1975
1975 was big. In that year, the Spence place, a horse farm that touched the "Old Long Farm" at a six-acre field on Robinson Rd, came on the market and was immediately purchased by the partners. Mel and Chris moved from Valley Cottage, NY in the spring. The partners built tent decks to house the kids, a shower house which was powered by a gas generator, as there was no electricity, and a four-hole latrine at the current campsite. The Spence farmhouse was used as the kitchen and dining room for 18 teenagers in July and 16 in August, with a week break between sessions. Most of the kids came from Irvington, NY.
In the beginning, the four partners were trying to figure out what to do with the kids in the evening. Chris felt that, since she had been very successful at conducting group meetings with her senior high kids in Irvington, perhaps holding Group a few nights a week would be a good idea. The other partners signed on to that activity, primarily because no one had a better idea. Little did anyone know at the time what a powerful and pivotal component Group would become to Longacre Farm. Everything that was done that year was a "first": crew responsibilities, tractor school, silk-screening t-shirts, baling hay, fireworks in New Bloomfield, sewing quilts, combining wheat and oats, kitchen crew, the square dance, and Hershey Park. Each activity established a tradition that would trace a common theme through the next thirty-five summers.
Other activities included repairing the sliding barn doors, repairing the dock at the pond, picking sweet corn, working at the farmers' market, going to local auctions, learning to throw pots on the potter's wheel, and trips to the mill with freshly combined wheat and oats. The only hired hand that year was a young man named Craig Flechsig. Mel and Chris moved into the old Spence house at the end of the summer. Chris worked with Muggs at the nursery school. Mel worked with his brother Jeff as the business manager in Jeff's insurance business in Harrisburg.