Code,917018 Subject,Chris Rettig Date,7/21/17 Interviewer,Virginia Collings Abstract,"Cleveland Hiking Club member Chris Rettig desscribes his memories of hiking, social events, and personalities in the club starting in 1986. " Tags,"hiking, nature" Special Notes, minutes:, 0,"When working as a nurse, learned about hiking club and obtained a schedule of hikes" 1,"First hike in Brooklyn, suburb of Cleveland. Was greeted warmly by club member but hike more difficult than expected" 2,"Has hiked over 10000 miles, co-chair photography committee, led hikes, organized pot luck dinners, wrote funny skits for camp" 3,"Favorites include talent shows, downtown Cleveland hikes, learning about the city" 4,"Remembers first Christmas party at a restaurant, enjoyed steak roast, and a 1940s dinner club with big band music" 5,"Went to Europe for first time with club, including England with Lynn Schreiber and Italy with Aggie Konieczynski; western US. " 6,"Remembers Lou Yerick as ""taskmaster"" who expected hikers to keep up; Louise McDonough hiked many miles" 7,"On trip to Niagara Falls, group made banner ""Congrats Ed and Louise Getting Married on Saturday"" to tease Louise because of her flirting; she called everyone ""sweetie""" 8,"Remembers Walter Lennartz because of his knowledge of history which he shared on hikes; John Sech watched out for all hikers, kept group together; Bob Maruna's ""calls""" 9,"John Nelson led ""challenge hikes"" where normal pace was interspersed with fast pace intervals; Jay Beswick was the ""flower man"" " 10,"members did a lot of planning, scouting hikes, writing skits, planning Halloween costumes and activities such as pumpkin carving" 11,"Mileage was hard to accumulate as there were only 4 hikes a week, with 200-300 members" 12,"When morning hikes started at 10am, they finished aroung noon and many members brought brown bag lunches. Now hikers are in a hurry, don't take time to look at nature or take photos" 13,"She most values the support, caring, and loving nature of the members, were valuable in time of loss" 14,"Feels that now hikers do not get acquainted as easily; in early years, fewer hikes forced hikers to travel to new parts of area " 15,"Now most hikers go to hikes close to home, meeting new people happens mostly on trips and at social events" 16,Joe Smetana and Sylvia Banks involved in photo contest development; Cleveland Photographic Society now judges and provides support 17,"Photo contest has grown and photos become more sophisticated; five categories are judged, winner determined by points" 18,"First place photos are displayed at camp and for past two years, some photos chosed for a yearly calendar" 19,Friendships have been most important part of club. Volunteers keep club going by performing many tasks. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83,