie’s son Thomas holds the family record, though: 12 summers (and counting)....
