Bill Rotecki's Shaw Story

IN BETWEEN a couple stints of going to college, I decided I wanted to do alternative service to the draft. They had classified me as a conscientious objector, and so I was trying to decide what I would do to fulfill my service. However, they found me to be such a pain in the ass that they classified me 4F, so I no longer had to do any service. Nonetheless, I decided I wanted to do something good for the country and I got a job with American Friends Service Committee doing volunteer work being in schools and that is how I ended up at MLC. Of course I met John Angell and the other folks as they decided to form the Shaw Island camp and invited people from the other adjacent schools to attend as well. They asked me if I would be a so-called counselor or something for the summer.

T'was a wondrous affair. I don't think I have any pictures of being there for a summer. I slept on the beach or sometimes canoed to another spot where I slept on the beach. There was a little sailboat that I sailed for a bit—fools schuss where angels fear to slalom—and I sailed that little boat with difficulty until John told me I would do better with the centerboard DOWN. LOL. The Taylors, Rosemary Williams, John and Adi, Towny and Tony, my oh my, if the brain can get woken up there are so, so many memories.

— Bill Rotecki

Bill Rotecki

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