Tamakwa's 75th Anniversary (Part 1)

Well well well…what can be said. 75 years of truly incredible experiences for over 15,000 campers… all boiling down to one weekend. Yes fellow putinfenkell.com supporters…for those who heard about it or were there, it was that surreal. With less than 48 hours on the Shores of South Tea with 260 past Tamakwans from all generations, everything had to be done with such force and spirit that most couldn’t handle it…. but as you may have guessed…we did…and who would’ve imagined that I would've been there to experience it.

I’m going to take us back to about a week or so before the Post-Camp celebration, Thursday September 19th, and there I was laying in bed dozing off watching TV. All of a sudden my phone buzzed and kept buzzing. Little did I know that this moment would forever change my life. The buzzing came from the chatter on my “Wood and Beaver” BBM chat I was apart of. This group chat on my blackberry included over 28 past Tamakwans…whom were and still are all legends in their own right, expressing their excitement for the following weekend in South Tea. When I looked at my phone I read messages going on between Dustin Wachler, Seth Rogers, Andrew Sherman, Brandon Schram, and Aaron L. Rosenhaus, all discussing Fen to not be a “pussy” and attend the 75th. It included comments like what an incredible life changing opportunity I’d be missing or how everyone is going but me. After realizing the mistake I was making I decided that I would give it another thought.

Previous to the conversation I thought the anniversary was a week earlier than what it really was. Also I thought that it was way overpriced to travel for basically less than two days…($225 with no OTPHJ). So, the following morning I told my majjj and fajjj that this was something I was going to do regardless of what they said because A) I was paying for it myself and B) Because I’m Fen. Initially they both thought I was crazy for taking off work for two days as well as spending what I had to in order to attend, but after some epic persuasional speaking and one handed push-ups they came to their senses.

After telling my rents of my decision I made my way into Rhemicom’s offices in Farmington Hills and called DWach to tell him I was in. As it ended up being Wachler Schram and I drove up to Toronto Thursday morning to spend the night at our boys places, who live in the Red Path Apartments, before making our way up to camp the following afternoon. The drive up to Toronto began at 8:30 am when I woke up and proceeded to take a shower listening to Sam Adams- Driving Me Crazy and Kanye’s new Jam Runaway. After freshening up I loaded up my 2009 Cadillac CTS Black on Black with my hockey equipment, stick bag, suitcase for clothing, and my bedding, which was stuffed into a clear garbage bag.


I soon arrived in the Lagoons at Schreezie’s crib at 9am. I had never been to his family’s new place so I went inside to check it out. After roaming around looking at Playboy’s and stealing a Marley beverage we ventured off to SkyWachlers place in Huntington Woods.

Figuring once we arrived at his place we were going to jet to Toronto we found ourselves waiting for an hour or so. Granted Sky was on the phone with one of the largest law firms in Chicago, we wanted to get there. Not just to get there but to make it to Michael Budman’s (Half-Owner of Roots clothing) house to play 3-on-3 roller hockey on his outdoor rink.

We eventually got through the border and made our way up to TDot by 4pm. We then settled in after waiting for Howie Migdal to arrive at the apartment complex from his work to let us in. As you can imagine it only took an hour or so before we made our way over to Budman’s to play some puck. It’s funny how things work out, we pulled up to Budman’s house at the same time as Seth Rogers and Matthew Ran did (my teammates) so it was perfect timing. As I carried my bag towards the rink I saw Cranbrook hockey legend Danny Kaufman, the myth Aaron L Rosenhaus, Shayne Diamond and Adam Sud. After saying what up to everyone I began getting dressed in Budman’s locker room it began to rain (yes they have a dressing room right next to their rink)

The teams that day were Adam Sud, Brandon Schram and DWach vs. Seth Rogers, Matt Ran and myself. Once we saw the rain we all thought it just wasn’t going to happen for us that day but then in came Sooood to the rescue. The rain eventually stopped 10 minutes later followed by Sud making his way back onto the surface with a snow blower to dry up the concrete rink. Within 20 minutes it was dry and we were on the rink. To make a long story long my team beat theirs every game we played. Nuff Nuff.


After the game we all poo’ed and headed back to Red Path to shower, pre-drink and make our way out to the bars with Mike Kimmel and co. After a shower, poo, Pizza Pizza, and a stop at the LCBO we were in Migdals apartment drinking and socializing. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling all that well so I actually stayed in that night with Corey “The Shoveler” Weisberg when everyone went out.

The following morning I woke up after sleeping on Weisberg’s extremely uncomfortable couch. We left Red Path at roughly noon following behind Ari Dizzle Diamond’s car. Noon came to be a time which we would eventually regret. About a half-hour or so into our trek up to camp we found ourselves stuck on the 400, not in bumper to bumper traffic, but completely stopped. Moral of the story is that we did not move for over about two hours! Hours in which Wach, Schram, Ari Diamond, and myself pulled out our hockey sticks and a tennis ball to play on the highway. Just ridiculous because we wanted to make a pit stop at Webbers to get their famous burgers, which clearly we could not now.

Once we arrived at camp around 5ish we parked and made our way down to the docks. Once aboard one of the pointers heading into camp Josh Amir and I made what I’ll refer to as a ‘mistake’ when we accidentally made fun of someone’s wife in front of them, not my best moment of the weekend to say the least. Moving on here though. we got off the pointer and made our way through main camp. It didn’t take long before we saw a swarm of people drinking and socializing under Loon Lodge, however in this case for this weekend it was referred to as the Loon Lounge. Everyone was there. From Jeff Avigian to Evan Taerk to Dave Krikst all the way back to Stu Binder. If you were a legend and went to Tamakwa, you were there. Yes, there are some exceptions but not many.

After all of the hello’s and how are you’s, Sky, Schreezie, and I made our way to our cabin, Dickson Bonfield. Before entering our cabin we were graced by the presence of Evan Wolf and Richard Kerwin. We dropped our clothes and stuff off before jetting down to get some drinks before Shabbat dinner.

After an hour or so of chatting we made our way into dinner. At my table sat Matthew Orley, Matt and Mike Ran, Richard Kerwin, Dwach, and Evan and Michael Wolf. What was and still is amazing to me was that I had never drank or smoked in camp and now it was like a free for all. We had wine and vodka for drinks and of course the usual Tamakwa Friday night food of chicken, masked potatoes, and vegetables. After dinner everyone made their way down to the slope for services. Usually cabins have a topic and speak about them but this time it was an open mic for anyone who had something to say. As you could have guessed I made my way up there along with the likes of Sandy Nelson, Jason Orley, Brian Hermilin, and others. After an hour or so of speeches we all broke free and did whatever we wanted. Campfires, drinking, late night snacks, stories, music, and Fenkell. Unreal. I made my way back up to the cabin a little early Friday night because I had a cold and I wanted to prepare myself for what was soon to be an unbelievable crazy day in the Shores of South Tea. I eventually passed out at 3am only to be woken up by Rogers and the rest of the crew being as loud as they could be. The funniest was watching Dwach duck taping me to my bed thinking I was sleeping but was awake and eating sour cherry blasters. That just gives you an idea of the madness but overall happiness, spirit, and fun that every single individual had that weekend. Having said that, this was only the first night ladies and gentlemen. The rest of the trip in Part 2 will be posted shortly… so stay tuned.