And for a boy it was a place of endless adventure. We would go and play at the gun pits and the tunnels on top of the gun pits. We would go and explore the dump and look all through there. And there was the water. We would swim, we would dive, we would boat. And some of the things were a little bit risky but all kids do that sort of thing. And it was really great.”

And so we also used to take our bicycles up on the tennis courts—take the nets down, take golf clubs and tennis balls and play bicycle polo on the tennis courts.”

-Bob Sisk, Fort Slocum teenager in 1950s

(interviewed 2007)

So there were a lot of teenagers on that post. And we had a teen club and it was very active. We had dances, you know, a little pool table. We had plenty to do. There was also, of course, in the summer swimming. I was a life guard.”

 

-Pete Fuller, teenager at Fort Slocum in the early 1960s

(interviewed 2007)

And I remember one time we went down to Ebbets Field where the Dodgers played, which of course, is long since gone. Went down to Ebbets Field and played an exhibition game with the Dodgers and they supplied meatloaf sandwiches with mustard on them for the trip. Yeah, I was the batboy.”

 

I was either in sixth grade, or the seventh grade, we went down to New York City, had a tour of the City, and went to the museum of art and the museum of history, had lunch and came back. Another time we went down to the opera, New York opera house and saw Rigoletto.”

 

-Tom Sisk, lived at Fort Slocum as a boy in the 1950s

(interviewed 2007)