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Excerpt
Roland Formby, our man at the railroad company, wrote on 7 July 1945:
“Dear Mr. Lawrence:
Have returned from another very pleasant visit to Holly Tree Camp – and the last one is always the best. [He only lost $26.15]
Before arriving at Holly Tree, I felt like I had been gone for quite a while, but it did not take me but a few minutes to feel at home and that Huntsville is still the grandest place on the map; and I shall always keep myself on the list as a booster for Huntsville and Huntsville people; in fact, am sure that some of the places I have lived since leaving Huntsville, the people have felt that I was a “paid member of the Chamber of Commerce.”
Please remember me to Colonel Rhett, Mr. Walter Yarbrough and others who were unable to attend the Camp – I missed them all.
Again, I want to thank you for another pleasant visit to Holly Tree Camp.
If ever I can be of service to you in Chattanooga, please command.
Sincerely, Roland
P.S.: Those were my bedroom slippers and razor strop found at Holly Tree; and if you will be kind enough to call my brother at the ticket office, he will send by, pick them up and send them to me. Thanks.”
Now that we have the Camp’s improvement plan into operation we can drop back and look at the financial fortunes made or lost during the 1949 games.
Won Lost
KAT 2,586* Joe Duncan 2,018
Wells Stanley 535.15 Morton Hutchens 862.00
Bob Lowry 528.00 Mac Weiss 606.00
Abe Goldstein 512.40 C.B. Ragland 331.00
A.W. White, Sr. 290.00 Hardie Seay 326.00
LBG, Sr. 272.00 Sam Blackwell 309.00
J.O. Henkel 240.00 Grady Henson 251.50
A.W. White, Jr. 163.25 Royal Stuart 226.50
J.L. Chambers 105.50 Charles Shaver 163.00
Bob Leslie 92.00 M.L. Weil, Jr. 121.00
Karl Woltersdorf 75.90 Jim White 116.25
Oscar Grosser 71.75 Bob Lowe 111.00
F.B. Wilson 71.00 Ira Terry 67.00
Ben Giles 71.00 Dwight Beeson 66.30
Charles Landman 70.00 Bill Certain 56.75
Bill Hutchens 26.05 Roland Formby 51.25
Harry Rhett 33.75 Jimmy Taylor 40.25
John Moorman 17.85 Ben King 18.10
Henry M. Ladage 13.40 LBG, Jr. 16.00
Walter Yarbrough 7.60 George Gesman 13.25
Leo Schiffman, Sr. 7.30 B.D. Given 11.00
Humes Laughlin 3.15 Leo Schiffman, Jr. 7.80
Douglas Taylor 1.30 Bobby Yarbrough 5.25
Tom Johnson 1.30 L.H. Pinkston 2.40
Grady Crunk 1.20 M.L. Weil, Sr. 0.85
Total $5,830.75
*Actual KAT number is reduced by $540.00 paid to the Boys, which was essentially the same as 1948.
Here are some of the significant gaming numbers for the 1940s.
Lawrence B. Goldsmith, Sr.: 124, -500, -767, -94, -134, -192, -652, 289, -430, 272 [-2,084].
Augustine W. White, Sr.: -430, 94, 406, 88, 454, 118, 514, 290 [+1,534].
Robert F. Lowe: -192, 848, -111 [+545].
Wells Stanley, Sr.: 135, -330, -430, 224, -248, -178, -545, 28, 394, 535 [-415].
Morton M. Hutchens: 21, -14, 39, -203, 902, 230, -114, -1,184, -614, 499, -862 [-1,300].
James O. Henkle: -837, -575, -443, -210, -308, -188, -482, -86, -118, -910, 148, 240 [-3,761].
Charles Landman: 8, 70, -11, 49, 16, 520, 427, 70 [+1,149].
F.C. Weiss: 300, -442, 142, -1,102, -190, -632, -606 [-2,530].
Robert Murphree: 204, -33, -58, 24, -544, -364, 812 [+41].
It is now time to look at the Camp’s liquor account, all ordered from the Russel Erskine Hotel, which is now the residence of LBG and his wife, Annie.
12 Fifths of Chapin & Gore Bourbon
40 Fifths of Old Charter
5 Fifths of V.O.
10 Fifths of Johnny Walker-Black
15 Fifths of Johnny Walker-Red
6 Fifths of Gordon’s Gin
2 Pipers Champaign
156 Cases of Canned Budweiser
Total Cost--$575.00
The total of hard stuff above, not counting Champaign and beer, is 88 Fifths. That would be spread over 40 players and 5 days. The calculation comes out to .44% of a Fifth per player per day. A Fifth of a gallon is about 25 ounces, therefore the average is 11 ounces per player per day. There are 12 cans in a case of beer, times 156 cases equals 1,872 cans, divided by 200 player days gives 9.36 cans per player per day. That is enough to allow for a beer chaser at the end of each game and at least a beer or two at each meal. That seems about right for a gentlemen’s fishing and gaming club. I wish I had a way to count the beer cans at the bottom of the Paint Rock River. An alternative scenario might be that they gave up fishing by this year, because it is time consuming without the immediate feedback of a hot poker game. Of course, there is a big fudge factor in the calculations above, because the first day was Wednesday, and it was a slow day as the players filtered in so there was some slippage available for the players who like the early bird, got the worm.
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