Occasionally, when I walk by Assistant Director Kris Campbell’s office, with her back still to me, she’ll mutter “busy, busy, busy…” That was today for all of us at camp. In any given day, there’s just a LOT going on. It started again with an early morning trip to Kuykendall to pick up Laurie and Heigh Ho. Now, one thing you need to know about Laurie…she likes her beauty rest. So, it was no surprise to me that when Caroline and I rolled in to the campsite around 7:30, it looked like heads had just left the pillow. Usually, our cracker jack counselor team has buses loaded and all we do is hop in, warm er up, and hit the road back to camp. I handed Laurie a cup of coffee I had brought her, and acted like a sheep dog rounding up the herd as everyone gathered belongings and loaded on board. No hurry, really. It’s camp after all.
I was on in the morning for some early activity shots, and then we sent some cameras around to activities as Gretchen had a day off today…then grabbed it again for the big dance. “Old Lady Bingo” was the scheduled evening program, but we let the cat out of the bag at Rise and Shine that we would be bringing a group of boys over for a dance. They have a changeover weekend so it was only about 100 boys, which worked out great…as most of our girls really like dancing with friends and counselors anyway. Marcus was back to spin his tunes. He is a friend from church, and knows how to get a party started, and to keep all of the songs “Illahee-G.”
Once again, our day was beautiful until right toward the end of rest hour. A pretty ominous line of thunderstorms presented on the doppler, and we called an “emergency assembly” for about twenty minutes in the RecLodge until it passed. It turned out to be a lamb, not a “lion,” but we have decided as a leadership team that we want to practice more assemblies to get staff and campers used to it. After all were accounted for, we practiced a few dances in anticipation of the evening’s events.
Wow! The good folks in our kitchen are sure hitting home runs! Lunch today was gyros with chicken, sauteed veggies, salad, and whatever that great yogurt/dill sauce is called. They were a big hit. Dinner was real southern pulled pork barbecue and it was really yummy. Terry (with some help from our CITs) pulled pork that he had barbecued, made 3 different sauces, and served sandwiches to the Rockmont boys and our girls with traditional sides…baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, and homemade cookies for dessert. It was a big hit.
I always get a “kick” out of watching camp dances. I love watching people dance in general. Marcus (and our counselors) really make them fun for everyone. There’s really not much standing around and being shy. Boys are really an afterthought (as it should be). But they do add “window dressing.” And the anticipation and primping is part of the fun as well. My favorite story from the night was one of our eleven year-olds (who has been with us since she was seven), came up to me with a telephone number in Sharpie the length of her arm. “There is one cute boy,” she said. She was arm-in arm with a best camp friend. I glanced over and the same number was on the left arm of her best friend. Not sure how that will work out long term.
Tomorrow morning will be a little quieter. Our Catholic girls will get up for Mass, while everyone else gets a few extra winks. No pictures to take, we’ll have a choice period in the morning before worship. As fairly regular church attendees during the year, I can tell you that there is no more favorite spot to worship our great God than the Woodland Chapel here at Illahee. It’s my favorite time of the week. I hope you all are having a great weekend, and feeling great about the fact that you are providing an amazing experience for your camper.
Sunday mornings were always my favorite – getting a double dose with going to mass in our whites first and then in Woodland chapel – doesn’t get much better! Hope y’all are having a great session!