By Joyce Owen
PANAMA CITY BEACH ? Ted and Betty Price walked to the old lifeguard house at Camp Helen State Park Saturday morning as he reminisced about his year working as a lifeguard at the Avondale Mills summer camp.
From 1945 to 1986, Camp Helen, on the western end of Bay County, served as a recreational spot for employees of Avondale Mills. The textile company had about 20 plants in Alabama and opened the camp to its employees and their families to enjoy the beach ? fishing, swimming, surfing and water skiing.
The Price?s visit was part of a camp crew reunion on May 20 organized by Howie Padgett Jr. to bring together members of the staff during the Avondale years: lifeguards, cooks, maintenance staff, cooks, servers, dieticians and hostesses. Padgett is the president of the Friends of Camp Helen and worked and lived at Camp Helen when his father, Howard Padgett Sr. managed it.
About 120 former camp staffers and special guests attended a fish fry held the evening before. However, mostly camp staffers gathered Saturday to search through photo albums, take new photos and share memories of the old camp days. Some brought family members along to visit the camp.
Ted Price described how he came to be an employee at Camp Helen. In 1951, he was vacationing with his family, when he saw the tanned and muscular lifeguard Jimmy Holmes strolling on the beach.
?I was just a skinny young kid and he made an impression,? Ted said. ?I wanted to do that.?
When he was offered a job as a lifeguard four years later, the 17-year old jumped at it. If he had stayed in Sylacauga, Ala., he would have spent the summer mowing lawns. As a lifeguard, he would spend it at the beach.
?I love the sun, sand and gulf,? he said. ?I live on a lake today and still water ski.?
Walking past the rental cottages where the families stayed, Ted pointed out a screened porch at the back of the lifeguard cabin where he frequently slept on hot summer nights.
?Some times I?d wake up and little girls would be looking in!? he told his wife with a sly grin.
?He was a handsome boy,? she agreed.
As the only lifeguard that year, it wasn?t only a matter of the girls checking out the young man, the girls were waiting for Ted to wake up so they could go swimming.
?There was just me and one other boy that lived here that summer. He did the yard work,? Ted said. ?It was the best summer. For those three months, it was paradise.?
A lifeguard shirt was included as part of the reunion display, but Ted said all he ever wore was a whistle and bathing suit.
?You were proud when you walked,? he said.
Approximately 50 people attended Saturday?s reunion and brought visitors from as far away as South Carolina.
PANAMA CITY BEACH ? Ted and Betty Price walked to the old lifeguard house at Camp Helen State Park Saturday morning as he reminisced about his year working as a lifeguard at the Avondale Mills summer camp.
From 1945 to 1986, Camp Helen, on the western end of Bay County, served as a recreational spot for employees of Avondale Mills. The textile company had about 20 plants in Alabama and opened the camp to its employees and their families to enjoy the beach ? fishing, swimming, surfing and water skiing.
The Price?s visit was part of a camp crew reunion on May 20 organized by Howie Padgett Jr. to bring together members of the staff during the Avondale years: lifeguards, cooks, maintenance staff, cooks, servers, dieticians and hostesses. Padgett is the president of the Friends of Camp Helen and worked and lived at Camp Helen when his father, Howard Padgett Sr. managed it.
About 120 former camp staffers and special guests attended a fish fry held the evening before. However, mostly camp staffers gathered Saturday to search through photo albums, take new photos and share memories of the old camp days. Some brought family members along to visit the camp.
Ted Price described how he came to be an employee at Camp Helen. In 1951, he was vacationing with his family, when he saw the tanned and muscular lifeguard Jimmy Holmes strolling on the beach.
?I was just a skinny young kid and he made an impression,? Ted said. ?I wanted to do that.?
When he was offered a job as a lifeguard four years later, the 17-year old jumped at it. If he had stayed in Sylacauga, Ala., he would have spent the summer mowing lawns. As a lifeguard, he would spend it at the beach.
?I love the sun, sand and gulf,? he said. ?I live on a lake today and still water ski.?
Walking past the rental cottages where the families stayed, Ted pointed out a screened porch at the back of the lifeguard cabin where he frequently slept on hot summer nights.
?Some times I?d wake up and little girls would be looking in!? he told his wife with a sly grin.
?He was a handsome boy,? she agreed.
As the only lifeguard that year, it wasn?t only a matter of the girls checking out the young man, the girls were waiting for Ted to wake up so they could go swimming.
?There was just me and one other boy that lived here that summer. He did the yard work,? Ted said. ?It was the best summer. For those three months, it was paradise.?
A lifeguard shirt was included as part of the reunion display, but Ted said all he ever wore was a whistle and bathing suit.
?You were proud when you walked,? he said.
Approximately 50 people attended Saturday?s reunion and brought visitors from as far away as South Carolina.
