Stories Of The Past Support Work For The Future
Stories Of The Past Support Work For The Future
By Thomas P. Caldwell
For someone who once envisioned spending his life as a hermit, Richard “Wink” Tapply ended up with quite another reputation — that of a family man and pioneer of community recreation who brought joy to generations of Bristol youths.
The cover of the book.
With the Reverend A.B. Thompson, Wink established the town’s first community center. The Bristol Community Center, now renamed the Tapply-Thompson Community Center in their honor, has offered recreational programs for all ages, including outdoor programs at the Slim Baker Conservation Area for Outdoor Living on Little Round Top. It also serves as home to Santa’s Village, which Wink’s son, Dick Tapply, used as the model for Laconia’s Christmas Village.
If those growing up in Bristol gained a love for the outdoors through the efforts of people like Wink and Conservation Officer Everett “Slim” Baker, Wink’s family learned directly from him to appreciate wilderness skills and sunsets. They recall him telling stories about what life was like a century ago while sitting around the campfire at their camp on Newfound Lake.
When Wink was in his eighties, he made an audio recording which his grandson, Tim Tapply, said was “to preserve the stories that embodied so much of who he was,” based on his memories of life in the 1920s. Tim used that recording, along with his own memories of Wink’s stories, to compile a 68-page book, Bus and Wink: Adventures of Youth, which is being sold as a fundraiser for the Tapply-Thompson Community Center and the Slim Baker Foundation for Outdoor Education, Inc.
The stories involve Wink’s formative years, first as a visitor and later as a full-time resident of Bristol, and his friendship with Clanton “Bus” Martin. The two boys were fast friends, sharing the outdoor pleasures of baseball, camping, and sledding. The “adventure” stories that Wink told with touches of humor and pride involved hatchet-throwing, racing along the top of a board fence, and building a fort in the clay beneath Bristol’s Kelley Park.
Tim said he did an initial draft of the book for his family, to preserve the memory of his grandfather through his stories.
“I think the hermit idea was one my grandfather remembered from his younger days when he was so close with Bus,” Tim said. “But life started to erode that idea. Meeting my grandmother [Ruth] however, really sealed the deal. He fell ‘head-over-heels’ for her.”
He added, “We never knew for sure what happened with Bus once they grew up.”
Publication
The decision to publish the book as a fundraiser for two organizations that were so important to the Tapply family came easily.
“I recall the Community Center as being a place that was built up around my grandparents but it wasn’t until I was older that I appreciated more of its place in the history of Bristol and my memories of Inspiration Point go back further,” Tim said.
The conservation officer, Slim Baker, had envisioned an outdoor education center to promote an appreciation of nature, but he fell ill before realizing his dream. A group of residents who were aware of his illness launched a campaign to follow through on the vision, boosted by a 125-acre land donation by Reba Follansbee Hipson in 1953. Three years later, an adjacent 10-acre field was added, just as a rustic lodge was completed to serve as a base for activities by the various youth groups, including those associated with the Bristol Community Center.
In 1960, the summit of Little Round Top was developed as Inspiration Point, in memory of 28-year-old Dean Stephens, who had died in an airplane crash. A huge wooden cross erected there serves as a site for Easter Sunday sunrise services as well as other events, such as weddings. Inspiration Point also provides great viewing for tracking Central New Hampshire’s annual bird migrations.
Clanton ‘Bus’ Martin and Richard ‘Wink’ Tapply.
Bus and Wink: Adventures of Youth; Stories Told Around the Campfire is available at the Tapply-Thompson Community Center on North Main Street, Bristol, with 100 percent of the sale price going to support a capital campaign to build a covered pavilion at the Slim Baker Area for Outdoor Living, in keeping with the organization’s master plan. In addition to providing a place for the youths involved in the TTCC summer camp, the pavilion would be available for scouting and school programs to advance outdoor learning experiences.
“I understand the pavilion has been on the master plan for the Area for at least 20 years,” Tim said. “It was an idea after my grandfather’s involvement. My father advocated for the pavilion because it brings together the two organizations that meant so much to my grandparents. It will be available for groups to use to enjoy and love the out-of-doors and it will be the home at the Area for the TTCC Day Camp.”
The Tales
In his introductions to some of the tales, Tim speaks of the excitement that Wink displayed while telling those stories — how he would wriggle in his chair and the words would come out in an excited jumble as he reached the end of a tale, seeming to transform him from an 80-year-old to a 10-year-old as he spoke.
For those who only knew Wink and Ruth as the enthusiastic promoters of recreation at a time when some objected to spending money on “play,” the stories of Bus and Wink as pranksters who took wild chances and sometimes-questionable antics may come as a surprise. For his family, it was all part of who Wink was.
One example of Bus and Wink’s flirtations with danger is the story of their “double-runnah” traverse sled. Bristol’s “old-timers” have talked about the days when people would sled down High Street into Central Square, but Wink tops those memories with a tale of riding their “double-runnah” in icy conditions all the way from Round Top, down High Street, through the Square, down Central Street, and over the bridge spanning the Pemigewasset River, ending up in the adjacent town of New Hampton.
Not all of the stories are based in Bristol. Wink also spoke of camping trips to remote locations such as Long Pond in Northwood. Camping out on an island, they practiced hatchet-throwing until their prized scout hatchet missed a tree and fell into the pond. They were unable to find it, despite repeated diving attempts by Bus, and they finally gave up after Bus hit his head on the bottom of the boat.
Then there was the “geranium episode” when their teacher walked in while Bus and another student were tossing her pot of flowers back and forth.
“Watching my grandfather get that excited simply telling the stories, one can only imagine what a mischievous bundle of energy he must have been as a boy,” Tim writes.
For more information about the Slim Baker area, see http://slimbaker.org.
To obtain copies of Bus and Wink: Adventures of Youth; Stories Told Around the Campfire, go to the TTCC website, ttccrec.org, or call 603-744-2713.