Information sources used to create what is believed to be a nearly-100%-complete Historic Roster of Tally-Ho campers are:
- Camp Brochures, which for many years listed prior-season’s attendees
- End-of-Camp Newsletters (1958 onward), listing names of campers
- 1962 Record-Album Jacket, which listed names of camper-performers
- 1948 Captioned Newspaper Photograph
- Filled-Out Registration Forms for 13 of Tally-Ho’s 18 seasons
As explained in the history page, in 2005 Doug Bradley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, was looking through what he thought was only a box of old photographs that had long-ago been stored away by Mrs. B. At the bottom of that box, below the photographs, he discovered 13 envelopes… each containing individual completely-filled-out registration forms pertaining to TH-campers for 13 respective seasons. He generously sent those envelopes to Sue & Hank Schmitt, who thereby were able to add more than 200 names and other information to the Roster Database they had previously created from brochures and newsletters. Since Doug’s cache included registration forms for Tally-Ho’s early years (up to that point, very little information about campers prior to 1956 had been obtained), a virtually 100%-complete Historic Roster was created. More folks were about to be located, contacted and made aware of the 2006 reunion.
How Many Former Tally-Ho Campers Have Been Found?
Following are aggregate statistics detailing the number of campers attending Tally-Ho Music Camp throughout its history, as well as a calculation of total Camper-Seasons accumulated during the Camp’s 18 seasons.
% of Total | # | Category |
100% | 721 | = INDIVIDUAL CAMPERS LISTED (FOR ALL YEARS 1948-1965) |
48% | 344 | = CAMPERS LOCATED & CONTACTED REGARDING ’06 REUNION |
5% | 36 | = CAMPERS KNOWN TO BE DECEASED |
53% | 380 | = TOTAL FORMER-CAMPERS CONTACTED OR KNOWN TO BE DECEASED |
100% | 1279 | = CALCULATION OF CAMPER-SEASONS (FOR ALL YEARS 1948-1965) |
59% | 755 | = CAMPER-SEASONS OF PEOPLE CONTACTED ABOUT REUNION |
5% | 65 | = CAMPER-SEASONS OF CAMPERS KNOWN TO BE DECEASED |
64% | 820 | = TOTAL CAMPER-SEASONS OF CAMPERS CONTACTED & DECEASED CAMPERS |
Camper Milestones
Apart from Doug Bradley (who was “at camp” every season – toddler through his late teenage years), the most seasons that any individual camper attended Tally-Ho Music Camp totaled seven (two girls, both flutists). Becky and John Wadsworth “grew into” full-fledged 60’s-era campers living in dorms, after many years at Tally-Ho as “the little kids” of Ruth and Bob Wadsworth.
The furthest points from which campers traveled to Tally-Ho were Louisiana, Texas & California… also Haiti & Canada. As of early 2008, four former-campers are currently living outside the U.S., in Canada, England, Portugal and Sweden.
The large majority of campers each year were proficient on more than one instrument. Many had studied piano, and most string players had earlier begun with woodwind or brass when first participating in wind-instrumental music programs. Naturally, for multi-instrument campers at Tally-Ho Music Camp there were opportunities to learn from both band and orchestra directors at camp.