Letter, Wm. M. Bliss to Rev. J. Harvey Jenkins re Camp Courtney loudspeaker disturbance, 11 September 1975

1849 Mallory Street Jacksonville, Florida 32205 September 11, 1975

Reverend J. Harvey Jenkins Camp Courtney Surburban Heights Hendersonville, N.C. 28739

Dear Reverend Jenkins:

This letter is written to advise you of a situation, or at least to give you another point of view on a situation, that I feel sure you would want to know about and (hopefully) take steps to correct.

To city dwellers Surburban Heights is a particularly pleasant place to visit and to residents it must be a delightful place to live, — away from city noises and pollution, where one can enjoy the quiet of the countryside and the songs of the birds.

Over Labor Day weekend this peace and quiet were quite rudely shattered by the use of a high-powered loudspeaker directed to the campers attending Camp Courtney but loudly disturbing to your neighbors for hundreds of yards around.

I realize that you were not the offending party as I tried several times to reach you by phone, — to no avail, but whoever was permitted to broadcast in your absence really polluted the atmosphere with raucous sound. One morning he was apparently laboring under the completely inaccurate assumption that he sounded like a rooster crowing and on another morning made a perfectly absurd attempt to sound like a bugle blowing reveille. I doubt if anyone, even those nearest and dearest to him, could have considered these renditions amusing.

May I suggest that you would make many “good neighbor points” ( and they are even better than “brownie points”) with those living near you if you would move your loudspeakers into the buildings housing the persons with whom you wish to communicate. In this way, with [at low volume] a minimum of expense, announcements could be made and Surburban Heights would be a much more pleasant place to live, or visit, during the times Camp Courtney is in session.

Cordially,

Wm M. Bliss Wm. M. Bliss