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Anneand R. E. Whittemore, 1972 Photo by K. A. Feduska |
Annie
meets Whitt |
I first started caving with the University of Maryland Trail Club in 1959. In 1963, under pressure from J.S. Petrie, I joined the NSS in order to obtain speleological information for a paper I was preparing for my undergraduate work. About this time I joined the PSC, where most Trail Club cavers were also members. At this time the DC Grotto was made up of older men who booed and hooted at any PSC member who dared attend their meetings. My impression of NSS grottos was not good. One of the PSC members, Ed Day, was also a member of a student grotto in Blacksburg, VA, and from his reports and from the newsletter the Trail Club received from them, I was interested in learning more about NSS caving despite the bad impression given by the DC Grotto.
Accordingly, I and three guys from the Trail Club attended the 1963 NSS Convention at Mountain Lake. It was there I met Gregg Marland, the editor of the VPI Grotto newsletter, who was then co chairman of the convention. All of our group could not afford to register for the convention, so the two who were NSS members did. In this way we obtained the convention guide book and some verbal directions from Gregg on finding a few caves to explore. That week we explored Pig Hole, Smoke Hole, Tawney's, Link's, New River, Giant Caverns and Devil's Den. It was while I was sitting at the top of the natural entrance to Giant Caverns that I glanced down in the dirt to discover 'a tip cleaner on a string. Curiously, though, this cleaner had tape on it, black- white-black which I assumed made it easy to find in the dark. I stuffed it into my cave pack, and went on into the cave. Once in the cave I took the tip cleaner out, and discovered that the tape had nothing to do with finding it in the dark. And I was kind of perturbed, too, because I had just purchased a tip cleaner several days earlier. Now I had two!
In August 1964, on a Trail Club trip to visit Bath County caves, I met Rick Nolting and Bill Royster around a campfire at Aqua Campground. I noted that Rick wore a tip cleaner around his neck with tape on it, yellow-brown-yellow. I inquired about this. He informed me that all members of the VPI Grotto color-coded their equipment; yellow-brown-yellow was his code. I told him about the tip cleaner I had found a year earlier at Giant Caverns. After some thought, he told me that the color code was that of R.E. Whittemore, then the editor of the grotto's newsletter. I was then the editor of the PSC's POTOMAC CAVER, so I now had two things in common with this caver.
On the day before New Year's Eve, 1964, I and two friends went down to the Pittsburgh Grotto Fieldhouse (Now the PSC Fieldhouse) to party with any cavers who showed up, to spend New Year's Eve camping on Spruce Knob (a tradition of the Trail Club), and to cave on New Year's Day. Walking in through the back door of the Fieldhouse, we found a group encamped around the stove, a couple of drunks already traversing the walls and a group of guys trying to eat in the dining room. I was pleased to see Bill and Rick among the group. We chatted for a bit, and then my friends and I retired to the living room for serious drinking and carousing. Later, I attempted to meet every caver I did not know at the party. Rick introduced me to Paul Helbert who was also a member of the VPI Grotto. Then I introduced myself to a tall, lanky, blond guy who had been eating when I came in. "Hi!" I said, "I'm Annie Braithwaite. Who're you?" "Bob Whittemore," he said. "Bob Whittemore? Not THE Bob Whittemore? From VPI?" Somewhat astonished, he stepped back with a hesitant, "Yes." I then explained about the tip cleaner I'd found at Giant Caverns during the Mountain Lake Convention. He remembered that he had dropped it while conducting a convention trip to the cave, and had been rather disgusted as he had recently bought it! --.Anne Whittemore Annie meets Whitt
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