1960 Trail Crew Resignation

60 years ago, on Saturday, July 2, 1960, most of the members of the AMC Trail Crew resigned. Rumors immediately began to spread around the AMC that the members had been fired for various minor illegal activities. The fathers of two of the members who were both long-time AMC members had vivid memories of the persecution of thousands of middle-aged individuals for youthful indiscretions by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the “investigations” by Senator Joseph McCarthy only a few years earlier. They were determined to ensure that the AMC records reflected the resignations by the Crew and did not enshrine the rumors as fact. In preparation for discussions with the AMC management, Mr Waite asked me to write down the story of the resignations while it was still fresh in my mind. During the next few weeks, while a guest in the LeGates family summer camp in Ossipee NH, I wrote down my recollections which were kindly typed for me by Mrs. LeGates. The story was 10 pages long and is reproduced below.

The people mentioned in my letter include the entire 1960 Trail Crew and a few other individuals from the AMC. They are, in alphabetical order:
Nick Allis: TC 1959-1960                                                        resigned
Bill Belcher: AMC Lakes hutman for several years, including 1958-1960
Francis “Foochow” Belcher: Bill's father; AMC Executive Director
      beginning in 1956
Al Folger: AMC Councillor of Trails 1953-1955
Sam Goodhue: AMC Councillor of Trails 1959-1961
Dobie Jenkins: TC 1952-1955, TC Supervisor 1960
Dick LeGates: TC 1959
John LeGates: TC 1958-1960                                                 resigned
Tom Lisco: TC 1956-1958, TM 1959
Francis Maker: TC 1931-1933, AMC Councillor of Trails 1956-1958
Roland McEldowny: TC 1960                                                   resigned
Robert McIntosh: TC 1960
Alex McKenzie: TC 1958-1960                                                resigned
Don Montgomery: TC 1960-1962
Boots Perry: TC 1958-1960                                                   resigned
Ralph Stockmayer: TC 1959-1960                                         resigned
Walter Stockmayer: Ralph's father; AMC White Mountain Guide
      committee member
Stephen “Ghandi” Waite: TC 1956-1959, TM 1960                  resigned
Eric White: TC 1960                                                                resigned

Al Folger and Sam Goodhue were avid hikers and long time members of the AMC. The fathers of Allis, McKenzie, Stockmayer, and Waite were also long time members of the AMC. Dobie Jenkins and Joel Nichols were 2 of the 3 Trail Crewmen who, along with 2 hutmen, hung a beard on the Old Man of the Mountains on July 5, 1955 as a surprise for the visit of President Eisenhower (the beard was removed before Eisenhower arrived).

============================================

                                                                                           July 1960

Dear Mr. Waite,

Perhaps the best way to review the situation which came to a crisis this summer is by reviewing my entire association with the Trail Crew.
As you perhaps know, I was hired for the summer of 1958 under the leadership of Francis Maker, Councillor of Trails, and Joel Nichols, Trailmaster. From the beginning I was deeply impressed by the sincerity and spirit of the older members of the crew. I was flattered and pleased to be accepted into the group as readily as I was, for during my high school years I felt that I had great difficulty in making friends. On the Trail Crew we felt, thought, and acted as a unit, although there were as many different personalities as there were boys. After only a few weeks I felt that we had a tremendous esprit de corps.

In the middle of the summer the entire crew made a daylight raid on the AMC Lakes of the Clouds Hut and stole a homemade wooden chair. During the course of the raid three hutmen were tied up, and the mouthpiece and hand crank of the telephone were removed by a first year man. When it was discovered that the telephone was rendered inoperative, the Trailmaster sent the first year man back to the hut, and the phone was repaired before dark. Admittedly, however, this was a dangerous mistake on the part of the Crew.

As for the rest of the raid, however, we felt that no harm had been done. Al Folger, a former Councillor of Trails and Treasurer of the Club, and a man respected by the Crew members, was visiting Whitefield during the day the raid was made and was present for both the planning stage and the celebration afterwards and made no attempt to change our plans. This to us was equivalent to sanction by a man of clear thinking and responsibility in the Club. Therefore we were all immensely surprised when Fran Belcher, the Club's Executive Director, appeared the next week and for several succeeding weeks to complain about the raid and bawl us out. There was even some talk of firing Joel Nichols. I would hesitate to make a direct accusation but my own personal feeling, along with that of the other Crew members, was that the fact that Mr. Belcher's son Bill was among the hutmen tied up played a considerable part in influencing Mr. Belcher's actions. In any case, to the best of my knowledge this marked the beginning of worsening relations between the Crew and Club officials, and this is the reason I have dealt with it at such length.

At the end of the season Joel Nichols and I were the last two Crew members to leave and we put the vehicles away for the winter. Due to our ignorance of motor vehicles, when we drained the radiators we neglected to open the second stopcock on the engine block itself. Thus, over the winter all three blocks were cracked; two were repaired but one had to be replaced. This fact was discovered in the spring of 1959 at the very beginning of Samuel Goodhue's term as Councillor of Trails. I imagine it was quite a shock and undoubtedly tended to sour him on the Crew a little.

About two weeks later in the 1959 season I was given the job of moving a refrigerator from Mr. Goodhue's house in Jackson to the Trail Crew headquarters. I picked up the refrigerator in the truck and secured one of the three motor mounts. Mr. Goodhue secured the other two. Then, with his permission, I drove to my family's home in Snowville, N.H. for lunch; Ralph Stockmayer was with me. When we arrived my father found that the mount I had secured was loose, so we tied it down with heavy wire. Later in the afternoon we went toward Whitefield. At no time during the trip did I exceed the manufacturers' recommended top speed for any gear. About 3 miles south of Conway, at a speed of 45 miles per hour in high gear, the engine began to clank. I checked oil pressure and engine temperature and both were normal so I reduced speed to 20 miles per hour and continued toward Conway and a garage. At about 1/2 mile further the engine stopped suddenly. It turned out that the bearings had frozen and it was necessary to replace the engine. The truck was left in Conway, the refrigerator, with mounts still intact, was taken to Whitefield by jeep trailer. When it arrived, however, it was discovered that the two remaining mounts had broken loose, destroying the gas lines. Mr. Goodhue told someone in my presence (I can't remember who) that I had wrecked the refrigerator by not fastening the mounts properly. I remarked that his fastenings had pulled loose also and heard no more of the matter. However, I feel that these incidents with the vehicles and the refrigerator tended to give Mr. Goodhue a poor opinion of me and the crew as a whole.

After about 5 weeks of operation it was reported to me by Boots Perry and Tom Lisco (Trailmaster) that Mr. Belcher had told them, at his home in Randolph, McKenzie was a bad influence and a poor worker and that I was too much like Joel Nichols to suit him. When I heard this I wrote Mr. Belcher stating that I understood he had complaints about me and that I would like to hear these first hand from him. I reviewed that matters mentioned above and my part in them. I told him that I had been worried that I might be at fault in the bearing incident but that the local garage man assured me that it was due entirely to the past history of the truck and could have happened at any time. (Since then I have been told by Stephen that the truck also had bearing trouble in 1957). In conclusion I offered my resignation if he thought that this would be the best thing for the A. M. C. I never received an answer either written or verbal, and although I felt and feel that this was less than the minimum courtesy due me I let the matter drop.

During 1959 the Trail Crew attempted to buy fresh food through the Hut System for the first time. Boots Perry was in charge of the Trail Crew food and his orders were not fulfilled several times. A few specific instances I can remember were cases of rotten food such as oranges, moldy bread, and 2/3 of a 25# bag of onions arriving rotten. Boots sent two or three brief notes to Pinkham asking for an explanation but never received an answer. Then he mentioned the situation to Tom Lisco. Tom suggested writing a complaint to George Hamilton. Boots wrote a rather blunt note using words such as inexcusable and disgraceful. Mr. Belcher spent some time bawling Boots out for this. Evidently Mr. Hamilton felt that we should not talk to him in such a manner but the food situation was remedied after this. I worked with Mr. Hamilton at the end of the season and he gave me no indication that he bore us any ill will. Still, this was obviously not the best way to do things from the standpoint of public relations.

One more incident which occurred during 1959 was a raid on Lakes make by John and Dick LeGates, Ralph Stockmayer and Boots Perry. It was a spur of the moment thing done in strict accordance with Mr. Belcher's rules for a good raid he gave in 1958 after the Green Chair incident. The object of this raid was a brown chair which had just been built by the Lakes crew. The raid was in violation of the post green chair "no raiding” order and Mr. Goodhue ordered us to return this chair plus the Green Chair which we had been given by the MIT Outing Club in the spring of 1959. The chairs were returned and no further raids were planned or anticipated by us after that time. An interesting feature of the entire raiding picture which illustrates what we feel to be "preferential” enforcement of the general AMC "no raiding” order was related to me during the past winter by Lawrence Kilham, a hutman at Zealand Falls during 1959. According to him, the men of Zealand stole a life preserver from Lonesome Lake hut late in 1959. When news that the preserver [had been raided] reached Mr. Belcher he concluded, with no investigation, that the Trail Crew was responsible. He and other officials were preparing to leave Pinkham to come to Whitefield and bawl us out when a hutman present, who knew the true facts, told Mr. Belcher that we were not guilty. When he discovered this the matter was dropped; nothing was said to the Zealand men. All this is second or third hand information to me and as such should be discounted somewhat.

In spite of all these incidents, which I think are the major areas of discontent with our actions in 1959, we were all complimented at the end of the season by Mr. Goodhue who said we had done a fine job, especially on the Great Gulf Shelter. I felt that we left a friendly situation at the year's end.

This past winter I took several trips to the mountains with Boots. I called him early in April to arrange a trip with him and Ralph Stockmayer. At that time he told me that he, Ralph, and John LeGates had all been offered positions with the crew and he asked if I was coming back. I told him that I had heard nothing from Mr. Goodhue. I said that I would like to contact Mr. Goodhue either by phone or in person when I came up Easter weekend.

When I arrived on Good Friday at the Perry's, Boots told me that Ralph had been told by Mr. Goodhue that he didn't know whether he wanted me back or not. We found that Mr. Goodhue would be in Jackson, N.H., for the week-end and resolved to visit him there.

Boots, Ralph and I stopped at Mr. Goodhue's Jackson home on Saturday morning. After greetings were exchanged, Mr. Goodhue told me that a card was then on its way to my home offering me a job on the condition that I shave off the beard which I had grown during the winter and remain clean shaven during the summer. I felt that I was being singled out for special demands, but I was so relieved to hear that I could go back that I readily agreed.

About a week later, after I had returned to school in N.J., letters began coming in from Stephen, Boots and John saying that Mr. Goodhue was now insisting that the entire crew be clean shaven. This was, of course, a new requirement imposed on those who had already accepted jobs and it presented an entirely new situation to me. Rather than a special demand of me, it now seemed that Mr. Goodhue desired to change the entire character of the crew, this being a first step. As I no longer have the correspondence I do not know the exact order of events but the following things took place during April and May:

1. Stephen was offered a job as Trailmaster on the condition that he be clean shaven, all other conditions of employment to remain the same. (It might be of interest to know how I can say these things with such assurance: I read Stephen's entire correspondence on the subject, both letters received and carbons of letters sent, during a trip I made to Haverford in late May.) Stephen wrote Mr. Goodhue and said if he had to shave anyhow he would rather take a job offered him by the Forest Service in Idaho at $70 a week (vs. $40 a week from the AMC). Mr. Goodhue again wrote, offering the job on the same conditions and Stephen again replied in defense of beards in general. When I arrived at Haverford no further correspondence had been received from Mr. Goodhue.
2. Boots, John, Ralph and Mr. Stockmayer apparently began to argue with Mr. Goodhue [about] the wisdom of the "no beards” order. It seemed that complaints had been received about our appearance from influential members of the AMG and Mr. Goodhue apparently gave the impression that he was only following orders, the talks climaxed in a three hour session with Mr. Goodhue, Boots and John at which time it was pointed out that beards were a kind of symbol to the Crew and that many of us might not return if the order was enforced. Mr. Goodhue read a letter which he had sent to Stephen denouncing him for his stand in very strong terms. After the discussion Mr. Goodhue said that he was sorry he had written it. Boots, John, Ralph and Mr. Stockmayer sent Stephen a telegram stating that Mr. Goodhue was sorry for the letter. This telegram, but not the letter, had arrived at Haverford at the time of my visit. It later appeared that Mr. Goodhue had managed to remove the letter from the mails. In any case Mr. Goodhue agreed to review the beard question and let John know of his decision within a week.
3. Stephen was given the job of Trailmaster. when he wrote me and told me of this he said that there would be a new position, that of Trail Crew Supervisor but knew none of his duties.
4. Concurrently with this, Thomas Lisco the Trailmaster of 1959 had written several letters to Mr. Goodhue stating that he could obtain a job in Greenland but that he would like to return to the Crew and asking if he was wanted. In spite of these letters and in spite of urgings by John and perhaps Stephen, Mr. Goodhue refused to tell Tom whether or not he was wanted and in fact began to say that Torn was a poor worker. This in spite of the fact that he had praised Tom's work last summer, in my presence several times. Tom was finally told he wasn't wanted late in May, and by that time he had lost the Greenland job.

At the end of the week, according to John, Mr. Goodhue called John or vice versa and Mr. Goodhue stated that the largest concession he could make was that anyone who had a beard before could have one again. John reported this to Boots and Boots called Mr. Goodhue for confirmation. According to Boots, he was told exactly the same thing. Boots and John both relayed the message to me; Boots used the phrase “we have won the battle but lost the war”. This, I think, reflected the feelings of all of us; we realized that this ruling meant an entirely clean shaven Crew in no more than three years, with resultant loss of tradition. However, none of us felt that we should be so stubborn as to insist on anything more. I wrote Mr. Goodhue a short note saying that I was glad that we were able to settle our difference by discussion, that I was sure the bargain was hard for him to make and he should realize it was hard for us to accept but it foretold better relations for the future.

I arrived at Boots' house on Tuesday the 7th of June and together with John we went to Whitefield. On the ride up there was considerable speculation as to the purpose of the Trail Crew Supervisor. We were all generally suspicious and felt his only purpose must be that of a spy in our midst, to report on any impending raid etc. We were very distrustful.

When we arrived after supper at Hutton lodge we were met by Stephen and Dobie Jenkins, the young man who was to be the Supervisor. He asked for an immediate meeting with us and began to outline his job as he saw it. He seemed very sincere and likable as he spoke. He told us that his job was primarily public relations. He would also write all checks and balance the books. After his talk he asked for questions. I asked him:

1. What was his opinion of the beard situation?
2. Did he plan any innovations in the type of tools we were to use (a pet subject of Mr. Goodhue's)

To both he replied "As far as I'm concerned it's a matter of personal preference. Any man that wants a beard can have one. It will take me only a short while to straighten Sam out."

Someone asked if he was going to do any work scheduling and what he would be if he went into the woods with a group. He answered that "Ghandi's [Stephen's] going to do all the work, I'm going to take things easy. When I go into the woods I won't be a first year man but I definitely won't be the group leader either."

By the end of his talk I had concluded that Dobie was only present for the purpose of improving our relations with the Club and that he was entirely on our side in regards to discarding tradition (like beards). All my suspicions were dispelled and I felt Mr. Goodhue deserved credit for originating such a good idea.

During my first week with the Crew this summer, officially known as zero week, before the first year men arrived, I worked with Dobie on the Webster Cliff bridge. During the time I was with him he seemed very pleasant and easy to get along with. About two or three days after I arrived a girl friend of his came up to spend several days at Hutton Lodge. He did not let this interfere with the bridge work but when that was done he borrowed tools (without asking) from several members of the crew so that he could get free rides for his girl and himself on the many tourist attractions nearby. This might have been annoying to us, many of whom have never ridden these devices and who were working at the time, however we realized that he was probably not expected to organize his weeks like ours.

Another facet of his personality which rapidly came into view was the great quantity of drinking he did. In the first four days after my arrival he made four trips to the State Liquor Store. I did accept two or three drinks from him. However, Mr. Stockmayer commented to Ralph that a young man of his position could set a better example for the younger men. Perhaps other parents would feel the same.

My first full week in the woods was spent with Eric White, a first year man, John LeGates part of the time and Dobie came on patrol with us one day. On that day “Whitey” and I stuck together and John and Dobie were together up until lunch tine. After lunch Whitey set out ahead and Dobie didn't see him again until we reached the road. Whitey and I then returned to Whitefield, by Dobie's order, in one vehicle. John and Dobie returned a different way. The importance of this will be seen shortly.

At the end of this week Dobie ordered, on Mr. Goodhue's instruction, everyone to shave with the exception of John, Stephen, Boots and myself. Since Nick Allis had been growing a beard last year, when we older fellows heard of this enter we felt that Mr. Goodhue was going back on his bargain, and singling out a specific person to discriminate against. Also the first year men, (two present, I believe, at the time) who had never had this made a stipulation of their employment and who had planned to grow beards (with no encouragement or discouragement from the older men) complained about this order. Dobie told Nick and the first year men, Eric White and Roland MacEldowny, that he thought anyone should be allowed to grow a beard if he liked and that he would “straighten out Sam”.However, he said that his position would be much stronger if he could say that orders were obeyed and on this basis the men shaved. Nick in particular said that as he understood the compromise he was to be allowed to go unshaven and unless the matter was cleared up by the next weekend he would have to leave. Dobie assured him that things would be straightened out.

That evening Boots, Stephen and myself (John was in Boston) went to see Dobie privately. We said that it seemed Mr. Goodhue had gone back on his bargain and that we felt we would have to leave if we were not dealt with fairly. We explained that we did not want Dobie to relay this information to Mr. Goodhue as an ultimatum, as we felt that doing so would only infuriate him; we only wanted Dobie, as our friend and immediate supervisor, to understand how we felt. He said "Don't even talk about leaving, no one's going to leave, I'll see to that. We need you all." I feel I can quote directly from this conversation as it is still so vivid in my mind. We agreed that we didn't want to leave and would be very happy if he could straighten things out. The matter was dropped at this point.

The next week I was out with Dobie, Roland MacEldowney and Nick Allis. We were scheduled to work in the Baldfaces, patrolling the first part of the week and standardizing the second part. I was to leave on Thursday night for Newport to return Monday afternoon by prior agreement with Stephen of loss of half a week's pay. Dobie actually only deducted three or four dollars. Our first day we were scheduled to pack patrol and likewise for part of the second. Our scheduled patrolling time was four days. I had worked in the Baldfaces my first year and due to the number of blowdowns finished work after dark one day. Stephen worked in area last year and found extremely heavy going. We both felt that the schedule would have been suitable for conditions similar to those years.

Dobie took charge of the group and made some remarks to the effect that pack patrolling should be eliminated from our work because it was so inefficient. I agreed with him that in this range the week could be laid out in many ways and when he told us to pack in the first day and then patrol later (packing by an easier trail) I found no good argument against his system and did not ask for adherence to the original schedule.

When we arrived at the shelter (Blue Brook, WMNF) it was about 11 or 11:30 am. Dobie ordered us to go out and start cutting boughs for bedding. After the two younger men were out of earshot I said words to the effect that in the crews I had been on before work came before such matters as personal comfort and that I thought it might be a good idea to pack a lunch, start out on our trail, and build a bed after supper if time permitted. He answered “In the crews I'm on this summer, comfort is going to come before anything else.” As he was my superior I did as I was told and cut boughs. We found patrolling extremely light and finished what we set out to do in plenty of time so no harm was done to our work.

At supper that evening our conversation turned to our work. Dobie, when we spoke of the long days put in in the Baldfaces the previous year said "Our day only runs for eight hours and the sooner you learn that the better off you'll be". Discussion then turned to our favorite trails and Dobie said that he thought it was too bad that no one on the crew liked the Baldfaces and asked why this was. We mentioned the bugs, the fact that the peaks weren't high, and the long hours we'd spent there. (In this connection let me say that no pack patrolling was done there the previous two years.) He said that what made a week enjoyable for his crews was the numbers of dates and beer parties held during the week. This rather astonished me and I said so. He replied that we worked too hard and should look for some social life during the week. At another time I asked him if he saw, in the light of criticism which we were receiving, if there was any basic difference he could see between our crews and his. His answer was “Hell no, except that you work harder and you're more shit on by Boston”. He also made many comments reflecting on Mr. Goodhue's ability as a leader (which found general acceptance with us). He assured us that in his opinion we were being mistreated. During this time nothing, to the best of my memory, was said about Mr. Belcher, although we did discuss what we felt were the ideas of the "Boston office".

We found that patrolling was extremely light throughout the Baldfaces and we were able to finish in three days instead of four. Dobie made a point of telling me that this was only because we hadn't done pack patrolling. I pointed out to him that we were only lucky; that, we couldn't possibly have covered the mileage we did during my first year, much less last year. He seemed unconvinced but did not press the point. We then proceeded to Gorham Tuesday night where we had supper in a restaurant and then returned to Whitefield. Such action would have been unheard of in my first two years. During the meal he talked with Mr. Goodhue by telephone for 30 minutes or more and did not disclose the nature of the conversation to us.

On Wednesday Nick, Roland and I were sent to do the Caps Ridge and Castle Trails while Dobie stayed in Whitefield. He evidently did not consult the work schedule for it was planned to have the Caps Ridge Trail done by another group on the same day. Actually it had been done the day before because weather conditions made this more advantageous. When we got there it was obvious that the trail had been done and we only took out two trees which were not obstructing progress but might easily have fallen farther with heavy weather. When we reported this to Dobie Wednesday evening he admitted he hadn't read the work sheets.

Thursday Dobie thought we'd do the Lowe's Path and Airline. There were six signs to be hung so he told me to go up Lowe's Path and down the Airline with Nick and Roland, doing all the patrolling, while he went the reverse route hanging signs and having lunch at Madison Hut.
Just before we were to leave Nick asked me for a stamp and I told him I'd get him one from the office (Dobie had previously, when I asked him for a stamp, told me to feel free to use the stamps in the office as long as I kept a rough count of the number I took.) As I searched around the office for the stamp holder I glanced at a sheaf of papers in the typewriter and the first words my eye fell on were "fire Allis". This seemed to me to be a phrase of some interest to the Crew so I looked for the salutation and found it was meant for Mr. Goodhue. Then I read the paragraph containing the phrase "fire Allis" so I could get the context of the writing. Dobie said in essence that he had a brilliant idea - to fire Allis in the middle of the next week so none of us would be upset. I decided on the spur of the moment that on the basis of this paragraph the letter was a matter of general Crew interest and so I took the liberty of reading all that was written - about 2 1/2 sheets. The letter made several points which I have tried to list below.

1. General introductory remarks, a recap of what Dobie had been doing and the trails the Crew had finished.
2. A summary of the beard situation using this general tone: Allis is a troublemaker and too smart for his own good. He spends all his time cutting up everything good and decent in the AMC "including you and Foochow [Mr. Belcher]". He should be fired immediately or perhaps in the middle of the week. He then said that the older men came in talking of ultimatums (although we specifically said that they weren't that) but I quickly talked them into a reasonable state of mind.
3. A statement that if we didn't like things he didn't need the first year men, he didn't need Stephen, he didn't need Allis, but he did need Boots and John and me to a lesser extent. He said that he could keep satisfied whoever he wanted and would form a Trail Crew that Mr. Goodhue would like by the end of the summer.
4. He made a specific point of telling that Eric White was, upon his personal observation in the woods, a wise guy who thought the Crew was made for his own personal enjoyment. (Remember that, as I have mentioned, Dobie was in the woods with White an extremely short time). He said that he would not be at all unhappy if White decided to leave but did not mention firing him as I remember.
   
5. He criticized violently our work on signs for the trail. It was true that some of the signs we had taken into the woods were not yet needed as replacements, but I personally felt that this situation was far better than the reverse. In any case, what he said was that we were doing a poor job on signs and didn't seem to think that they were very important anyhow. I don't know how he arrived at this conclusion, but it was certainly not my opinion nor had I been made to feel in the past that anyone else felt this way.
   

The letter ended here but was left as if more was to be written. I felt that this was something which put our situation in an entirely new light and should be discussed with the rest of the Crew, before it was mentioned to Dobie. Accordingly I did not mention it until we were on the trail (Nick, Roland and I). We then discussed the matter and it was agreed that Boots, John and Stephen should tell Dobie that the letter was known to the Crew but not until after a definite ruling was made on the beards (so as not to force anyone's hand). That night our group of four stayed at Pinkham Notch and there I met John, Macintosh and Waite and informed then of the situation. John said he would discuss the matter with the rest of the Crew and take the action we previously agreed would be wisest. Our general attitude was at first shock and then rage.

I left for Newport at 8:15 Friday morning. When I left Nick and Roland had gone out on the trail while Dobie stayed to "talk to George and improve public relations with Pinkham".

When I returned on Monday I was greeted at the bus by Boots who had rearranged his work schedule to see me and give me the latest news. It seemed that Dobie had given the word that Nick and the others were to shave. Stephen, John and Boots then asked for a private meeting, told Dobie they had heard of his letter to Mr. Goodhue and felt we could no longer trust him. They further stated that we would all resign if Mr. Goodhue would not deal fairly with Nick and the rest of us.

We returned to Whitefield that night and the next morning Boots, Roland, Don Montgomery, myself and some others I can't remember had a talk about the situation, at his request, with Dobie. He first asked me to comment on the letter and I told him I felt he was not to be trusted. He then said that Mr. Goodhue was not going back to his original bargain on the beard question and that he didn't seem to care whether we resigned or not. We all told Dobie (the older men) that we felt if conditions did not change we felt we would have to leave for the following reasons:

1. First and most important was what we felt was a failure to understand our particular esprit de corps. As I have tried to explain, we took great pride in believing that we worked harder, longer, and under poorer conditions than most other boys our age and especially hutmen. We felt we were entitled to certain privileges on the basis of this, such as the right to look differently as long as we were neat about it (as neat as working conditions allowed), the right to a friendly (and that's all ever was on our part) rivalry with hutmen, and the right to be treated, if not as adults, at least as boys of college age. We all loved the life as a rather remote and independent group and felt that as far as the general public was concerned this was a reasonable approach. As far as the AMC was concerned we felt any reasonable request that had no bearing on our spirit, or that would improve our work should be obeyed - we made no complaints, for example, when the traditional Friday off was changed to Saturday off - but we felt that the beards issue made no real difference to many other people but to us they were a symbol of the old Crews. What I am really trying to say is that we sensed a spirit being imposed from the top that was completely opposite to our way of thinking. It was perhaps exemplified by Dobie's references to a crew in which comfort was the first consideration. Our own way of expressing it was to say "they are trying to make us hutmen, or Boy Scouts. (I myself, incidentally am a Boy Scout and proud of it, but I wouldn't want the Crew as a Scout Troop).
2. We felt that Nick was being singled out by Mr. Goodhue for unfair treatment and in violation of his own agreement. We felt that we could not allow a fellow Crew member to fall alone. Whether or not Nick could wear a beard made little personal difference to me as compared with the unfair treatment which we felt had to stop.
3. We were completely disgusted with Dobie. Although it was never a case of "he goes or we go" we felt that he could not be trusted as a mediator and this increased our unhappiness with the situation. This point, incidentally may not have been discussed at this time but may have been the subject of a later conversation among the older members.

The rest of the week went on without incident. On Wednesday or Thursday morning I stopped in at Lakes to tell Bill Belcher, before his father told him, that we were all resigning but I didn't want any hard feedings between me and the guys at the Lakes. He said that he thought we were crazy to quit but acted friendly.

Friday when we returned to Whitefield Dobie told us that there were no new developments, but Mr. Goodhue would be up Saturday to discuss things with us. Most of us began to pack our bags then.

Friday evening at supper Dobie read us a list of rules Mr. Goodhue had sent up dated Saturday (the following day). They were all reasonable enough but the thing that bothered us was that they all, as Dobie pointed out, would make no difference to our operation and most of them were childish. Such statements as; 'all crewmen shall go to bed at a reasonable hour' and 'all raunchy clothes detected will be burned' made little sense to us and indicated that the AMC officials must think we had no common sense. We told this to Dobie and he said that he admitted they were childish but it was just a formality and again said they would make no difference. There was one rule to which the above comments have no application, that was the one which said no one on the crew could wear a beard with the exception of Boots, Stephen, John and myself. We continued to pack.

The next day we sat and waited for Mr. Goodhue to arrive with Dobie and Stephen, who had gone to pick him up. They arrived at lunch time, at which time my things were packed in Boots car in preparation for an early departure.

After lunch Dobie went upstairs with Mr. Goodhue, and Stephen asked for a private conversation with Nick and about 45 minutes later, with Boots. He then talked to John and myself. In that conversation be told us that Nick agreed to shave in order to hold the crew together. I led off by saying essentially what I have tried to say to you about the three complaints of Tuesday morning. John said little except that be agreed with me. Stephen then said that he had resigned to Dobie earlier that morning.

Stephen, John, Boots and I then went up to the office together. Mr. Goodhue let Dobie start by saying that the rules we received were admittedly written for five year olds but they were now in effect. Did we have any comments? Stephen said that he had gotten Nick to agree to hold the crew together but that was the only progress made. John said that since I had expressed his and Stephen's feelings so well earlier that he would like me to speak again.

I again went over the three points and stressed several times that unless something could be done we would find it necessary to leave the AMC and that since nothing appeared to be happening we would probably leave then. Not much more was said and Dobie then asked us if we could accept the rules. Mr. Goodhue asked Boots to answer and he began to go over the arguments again, hoping still, as were all of us, to reach some sort of agreement. Mr. Goodhue cut him off demanding only a short answer. Boots said that in that case be was afraid he'd have to leave. Mr. Goodhue said, "All right, get out". He then asked me and I said that I was sorry but I'd have to leave too. That, as far as I was concerned, was my resignation from the service of the AMC.

Sincerely yours,
Alex Mckenzie

---