Bela wanted no distractions. We weren’t even supposed to have visitors. It was really monotonous. If we wanted to make a phone call to our parents or a friend, there were two pay phones. There were 500 campers and counselors and two pay phones. You had to wait in line in the Texas heat with mosquitoes all over the place. And when you finally got to the phone, you had everybody in the whole place listening in. I was 18, a teenager. I look back now and say, “That was crazy. That’s not America.” But it was Bela’s way or no way. And he was a coach who got you where you wanted to go.
