Jodi’s Camp Blog

Every session at Camp TT seems to get marked by different things, and usually it happens when nobody’s noticing. All day I’ve had this song Lollipop by Mika in my head, that people have been playing all over camp this session, and I just realized that whenever I hear it from here on out I’ll probably think about this summer. A big phrase this session was “Yeah boys’ tents.” This was the session that counselor Mike Conti was into laser combing his hair, the Mookie Mobile was introduced, and the tent boys decided to write home and ask if they could shave their heads. I know I didn’t blog about it much or maybe at all, but it was the session that cemented my love for a game that Emma and I like to play called Pass the Pigs. The Blue team adopted the saying “Whatch-u talkin’ ‘bout Blue-wis?” and crossed their arms and huddled together whenever they said it. I’ve been trying to commit to memory the things everyone does that are so funny, and it’s so hard to remember all that I tell myself to. I think what I always take away most is that it is all really funny - there’s this easy sense of humor and that weaves through CTT, and I don’t know whom it starts or ends with, but it’s always here.

It’s been a whirlwind day. Color War culminated at lunch, with songs, chants, and two outstanding plaques. Santa’s White Fluffy Beard had the first ever 4-dimensional plaque, which consisted of 3-D layered art and Ryan Clifford’s watch (giving it the fourth dimension of time). Blue Fresh’s plaque was a stage made with real stage lights (polystyrene cups with christmas lights inside) and an ipod on the back that played boy band music. While we waited for the judges’ decision, I heard some people on the blue team point out to some white team people that the sky is blue, and the white team people saying back that the clouds are white. In the end…Blue won the song, White won the cheer, and Blue won the plaque, making Blue Fresh this session’s Color War champs. People were jumping on each other and hugging, and then within about five minutes it was on to the next thing, and behind us.

I went down to Free Swim and saw Counselor James do an epic bellyflop. When it was time for everyone to get out, the counselors started yelling “Get out of the pool! It’s lunchtime!” and diving for campers in slow-mo to pull them toward the ladders. The campers tried to dodge them and laughed, it was cute.

We had a loomster champ at lunch: Juliet Mullins. Girls’ Side created a ‘smoomster’ competition for smallest fry, which backfired when Boys’ Side Ryan Clifford won. It was announced that, after two weeks of all the campers looking for it, Evan Cook’s camouflaged water bottle was found on the golf course. All the announcements were done in cracked voices today.

I just came from the Art Shack, where cabin groups are working on their plaques. Others are packing up and getting ready for tonight’s banquet, which always includes special food Debbie and the crew have cooked, decorations by the tent girls, and Snoopy pops for dessert. Afterward, we’ll have plaque presentations, golden feather awards, and a slideshow — with music — of all the pictures from the session. As excited as I am to get home, I have a bit of a heavy heart this afternoon. I know a lot of campers feel the same about ending the session and saying goodbye until next year.

Anyway, I’ve had a lot of fun writing the blog this summer. It’s given me an excuse to eavesdrop, ask questions, get to know your kids better, and have a beautiful time. Thanks a lot for reading.

All the best, Jodi

Yesterday morning the whole camp divided into Blue Fresh and Santa’s White Fluffy Beard. Color War was announced this morning when the generals (counselors Karina, Chris, Adam, and Jordan) ran into each cabin before breakfast and painted blue or white stripes on their team members. The teams gathered in front of the dining hall to cheer and, after breakfast, decided on their names. Blue Fresh is a tribute to 2 Fresh, a band that was founded by five counselors at CTT (For a performance by 2 Fresh, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HypsdP_ynjs). I guess Santa’s Fluffy White Beard is a tribute to Santa.

Lunch was silent, with the quietest team winning points for the meal. It’s a very exciting meal for the Admin table because we can hear each other talk. Jerry came in and said “Woohoo” before he sat down, and Glenn came in doing a little dance. Each team spent most of the time flattering the judges: writing love notes on their plates in ketchup, bowing in front of them, giving them massages. Since two of the judges have twins here at camp, it was announced that there would be points deducted for wrong twin name-calling.

This afternoon was full of meetings and competitions: Balloon Stomping, Speed Math, Powderpuff Football, Tug-O-War — always one of the highlights. Blue faced off against White at pretty much a tie, and we Adminers faced off against the counselors for fun (we won! In the counselors’ defense, I think they were a little tired)

I sat in the art shack for a while and worked on some knitting while members of each team - Albert Oriol, Camille Horan, and Kate Pantano for Santa’s White Fluffy Beard, Molly Shay, Kenna Hinton, and Sara Ginsburg for Blue Fresh — worked on their team plaques. I stopped in last night to see the progress. I don’t want to give too much away yet but there are some new twists this session that are pretty impressive.

Some announcements: The winners of the home run derby are:
For girls: Taylor Dennison
For boys: Jake Abel
For counselors: Mike Hertlein

Camper Albert Oriol beat Adminer Mark Clark in the ping pong tournament quarter finals.

Though Debbie, the cook, and I took Wednesday night off to catch up with each other (we both worked here in 96), the night’s camp play was wonderful by all accounts, with special shout outs to Joe Gillette, Kenna Hinton, Jack Parr, Sara Ginsburg, Juliet Mullins, Jake Abel and Matt Kasoff for their key performances, and of course huge thanks to counselor Karina, who made it all happen. I made it back in time for the art show afterward, which was wonderful.

In the last few days the Knitties’ projects have really come together. Both Casey and Reece Dennison bound off to make their projects into purses - they look great! And Taylor Dennison bound off her piece of yarn art.

Yesterday evening was reserved for the Apache relay, which always makes me sort of emotional. Campers are scattered two-by-two at their stations. The race stretches all over camp - down to the lake, up to the horse stables, across the main field…Each pair of campers has a task they compete in: skipping, riddle solving, football throwing, kicking field goals, hitting golf balls. This year, it kicked off with “Escaping the bus,” in which the whole team had to cooperate on getting off of one of the two buses fast. The last person off the bus was the first person to start each relay.

The race passes from camper to camper, and there are people from their team to cheer them on every step of the way. The coaches switch off at different places so they can make it through the whole relay. The judges bike alongside the action to watch the whole thing. So basically, when you see a kid running up the hill, there are about 8 people flanking them and cheering them on, plus everyone who’s waiting for them at the next station cheering them on too, and it always makes me all oogly inside.

In the end, White prevailed, with tent boy Tyler making it up the last stretch of the uphill lake road and ringing the bell. We had canteen and then scattered to get ready for initiation. Any camper who’s already been initiated meets to up the hill to get into their togas (boys in the gym and girls in the rec. hall), while any new campers/counselors gather in two cabins and wait to be surprised. The energy at the rec. hall was contagious, and I helped tie a bunch of togas and put on my own. Most of us headed down the trail to our “stations”, while a few stayed to lead the new campers. At the bell, they came down to the office and we lined them up quietly.

In silence, we led them down the path through the woods. The path was lit every several feet by ‘smudge pots’ (small fires in pots), with many of our campers standing like statues in their togas by each one. They did such an amazing job - each camper had a pose and didn’t move; everyone looked ancient. I’d love to tell you what happened after that, but the rest is a secret!

The older campers stayed up late working on their Color War stuff, and I heard them bright and early this morning practicing behind the gym and down at the pavilion. It’s pretty bittersweet to think we only have one more day.

One more blog to come, stay tuned!

Jodi

Whoa, how did it get to be July 30th? There was supposed to be a game of Find Evan Cook on the Golf Range at second free swim today, but it just started raining a few minutes ago. The trick to finding Evan Cook is that he owns this amazing camouflage suit as well as a camouflage water bottle. Although, his water bottle has been lost and no one can find it (despite the one soda reward) because no one can see it. It is similarly difficult to see Evan himself during Find Evan, but eventually he gets up and comes in for dinner.

It was an amazing day for flag football; The Purple Nurples faced off against the Red Bulls for the Superbowl at first free swim. The Purple Nurples, a true Cinderella story –who lost every game until the playoff that got them into the Superbowl– sailed to victory with much thanks to coaches Chris Brown and Jacqui Clark, and MVP Michael Springer. As usual, we brought our chairs up to sit and watch the spectacle. The rocketry class set off rockets every time a touchdown was scored, and the dance team came on after the show to do a choreographed number by counselor Myi. Counselors Ryan Hertlein (dressed up as John Madden) and Brownie commentated, detailing the game play by play and also offering funny asides and fake histories on all the campers/players, such as where they went to college and how many setbacks faced before making it to the Superbowl.

Some announcements: Brendan Arnold had the loomster today at lunch. Ashley Scheller scored a bullseye in archery and Jesse Alloy nearly tied counselor Drew Wolfe’s record of getting every arrow in Archery into the target (he only missed three). Jasmine Whims beat all of girls’ side in a game of Knockout. Quinn Morrow made a legitimate ping pong serve onto the table all the way from Riley’s play area, and Vito climbed Lord Equinox ten times in one activity period.

Just as an aside, I want to say that most of the announcements are hard to record faithfully. For example, today counselor Jason made two announcements that were just “Oh yes!” Often, people stand up and announce that admin’er Mark is doing a good job and then sit down again. Plus, there are different styles to the announcements. Today, everyone made their announcements in a “Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs here!” voice. Sometimes they make their announcements as if they are asking questions, like “Today? In Riflery?” And then everyone goes “Riflery?” The Gersh brothers are known for the most over the top announcements, which usually involve running, jumping and waving their arms.

Anyway, the Ghost Court punishments were fulfilled yesterday, with a few stragglers finishing up today. Jordan Kovalsky stood in the middle of the dining hall and explained what “Nam” means. It can be something really bad–derived from “Viet Nam”, really good– derived from “Phenomenal”, and something that’s good when you expect it to be bad, but I don’t know what that’s derived from, and I still don’t really understand “Nam.” I was standing with nurse Sara when Carl Lasker came up to give her his ghost court gift– a sparkly rock he’d found–and told her she was a really good nurse. Unrelated to ghost court, there was an outbreak of pointing at lunch, where the entire boys’ side and the entire girls’ side just started pointing at each other, walked to the center of the room pointing at each other, and then stopped pointing and walked back to their seats.

Anyone who did not do their ghost court punishment was gathered up by the Judge Mookie Mobile at Free Swim. Unfortunately there was a rebellion and Judge Mookie was pushed into the pool.

In the evening we had Cheesy Skit Night. Cabin G&H did an awesome skit about Eskimos, with subtitles, and Girls’ Tent Group 2 did a funny show using rocks with smiley faces as actors, but Ug’s group, Girls’ Tent Group 3, won 3 Gouda’s from the judges with a song-filled number and came in first place.

Right now, the seasoned campers are meeting behind the gym to talk about Initiation. It’s a really beautiful night and always a secret until it happens. The actors are practicing the play. And people are talking about color war - it even made it into the Knitties talk today.

Things should be pretty exciting from here on out. See you tomorrow!