Author: Glenn Smith

The evening activity schedule at CTT is, in a word, awesome.

Every night of the summer, the campers participate in a different activity. Some of them involve solving a mystery, some of them involve games of chance and odd skills and some of them make campers dig deep into their creative sides.

The mystery nights, like tonight’s human Clue game, require campers to use their brains to solve a puzzle. This evening, several counselors will dress as characters from the board game and campers will rotate to different stations to try and pry clues from people like Professor Plum (counselor Albert). Clue night has spurred some memorable memories already this year, like during first session when Collin portrayed Mr. Green as a southern curmudgeon and when Mrs. Scarlett (Lindsay) was convicted of the crime, she ran through camp with a horde of campers in tow.

The games of chance bit refers to nights like Minute To Win It, which is coming up in just a few days. Based on the popular TV game show, campers will be attempting to do seemingly simple tasks like roll marbles and make them stop on a piece of tape, sort a tray of M&M’s by color and keep two feathers in the air using only their breath. All of these things seem really easy, but when you try it they are actually pretty difficult. Some campers first session, like Jakeabel and Miller Friedman, got really frustrated when they couldn’t accomplish these seemingly easy tasks.

The creative nights are some of the most entertaining. For nights like Cheesy Skit night and Dance Through The Decades, campers team up with their cabins and try to create humorous skits. So far, Cabin G and Boy’s Tents are in the lead after winning the junior and senior divisions of Cheesy Skit Night, but winning these nights are a source of pride for a cabin. I expect the next one, which is tomorrow night, to be just as competitive as the last.

I wish the resident assistants at my college would have thought of awesome activities like this to entertain us in the evenings. Then maybe I would wear my Averett shirts as proudly as I do my CTT shirts…

There is a fever spreading through CTT this year.

The nurse can’t help and the doctor is helpless to cure it. Bed rest won’t make it go away and there is no medicine. The only prescription is preparedness.

Thanks to a certain group of counselors who call themselves the ‘Nerd Counselors’, zombie fever has spread through the camper body here at CTT. Riflery classes (except the ones that Bill teaches- he isn’t a nerd counselor) have been renamed Zombie Defense Preparedness. Wilderness Survival is now all about escaping the hordes that will inhabit towns if (or when, according to the nerds) a ‘zombie apocalypse’ happens.

It is an interesting spin on several camp activities and the kids love it so far. After learning how to safely handle a rifle, campers now have zombie silhouettes to shoot instead of just shooting cans and metal spinning targets. Even the crew at the lake has gotten involved by making sure children can spot ‘rage geese,’ which apparently carry the zombie virus. Even the evening activities have been affected- last session, murder mystery night involved teams finding the cure for Ethan and a slew of older campers who had been transformed into zombies.

Zombie fever certainly has livened up the day-to-day routine here. It has been a fun few weeks since counselor Tiz began blaming any technological failure on a zombie attack and it seems like every day something happens that provides a new development.

Tonight is Cabin Night, and I’m pretty sure there will be some talk of zombies somewhere amongst the camper body. But just like any other time at CTT, it is going to be a good night (and that’s more than a feeling [not sure I’m quoting Boston or the Black Eyed Peas]). We get to spend time doing fun things with the people we’re closest to, whether it be watching a movie like Cabin B, hiking to the river like Cabin 8 or playing on the lower fields like Cabin 7, Cabin Night is always a good one and I’m looking forward to it.

Even if we have to fight back a horde of zombies.

The sun rises over a quiet horizon in High View, W.V. It is a nice, silent morning in the Appalachians and it looks as if that sun will meet a relatively peaceful day here in the mountains.

All of the sudden, there is the crack of a rifle fired by T.J. Pallone. A mountain bike piloted by A-Tom zooms through the forest. Sam Greenberg slams a baseball off of the side of the art shack. Cabin A girls scream as they jump in the pool. Believe it or not, in our corner of High View, this is the ideal way to start a day.

The campers that make up the third session of camp have only been here for two days, but they are already in full camp mode. The first shots in the Dippies vs. Sleepies War have already been taken and girl’s leagues have begun. The campers are trying out their schedules for B days and there is a lot of buzz in the air about an upcoming early morning flag football game between two groups of counselors. We’ve already snarfed down grilled cheese, chicken patties and tacos in the dining hall.

Yup, camp has begun. And it’s going strong and should continue to go strong because of all the awesome activities lined up this session. There will be a trip to Cacapon (which is pronounced ka-cape-n, according to local counselor Tim Allen. Most camp folk say kah-kah-pon) and the bowling alley. Older kids will get to race go-karts and go rafting. The evening activity line-up includes tonight’s Cheesy Skit Night, Minute to Win It and some other camp staples which always make for a good time.

Are you jealous of the campers yet? You probably should be. This is going to be an awesome session, which I’m sure you’ll hear about in letters. But I’ll do my best to keep you updated here in the blog, so hopefully you’ll keep coming back for more. And I hope you do- this session, like every session at CTT, is going to be a winner.

So I’m going to go be a part of it (it’s fun, and it makes these more interesting!). Hope you come back tomorrow for all the latest from our favorite summer destination- Camp Tall Timbers!!!

First there’s Color War, one last pool party, a fancy dinner with fancy dress, some limericks and a breakfast. The big red bus pulls in, the campers board, the dust settles as the tears dry in the gravel. And with that, another session is over at Camp Tall Timbers.

In case you don’t realize who I am, I drive the luggage truck to Tyson’s Corner and Rockville (yup, I’m the the big goofy guy with the glasses). It is very nice to be able to meet the parents of some of my favorite campers, but that aspect of the job has a few drawbacks. It’s exciting to pick-up the bags of the campers and to see who is coming, but dropping them off a few weeks later almost always makes me a train wreck.

It’s funny how the names on the bags are just words when I pick them up, yet when I unload them after the session I have a story to go with just about everyone. Justin Lasker’s luggage made me think of how excited he got for every evening activity. Elisabeth Rindner’s bags brought back memories of when she and Hayley Sanders dressed as Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift for a skit about Sham-Wows. I apologize to the parents at those stops for taking so long, but literally every name on a bag sparks a memory.

I dropped Erin Smedley’s and Emily Middendorf’ s luggage off the the truck while thinking about how we laughed at pictures during banquet. Ian Holtz’s gear made me think of his leaping touchdown catch when we won the Super Bowl with the Red Bulls this session. Josh Arnold’s things made me think of the original CTT song he and his cabin perform every year at the opening campfire. As I handed Ethan Polk-Trauman’s golf clubs to his father I have to think about his tremendous talent and how he is the best guitar player at camp at such a young age.

Jamie Alloy’s suitcases made me wonder if I will be her co-worker next year when and if she will become a junior counselor. Brett Richardson’s bags made me think of the booming shots he hit during the softball league and the big smile he always has on his face.

When I got to the end of the truck, the last three bags I unloaded belonged to Taylor, Reece and Casey Dennison. I had to chuckle at how Taylor tried to nickname herself Smurf, but it never caught on and I was the only one who remembered it half of the time. I remember Casey giving everything she had for the white team during tug of war and the hurt leg she got as a result. I’m sure it hurt, but she never complained and limped over to the next team meeting to be there for her teammates. I remember teaching Reece her first guitar chords during my class and the smile on her face when she finally mastered the D chord.

With each suitcase, the end of the session seemed more and more real. Before that, I knew it was coming but it still just seemed surreal. When I set those last bags on the ground, it hit hard. But the end of a session always does (Yes, I’m that guy that always gets upset at the end of the session. Tears happen, okay?).

But, despite how bad the end of a session seems, it is always comforting to know that there will be a next year. That is the great thing about the camp life and its routine- just as sure as the bell will ring every morning, there will be a next year. The summer of 2011 might take forever to get there and just about anything could happen before then, but if we can make it through the next 11 months Camp Tall Timbers will be there for us.

It will be there to generate more special moments that become priceless memories, it will bring us closer to new friends and reunite us with old ones we haven’t seen since the bus ride the year before. Despite what the year brings, we know CTT will be here next here. Hopefully, I will be too and hopefully I get to load up those bags I just unloaded at the beginning of next summer.

So the next 11 months may be a little tough, but just remember that CTT is here. The cabins may be empty and the bell may fall silent, but Camp Tall Timbers will be there like it always has- quietly tucked back in the Appalachian Mountains silently awaiting next summer.  And as you go about the year and deal with school, work or whatever else, just remember that CTT is still here and there will always, always be a next summer.

Hopefully, I’ll see you there.

Out of the bus window, you see towering trails of twisted metal rising high into the misty morning sky near Richmond, Va. Occasionally a small cart flies through the air, looking like it is just barely attached to the massive steel sculpture underneath.  There are screams audible from the parking lot as yet another cart flies through the sky on a giant loop.

These structures are known by menacing names like The Dominator, The Intimidator, the Flight of Fear and the Anaconda. There is a volcano with tracks coming out of it and another beast known as the Shockwave.

This, as CTT found out yesterday, is King’s Dominion.

But I think I may have been the only person worried about these scary machines (for the record, everytime I try to get on a roller coaster I see a grim reaper waiting for me in the line). The campers of CTT certainly didn’t. They spent most of the day intimidating The Intimidator, dominating the Dominator, sending the Flight of Fear into a flight of, well, fear.

Small children like A-Tom hopped on every coaster they could and some people, like Corinne Polk-Trauman, rode their first coasters. Sydney Alloy and Sammie Cooper rode KD’s newest attraction, The Intimidator, twice in a row. Alejandra got over her deep fear of roller coasters and hit some of the biggest rides in the park.

The older campers, guys like Ethan Ebinger, Alex Fang and AJ Roshfeld hung together and had a good day enjoying their last trip to KD as campers. It was a grueling day, but we got lucky and it stayed cool and overcast for most of the day and we didn’t see any rain until the end.

It was good for all of us to break the normal routine and spend some time with some members of our camp family we don’t get to see all that often. There is still a lot of stuff to do this session; there is a Super Bowl (Red Bulls vs. Orange Crush), the World Series (Red Sox vs. Blue Wilds) and that color thing. But despite all that, the end gets closer and closer.

We will all hate for that to come, but yesterday’s trip shows that we can and will enjoy every moment until it does come. So bring it on, we’ll enjoy it.

Once again, a CTT activity has been interrupted by rude visitors. First there were the Gladiators, then the evil villains. Last night after each team had completed the counselor hunt, a horde of ghosts whooshed in and dragged the whole group of counselors and campers from their activity and off to meet Judge Mookie.

It was the beloved camp tradition known as Ghost Court, and some campers and counselors had to go before the judge and receive punishments! They were hilarious, as usual, and the aftermath of Judge Mookie’s rampage is evident all over the camp today.

The punishments began this morning when the boys in the BV and cabin 3 had to hug each other and sing the ‘I Love You’ song from Barney in front of everyone at breakfast.

Keep in mind this was only the regular BV boys, not the extra ones provided by Judge Mookie. The male CIT 2s, Ethan Ebinger, AJ Roshfeld and Alex Fang, all act like counselors so the Honorable Sir Mook banished them back to the Buffalo Village for the day. They, along with the rest of their fellow tent campers, must carry trash bags around all day and pick up trash because they are very dirty kids.

The young ladies in cabin A were deemed too energetic, and in order to rid them of excess energy they must skip to every activity today. Cabin B got it too, but because they (along with their counselor Julie) are huge fans of Glee, they must sing all of their words during free swims and meals (I, for one, am searching out the Cooper sisters during second free swim).

Also around camp, Georgia Oriol had to make PB&J sandwiches for everyone who wanted one during the first ten minutes of lunch, Alvaro is Harry Potter for the day, Joan and Juan have to hold the door for everyone at each meal today and all of the foreigners have to end every sentence with ‘but I love America’ because they always speak in their native languages.

The day after Ghost Court is great. I wish I could write more, but I have to go pester Alejandra to read me her life story and pelt water balloons at Tyler Maizels and Sydney Alloy. Bye!

You may remember a few days ago when a bunch of gladiators interrupted our Saturday service? Well, it happened again this week.

Except this time, instead of gladiators, a group of villains robbed some innocent bystanders! The villains, who looked strangely like counselors Tiz and Collin, were quickly thwarted by a pair of superheroes (Bill and Jason). The heroes informed the crowd that it was Superhero Day, but then the villains struck back! They scared off the superheroes with water guns and declared it Global Domination Day! The camp was split into teams and, like every Saturday, the team switched into their colors and the events began!

The day began with a game of four-way dodgeball, a penny dive and an arms race. The arms race consisted of a group of games where the competitors use only their arms, such as a strength endurance test, an arm wrestling competition and unraveling a human knot.

Each team was also tasked with building their own city and destroying the other teams. The red team, led by Mighty Bill Young, won the city competition and led most of the day until the skit portion. It was there that the yellow team, the wards of counselor Mark and Ethan Ebinger, unveiled their evil plan to blow up BP oil rigs on the East coast. The U.S. government probably wouldn’t be pleased with their plan, but the judges were and at the end of the day it was announced that the yellow team had won!

So this Saturday we learned that services will almost always be rudely interrupted, the cause of the BP oil spill and that Ethan Ebinger is the guy you want on your team on a Saturday (he was also a part of the winning green team from Gladiator Day).

It’s hard to believe there is only one week left in this session. It has flown by so quickly, but there is still a lot of cool stuff to do this week. We are going to King’s Dominion, there is a counselor hunt and presumably there is something big going on towards the end of the week. It’s that thing I mentioned the other day, with all of the yelling, intensity and color. I just can’t remember the name. Clash of the Colors, maybe?

You know you’ve had a good day when it included a fashion show, a talent show, a Survivor-style relay and a baseball game.

That is exactly what the lucky campers of CTT had in store for them yesterday during The Real World- CTT. After lunch, the camp was split into six teams and the activities were under way! The day began with the juniors at the Project Runway station and the seniors went down to the lake for a Survivor Relay.

At the Project Runway station, the kids took 20 minutes to come up with an outfit for one of their teammates, who was deemed the model. All of the entries were good, but the highlight of the day had to be when David Cohen, who is normally one of the more serious people in camp, donned a frilly white dress. The event was a lot of fun and Cathal, our camp photographer, took a lot of shots which I’m sure will be online soon enough.

While the Project Runway station was fairly easygoing, the going got a bit more intense during the Survivor Relay. During the senior relay, we learned that counselor Kyle isn’t the greatest potatofish (read: potato) spearer in the world and that some of our campers, like Emily Middendorf and Evan Cook, don’t complain nearly as much as others (Alex Fang) when tasked with walking through a section of the lake.

In the junior portion, campers had to do things like sample the ‘local cuisine’, which meant they had to separate pastel mints from a tray of flour and other elements using only their teeth. They also speared potatofish and had to ‘cut the cake,’ where Corinne Polk-Trauman proved to be among the best.

After getting glitzy at the fashion show and getting down and dirty at Survivor, it was time for four members from each team to showcase their talents. There was a dance routine led by Marley Smith and Hayley Sanders, a ‘Country Roads’ rewrite performed by Matt Kasoff and a few friends, some mind-blowing bass riffs by Rina Berman, Miguel in a bear suit and a performance of ‘Freebird’ by Ethan Polk-Trauman.

The whole event was really a showcase of the various talents of CTT campers. Whether they were spearing potatoes, sloshing through the lake, putting on a fashion show or performing in front of people, the CTT campers rose to the occasion and made each event highly competitive. The red team was the ultimate winner, but the event was still an impressive showcase of the versatile campers at CTT.

After dinner, we all threw on our CTT shirts and jumped on the buses and headed to the ballpark to see the Winchester Royals take on the Woodstock River Bandits. After a night spent dodging foul balls, eating all of our favorite ballpark fare and laughing with our friends, we were all exhausted. The home team couldn’t power out an extra-innings win but we all had a great time and slept great when we finally got home.

From Survivor, to Project Runway, to CTT’s Got Talent to the Winchester Royals, it was another fantastic day at our summer home.

Some people say that everyone has a twin somewhere in the world.

Well, last night when CTT hit the roller rink, it looked as if we all had found our twins and decided to go skating. All the campers and counselors found a friend to be twins with- Fang teamed up with counselor Rose,  A-Tom, Ethan and Marley all dressed alike and even two counselors, Ollie and Jason, got into the act and dressed alike.

Skating was a fun night, just like it always is. And just like every other time, there was a zooming noise when the kids went by and a crash periodically when some poor counselor would finally hit the ground. All of the kids seem a little sluggish this morning, and this is usually indicative of a pretty good night.

This really sets off a chain of out-of-camp trips that will take us to a baseball game and King’s Dominion, in really short time. It’s hard to believe the session is already half-over, but there is still a ton of stuff to do in the remaining week and a half that we have left- The Real World CTT, Global Domination Day, the talent show…and that one thing that happens at the end of every session, you know, with the two teams and the yelling and the screaming? Color Battle? Hue war? Something like that.

It’s all coming up on us very fast and I just can’t wait!

Hola! Bonjour! Cheers! Crikey!

Campers and counselors alike learn a lot about a variety of topics during a typical session at CTT. They learn sports, art, photography and nature. To put it simply, there aren’t a whole lot of things you can’t learn here. And all of these things hold true for every session here, but second session offers something the others really don’t.

The few days leading up to second session are swamped with runs to and from the airport and different languages. This session, there are over 20 campers and counselors that have made a trip across the ocean and become a big part of our small camp. They hail from five different countries and have all made quite an impact here in tiny High View, W.V.

The most sizable group of overseas campers is the group from Spain but France, England, Australia and Ireland are represented as well.

The Spaniards, who have been celebrating their homeland’s World Cup win since they received word of it, are spread out through both sides of camp. Cabin 3’s Bastien Vitet of France is the youngest foreign born camper on boy’s side and he lives right up the hill from Alvaro Garcia-Solans, the youngest Spanish representative,  who stays in cabin 5 under the watchful eye of England-born counselor Ollie Knowles. Frenchman Cesar Colella and Spaniards Carlos Ibares Loncan and Jaime Guinea Sarmiento reside in cabin 7 with Barcelona native Albert Oriol.

Bastien’s brother Aurelien, Ramon Ramirez, Joan-Joel Luengo and Juan Antonio Monleon represent cabin 8 and are led by Mark Flores, who is of Honduran descent. Miguel Guinea Sarmiento and Gonzalo Narvaiza make up a fifth of the boy’s tents crew and are always key players in competitions and skits.

On girl’s side, Caoimhe Ni Droighneain from Ireland is in cabin B, which is right beside cabin A and their counselor, Spain-born Carla Vivo.

Cabin G’s Alejandra De Gregorio shares a porch with cabin H’s Lucia Aparicio Irisarri and Caoimhe’s sister, Catherine. Our resident Australian, Julia Grgurinovic is a counselor in cabin H and, despite the stereotypes, she doesn’t enjoy catching snakes.

That bunch lives near the tent girls, which may be one of the most diverse groups in camp. Clea Colella flew in from France on the first day of camp with her brother Cesar and her friend Heloise Cabotin, who is French but lives in Spain. Veteran camper Jamie Alloy shares a super tent with Julia Alarcon Lorente, Maria Nupponen Camprecios and Georgia Oriol, who all come from Spain.

Needless to say, it takes some adjusting to understand different cultures but everyone here gets along famously (I realized this last night when Paloma, the translator, wiped Barbasol on my face during Carnival Night and I spent the rest of the night trying to catch Carlos to repay him for doing the same deed). The usual CTT curriculum is great, but having all of these new friends from different countries and cultures really adds to it. We are all learning so much from each other, and when that is combined with all of the fun and excitement you expect in a CTT session, it makes this session an experience of a lifetime.

It seems like every time we hold a skit night at CTT, Alex Fang wears a dress.

Except this time, at Jive through the Genres, he wasn’t alone. About half of the group, including A.J., Evan Cook and Ethan Ebinger joined him in wearing women’s clothing. Their skit was based around Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and poked fun at some of the couples in camp. And it was good, but they faced some stiff competition from the rest of the field.

The boys in the BV remade the video from the Jonas Brothers “Year 3000,” which featured Jack Corby and Paul Holtz on a trip through time and Justin Lasker as Paul’s great-great-great granddaughter. Cabin G performed a dance to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and Cabin A based a routine around Taylor Swift’s “Our Song” and we saw Hayley Sanders dance in counselor Susan’s cowgirl boots, which was very impressive.

Cabin 3’s routine was a real crowd pleaser. They put together an act based on theme songs which was the soundtrack to Josh Arnold and J-Man’s journey to test their friendship. They started out in a yellow submarine and then met Spongebob Squarepants, The Simpsons, pirates and finished it with the Ghostbusters slugging it out with a pesky poltergeist. All of the acts were good, but at the end of the night the first girl’s tent group pulled out the big guns.

I can’t lie, I don’t know exactly what song they used. Their genre was boy bands and they all sound the same to me, so I don’t know which one it was. But whichever one they used, they had a well-choreographed routine to go along with it. Erin Smedley, Emily Middendorf, Marley Smith and the rest of the gang really put a lot of work into the routine. Olivia Kimmel, counselor Steph and Rina Berman posted up on the front of the stage dressed as whichever boy band they were and the whole crowd got into the act.

The girls took their first skit win of the year and they deserved it. Their dance was well put together and polished and, as I predicted, raised the bar yet again for what is expected from these skit nights. But at this point I’m not surprised, I’m just anxious for the next batch of skits which will come in Friday during Movie in a Minute.

Yay, skits!

It seems like every time we try to hold a nice service on a Saturday, it gets broken up by something rude. First session saw pirates and college kids and just when we thought we were going to make it through Saturday’s love themed service, it was interrupted- this time by gladiators.

Colossus (Kyle) and Blarfengarf (Ethan) came around either side of the rec hall porch and proceeded to get into a sword fight right in front of everyone. When Blarfengarf knocked away Colossus’ sword, all eyes turned to Emperor Insano, who was waiting on the gym porch. He gave the thumbs up, which allowed Colossus to join a host of other gladiators and help announce that Saturday was Gladiator Day!

The campers were broken up into four teams; the Mean Green Fighting Machine led by Ethan Ebinger and Jamie Alloy, Alex Fang and Maria’s Super Magenta Awesome People (SMAP), the red Blood Thirsty Warriors who followed A.J. and Julia and Great Gray, who were led by Evan Cook and Georgia Oriol. The teams participated in a four-event rotation that pitted them against several intense gladiators.

Battleball, a football-type game, saw Marley Smith use blazing speed and Brendan Arnold use sheer power to score on gladiators. At the pool, Brett Richardson used brains to get the ball into the net at Aquatic Thunder and at The Gauntlet, SMAP shot through the obstacles and counselor Tim couldn’t hit a single one with a water balloon.

It was a highly competitive day and the scores were almost dead even when it came time for teams to take on The Eliminator, a giant obstacle relay that covered the whole camp. Everyone on every team was involved and it was neck and neck right up until the final leg. The green team was able to edge out gray for the win in The Eliminator and when the final scores for the day were tallied, the Mean Green Fighting Machine had won Gladiator Day!

It was a hard fought day and everyone had a nice, relaxed time at the social when it was over. Socials are always great for bringing the whole camp together for a fun night of dancing and laughing. Today, we are all preparing skits for Jive Through The Genres, which is always great and this year, for some reason, every skit night has been better than the last. The bar is set unbelievably high right now, and I’m sure it will just bump up even more tonight!

Every session, I always worry how long the period of adjustment is for a certain group of campers. Sometimes, it takes a little while for kids to adjust from their everyday routine and sometimes the kids just throw themselves into the camp lifestyle and there really is no period of adjustment.

Well, this session pretty much had none. This was never more evident than it was yesterday at Cacapon. The campers and counselors belted out all of the traditional camp songs and cheers on the bus ride there and the oft-mentioned trademark CTT zaniness took over as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. The kids didn’t have much luck fishing, but we had a great day splashing around in the water and, as usual, the sandcastle building contest showed us how imaginative our kids really are.

Cabin 3 and Cabin 5 tied for first place, but all of the entries were really cool. The boys in the BV even made a replica of Bowser’s Castle from the Mario games. All in all, Cacapon was a really neat experience for all of us.

It’s hard to believe the first week of camp is almost over. The flag football and baseball leagues begin today and tomorrow is our first Sweet Saturday! Tomorrow is also Gladiator Day and that should be a lot of fun. There will be a whole line-up of awesome sporting events for the kids and counselors alike. Everyone enjoys special Saturday activities, and this one should be no exception.

So big things are happening here at camp! This has been a great session so far and the next two weeks can only get better. CTT is definitely the place to be this summer.

Out-of-camp trip today – details and a full recap will follow tomorrow!!!

What are some jobs you really wouldn’t want to do? There have to be some. Perhaps being plumber isn’t your thing or maybe being a custodian doesn’t ring your bell. Well, we all have some professions we wouldn’t want to do and last night the campers and counselors at CTT created a series of humorous skits to show what jobs they don’t desire. It was the much heralded Cheesy Skit Night, and it set the bar pretty high for the rest of the skit nights this session.

The show began with Cabin 3 and counselor Marylou showing the terrors of the teaching profession (which may be autobiographical because she is a math teacher in the real world). Josh Arnold and the gang got the night off to a great start with the longest skit of the evening.

There were many memorable moments throughout the evening and just like in every skit night of the previous session, counselor Kyle was made fun of in several acts. Cabin A decided being his childhood babysitter was one of the worst jobs anyone could have because of his propensity to smash things and eat plates. His own campers in boys’ tents decided he actually had the worst job available and poked fun at themselves.

But there was plenty of love spread around. Alex Fang was mentioned in two skits as well, both by the youngest girls in camp. In Cabin B’s skit, it was also determined that being Fang’s counselor during wake-up was a tough job and Cabin A demonstrated that it was actually tougher to be his counselor during unpacking day because of his odd wardrobe (which includes multiple onesies).

Despite the good-natured ribbing of some of our favorite people here, the boys in Cabin 78 and counselor Julia won the night by trashing both Justin Bieber and the latest installment in the Twilight franchise, Eclipse. First, they demonstrated that being Bieber’s manager would be tough because people are willing to kidnap him just so he is out of the limelight. The toughest job in the world, according to Jesse Alloy and his friends, would to be the editor of Eclipse. A movie editor has to watch the movie up to 300 times to catch all the tiny mistakes. According to Alloy, “That movie brought us all enough pain from watching it one time. Watching it over and over has to be the worst job in the world.” Needless to say, they won the competition.

Cabin A came in second, but it was all in good fun. There were lots of laughs and great skits last night and that is what we have all come to expect out of Cheesy Skit Night. Tonight is Cabin Night, and that is one of my favorite nights of the whole session. I love hanging out with my BV boys, even though they have vowed to take down my co-counselors and I in a game of water polo…

But it will be a blast. This is CTT. Everything is.

I never thought the sight of a bus could spur so much emotion. Usually, a bus is just a slow-moving obstacle to deal with on the highway. But, as I learned this weekend, the symbolism behind the red Schrock buses that transport campers to and from CTT can elicit sadness, excitement, nervousness and hopefulness.

The crunch of the gravel under the bus tires and the cloud of dust in its wake brought the sadness on Saturday. When the bus arrived, it was time to say our goodbyes to first session; to say goodbye to the laughs, the friends, the CTT routine and say goodbye to being away from everyday. The red machine looked so out of place in the middle of our camp that the experience was surreal, but when Brandon Kagen, Miller Friedman, Sydney LaPorte and all of the others piled on it became evident that it was really there and this was really happening.

There was talk of our trip to Hershey Park, of the 300 White Spartans defeating the Blue Collar Comedy Crew in Color War, of special times and everyday activities, now all reduced to memories in the part of our brains where we store good times. It was a sad day and many tears were shed, but the great thing about life is that there is always a tomorrow. After we find ways to stay occupied for the rest of the summer, after the school year begins, after the cold winter and after Spring Break, we get to return to this place.

I hated to see the campers from first session leave, but at the same time I occupy my mind with thoughts of the camp opening next year and when we all get together again. And I can’t wait.

The bus delivered the excitement and nervousness on Sunday when it hauled in Brett Richardson, Olivia Kimmel, Ethan Polk-Trauman, Adam Tommer and the rest of the second session gang. The nervousness comes when waiting on the bus to arrive, and it is almost unbearable. Will the kids be excited for camp? Will they like our skits? Will they like us?

But that all melts away as soon as the red bus crests the top of the hill and you can see excited campers faces even through the tinted windows. When they all come pouring off the bus and hug their favorite counselors from last year and meet their counselors for this year, camp is right back in session. The excitement spreads through this camp and soon after the kids get here seemingly everyone is smiling and already enjoying each other’s company. BV kids play tetherball with cabin three, Cabin G girls start talking in hushed, hurried tones about whatever it is they talk about and tent boys and girls begin the awkward conversations we all had at that age. Suddenly, we’re all caught in the moment and excited for the next three weeks.

The last emotion, hopefulness, is a common theme throughout. We are hopeful that the first session campers have a great year and learn a lot. We hope to see and hear from them again very soon and we are hopeful that the things they have learned here transcend our small camp and help them in their everyday lives. We hope they remember us fondly and we truly do hope for the best for each and every person that left this camp after the first session.

We are hopeful we can make the next session an amazing one for the campers of second session. We hope each moment of this session is one that will turn into a memory they will cherish. We hope we have fun and we hope we can teach these kids how to be good people. We hope second session is a blast, even though we are pretty sure it will be.

And I hope you enjoy this blog. I loved spending the first three weeks of summer bringing you the latest news from camp and I am excited to get started working on second session. I want to thank the first session readers for visiting my blog and being a great audience. As far as second session readers, I hope you keep coming backing. This is going to be a great session and I will bring you all of the big stories here, so keep coming back!

Don’t you just hate when a normal skit night ends with a hoard of ghosts flying in and dragging you to the lake for judgment?

It happens every year at CTT. It is known as Ghost Court and it is the one night a year the counselors (mostly) get to choose a fitting punishment for the campers’ quirks. And this year’s judgments and sentences were simply awesome.

The most noticeable punishment so far is the one handed out to Cabin Three. Jakeabel, Ziggy, Matt Kasoff, Sam Audia and the like are so positive they are good at everything that this morning they had to wake up and go to the art shack to make signs detailing their flaws. Now the whole camp knows about Bobby Jaffe not being musical and Sam Blum’s inability to dance. It’s just priceless.

This year, the girls of Cabin HuG love to make bracelets. And they look nice. I’m not 100% sure, but their counselors may have had something to do with their sentencing to make bracelets for all of their counselors. Hmm…

Some kids have to make public declarations, such as Cory Nigrin. Cory loves his iPad. He allegedly spends most of the day on it- while at camp. So by order of Judge Mookie, he must make a list of 10 reasons why camp is better than the iPad and read it at lunch.

The boys in the Buffalo Village don’t like to observe rest hour. They prefer to call it Wrestle Hour and, as you’ve probably guessed, wrestle for the duration. This morning, thanks to the honorable Mook, they had to each come up with a reason why resting is good and read it in a professional wrestling voice.

Sydney Sachs and Aaron Forest are very loving people, but when it is stifling hot outside hugs aren’t really all that desirable. For their propensity to hug long and often, they are forbidden to touch anyone the rest of the day. It will be neat to see how that one plays out…

The day after Ghost Court is great. You see Max Penn walking around in a mountain boarding butt pad, Olivia Seltzer and David Morrel performing poetry, kids dressed up like GameBoys and hear Jacob Langer talking like a pirate.

On second thought, I kind of like it when a skit night is interrupted by ghosts that whisk us away for hilarious convictions…

This year at CTT, we are lucky to have an American soldier here to celebrate Independence Day. Jason Neely, a rookie counselor in Cabin 1, is a member of the West Virginia Air National Guard and it is remarkable to see how seriously he takes this day.

We are all patriotic people and we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and cover our hearts for the national anthem, but Jason makes us all look like slackers. He sits on porches and cabins for hours and talks to campers about how much he enjoys serving his country and about what military life is like. He wears his fatigues to intense events like Rope Burn to add an air of intensity the rest of us can’t match. And this morning, after the wake-up bell, he stood on the porch of the BV, fixed in a rigid salute, as The Star-Spangled Banner was played over loudspeakers.

It was almost haunting to see one of my peers and co-counselors switch into soldier mode and I realized that without people like him we would not have a place such as this to come and be with the people we love. When he stood at breakfast and urged us all to write a letter to a soldier today, the campers and counselors broke into a ‘USA’ chant and he swelled with pride. And he deserves to.

Next summer, there is a very real chance that Jason will be trading a CTT staff shirt and the mountains of West Virginia for a combat uniform and the doldrums of Afghanistan. While the rest of us mill around and stress about planning such trivial things as Pirate Day, he is mentally preparing himself to go ensure that we have a safe place to live. The weight must be tremendous on the young man’s shoulders, but he doesn’t show it. He laughs and has fun just like the rest of us, but sometimes, like this morning, we are reminded of how special he is.

Usually in this blog I like to mention campers and the fun we are all having, but when I saw Jason on the porch this morning I knew this had to be a different kind of post. On Independence Day, we should be honoring the people who have made the American dream such a reachable goal and he is one of these people. We should enjoy our barbecues and fireworks, but take some time to think of people like Jason. People like him are the reason we have things like Camp Tall Timbers. They are the reason we have nice things and loving families that we can enjoy in safety.

As we work our way through today’s activities, it will look like a normal day at CTT. Tonight is Movie in a Minute, so people will be prepping for that. The flag football playoffs start at free swim. It will look like a run-of-the-mill day, except one counselor will have an extra bounce to his step. And he deserves to.

Thank you, Jason.

Your heart pounds as you sprint across the field, ducking and dodging enemy fire as you re-focus on your goal. You think of taking cover, but as you do you feel a smack on your back and sudden a wetness.

You turn and snarl at the kid who pegged you with a water balloon and wait for 30 seconds before you can continue your quest to nail the other team’s boogey board with the water balloon you are clutching in your hand.

This may sound intense, but this was reality for all of us here yesterday during the final battle of Water War Day. Throughout the course of the day the camp was divided into four teams and competed in various water-related ‘war games,’ including water polo, a canoe relay and a rather humorous event where campers had to use only their bottoms to free a t-shirt from a block of ice. It was a fun day all around but before we all trekked down to the lake for a chill campfire,  the Battle of the Upper Fields was the key event for the whole day.

Each team started from a different corner of the soccer fields. When it was time to go, they charged another teams’ base and tried to pelt their boogey board, which was adorned with team colors, names and logos, with water balloons and wet sponges. The objective was to screw up the other teams’ boards and protect your own. It was an intense event and all of the campers and counselors involved were soaked, but smiling.

At the end of the day it was announced that the blue team had won the war. If you’ll remember, the blue team also won Pirate Day. It has been rumored around camp that this is a precursor for Color War, but the white team contends that it can’t be because there hasn’t been a white team during either Water War Day or Pirate Day. As a proud member of the white team, I hope this isn’t true. Actually, I’m rather sure it is not. But you have to wonder, as we head into the last week of the session, can it be true? Color War is right around the corner, and questions are rampant. But, like everything else, only time will tell. And the Apache Relay. And the skit. And the speech. And the plaque. And every other event. But as is it nears, the growing tension is impossible to ignore as we prepare for the ultimate CTT tradition- Color War. Go white!!!

Leagues, leagues, leagues. It seems like every free swim there is a league game to see. At CTT, there is a softball league, a flag football league, a water polo league and there have been talks of forming a soccer league. Basically, regardless of want you want to do with your game ball- hit it, pass it, catch it, kick it or get it wet- we have what you want.

Yesterday, the CTT Softball League played its season opener, which pitted Bill’s Wildcats against my Red Sox. The Wildcats took a 6-2 win, but I contend we only got to have one at bat before the bell rang. Regardless, it was good to see Bobby Jaffe robbing counselors of hits and Casey Dennison finally smacking a single into fair territory after a few foul balls. It would have been better to win, but it was still awesome to see the kids doing such a great job.

The flag football league kicked off a few days ago and the kids are very excited for the second game of the season, which will be during today’s first free swim. In week one, Jakeabel led the Red Bulls to a 20-12 win over the Orange Crush with two passing touchdowns and an interception return TD and the Yellow Polka-Dotted Hippopotami relied heavily on David Morrel to trounce the Purple Nurples 28-0 despite the best efforts of Brandon Kagen.

The water polo league is new this year. It features five teams made up of campers and counselors and it is a ton of fun. In the inaugural game, Zach LaPorte led the Bulldogs to a 12-8 win over the Flying Fish. The second games of the series will be played during second free swim today and I will report on those games as soon as I can. The league is a great way to organize one of the campers’ favorite pool activities and so far everyone is having a great time.

Well, it is almost time for round two of the Red Bulls quest for second straight Super Bowl berth. Hopefully we can pull it out, but Nicky Feldman and the Crush have been working hard… you just never know how all of these league games will play out at CTT.

When counselors Megan, Ollie and Marylou announced the assigned genres for Jive Through the Genres, the boys of the Buffalo Village got really excited when they heard that they were to come up with a lip sync routine for a country song. The tent boys were already buzzing about their Disney routine and Cabin HuG seemed pretty hyped to tackle a 90’s pop song. Everyone was excited to exit the dining hall and start preparing for another great night of skits.

The show began with BV’s interpretation of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story.’ Brandon Kagen, who (along with several other boys) had donned a dress, make up and nail polish for the occasion, played Juliet. As he serenaded Nicky Feldman’s Romeo, the crowd couldn’t stop laughing. When it was all over, the youngest boys had thrown down the gauntlet for the rest of the night.

But every cabin broke out the big guns for the event. Cabin A got gangsta, girls’ tents went punk, Cabin 3 were greasers and Cabin 7 disturbed us. Cabin 5 even found the Eye of the Tiger. But like most skit nights, the judges decided it was too close to call and the winner was to be decided with a dance-off between the BV, Cabin HuG and boys’ tents (who got in with a well-rehearsed Disney medley mocking the life of counselor Kyle and his relationship with the pretty princess Fangorella).

After a dance-off filled with everything from Ethan Harrison doing the worm under a tent boy to Sam Friedman leaping over someone to the HuG counselors being banned from the stage, the BV boys finally claimed victory. It was a huge win for the boys and the ones that dressed as girls were sure relieved they hadn’t done it for nothing.

But just like every competition here, the winner was forgotten soon after and the laughter lived on. It may have been the best skit night I’ve seen in my time at CTT and I know I won’t be forgetting it for a long time. If we had that much fun together during Jive Through the Genres, I can’t wait to head off to the skating rink tonight. It should be a blast!!!!

Last night, Max Penn bounced a cookie off of his forehead and into his mouth. Miller Friedman separated a cup of M&M’s by color in under a minute. Nate Fink bounced tennis balls off of the floor, off of the wall of the gym and into a bucket on his head.

None of these activities have any use in the real world, but these campers’ strange talents came in handy during our version of the popular game show ‘Minute to Win It.’ Some kids had to stack and unstack cups, keep two feathers in the air by blowing them and bounce their head 125 times in a minute. It was a hectic night, but in the end Casey Dennison proved to be the ultimate champion by catching four marshmallows in a cup after she launched them from a plate with a broom (I’m not sure how else to describe it…).

Tonight is Jive Through The Genres and it is always hilarious to see what kind of dances these kids can come up with. Tomorrow night is Skating Night, and for those of you who are familiar with me and this blog, you know I actually bring ice packs to the rink in anticipation of the pain. Fortunately for all of your kids, they are much more skilled than I am and they never have any trouble zooming around the rink.

Well, it is time to go think of a dance for tonight. I’m thinking of a country version of ‘Smooth Criminal.’ Can it be done? I don’t know, but if it can be someone here will figure out how…

Yar mateys!! Saturday started out like any other Saturday at CTT – sweet Saturday breakfast, no cleaning, and services – but then the theme song from Pirates of the Caribbean blared over the speakers and a pirate ship came screaming around the corner of the art shack! A few minutes later, Captain Insano barked out the teams and the rules for the day and it became clear that it was Pirate Day at CTT!!!

Early in the day the teams had to come up with team names and build a pirate ship from materials they were given. The teams had to use each piece they were given in order to build a boat and, in the pirate spirit, cheating and sabotage were encouraged. After the crews dispatched everything from spies to kamikazes to give the other teams a disadvantage, it was time to put the boats on the water. All but one team was able to stay up for more than five minutes and the black team picked up a five-minute bonus because Miller Friedman was able to ride the boat for fifteen seconds before it sank. It wasn’t enough to beat the orange-clad S.S. Kirby, however. Their boat would float indefinitely and after ten minutes Captain Insano and the other judges declared them the winner.

After an afternoon rotation that included Human Battleship, kickball and ultimate Frisbee, all of the teams gathered at the lake for the Battle of Lake Tall Timbers. The battle included a land, sea and air portion and combined campers’ skills at riflery, boating and water balloon tossing (in individual events). The Blue-Bearded Pirates came away with the win thanks to an extraordinary effort by Jordyn Chace and Reece Dennison to maneuver a heavy aluminum canoe and find the Ultimate Treasure, which was hidden in a bucket floating on the lake.

After dinner, the whole day was decided by an event which hasn’t been seen at Tall Timbers in many years. There were four fire pits and a rope tied high above – it was a spectacle known as Rope Burn! Three-person crews gathered wood and the team who was able to build a fire high enough to burn through their rope was the winner. In addition, the rest of the team was judged on how spirited they could cheer on their fire crews.

The black team and counselor Tim Allen (yeah, he has heard the jokes) were able to burn through their rope in less than ten minutes. They won the burn portion, but counselor Katie, Jacob and Marc Blitz, Aaron Forest and the rest of the Blue Beards wrote two original songs for the cheer portion. When the final scores were tallied, the Beards took the win!

The kids really got into Pirate Day and we all had a lot of great times. There were battleships, water balloons and big fires. When you add all that to the Parlay in the Gym social afterwards, what more could you ask for? If, for some reason, you wanted to ask for a soft pretzel – we had those, too.

Although Pirate Day is done, there is plenty of fun to be had this week. Tuesday night is skating night and later on in the week there is a counselor hunt – but that could turn into anything. Who knows how things will shake out at Tall Timbers?

When the Camp Tall Timbers bus arrived at Cacapon on Thursday, the sand was smooth, the water was calm and the fish were just chilling without a care in the world. But when those doors opened, all of the calm was wrecked and the formerly tranquil lake was transformed into a trademarked CTT fury that Glenn Smith should seek a patent for.

Jakeabel was among the first campers to disturb the peace by reeling the first fish of the day and naming it Franklin. After a few rousing games of ‘Cut the Cake,’ Ethan Weinstein, Casey Dennison and Caoimhe Ni Droighneain, Hayley Sanders and a few Cabin One boys constructed a running moat in the sand complete with fortifications. Kevin Shefferman, Jason Shefferman and Aaron Forest weren’t content with swimming in the lake so they made a swimming pool. Counselor Kyle and the tent boys made a giant shark and not to be outdone, Jacob Blitz made an even bigger moat than the previous one. And so was the end of smooth sand and calm waters of Cacapon.

After all of that and a tasty cookout dinner, there was a mermaid contest (which entailed counselors being buried in sand and then being made into a mermaid) and we finally boarded the bus to head back to camp in time for bed. It was a long, hot day but it seemed to last no time at all- just like everything we do with our CTT family.

Cacapon may be over, but the fun sure isn’t. Tonight is the infamous Cheesy Skit Night and the kids have been buzzing all day coming up with ideas for the superhero theme. And tomorrow the campers and counselors will have the chance to become pretty infamous themselves during the one day they are encouraged to cheat and steal- but that will all stop when it comes down to the surprise final event that will determine the winner…

Argh! Why can’t it come any faster!

Some amazing things happen during Cabin Night. Every Wednesday of every session, a few campers go above and beyond what is expected and really shine while we hang out with the people we are closest to at camp – our bunkmates.

The kids from Cabin Seven trekked down to the rifle range and played a hand of Shoot ‘Em Up poker, which is played with the deck of cards taped to a solid object and the players shoot the cards they want. Benji Fleischmann proved to be the best shooter in the cabin by knocking down three jacks. I don’t want to say this is a direct result of the fact that he has a riflery class with me, but I think there could be a chance…

The Buffalo Village boys spent the evening at the pool playing water polo and jamming out to Blues Traveler. Several games were played and the kids scored a near-flawless victory against the counselors, but the real highlight of the night came in the final game when Kevin Shefferman tallied 25 individual goals on his own. Having been on the opposing team, I can assure you there was no stopping the man. He just caught fire early and kept scoring.

Some groups, such as the young ladies in girls’ tents, opted to have a very non-competitive night and watched a movie. There was also a dance party for Cabin A and a lighthearted softball game for Cabin Five.

All in all, Cabin Night is one of our favorite nights at camp. We get to do some awesome activities with our cabin mates and it is always a good time.

Today, we are all loading up on the buses and trucking to Cacapon for our first out of camp trip of the session! There is an almost electric buzz around camp as we prepare for the adventure. This trip is always a favorite for the campers and the games we play there are always a ton of fun. And due to the small heat wave we’ve been experiencing, the cool water should prove to be extra refreshing.

Well, I have to go dig out my swim trunks and get ready for a day sure to be full of chicken fights and sand burials. I can’t wait! Check back tomorrow for details from the trip.

Once the dust from the bus died down, it didn’t take long for Camp Tall Timbers’ trademark zaniness to ensure that we had really slipped into our loud, obnoxious and nonsensical piece of summer peace.

Almost as soon as they got off the bus, Brandon Kagen and Ethan McCann went piece-for-piece in a pizza eating competition. The two Buffalo Village representatives each downed a very respectable five pieces while their cohort Ryan Kalata got experimental and topped his pizza with spaghetti.

The youngest boys in camp also got off to a solid start in archery thanks to Zach LaPorte and Will Todd sinking bull’s eyes on their first day at the range.

The first few days have been big for some other campers, as well. Garrett caught his first fish as a camper, which is a HUGE accomplishment considering I have been trying for two years and have never, ever caught one. Maybe the kids just have all the skill…

Down in the pool, many of the campers have discovered a new hero in the form of rookie counselor Kyle Moore, who just happens to be ripped like a professional wrestler. He teamed up with all of the campers present at a free swim and together they defeated the rest of the counselors in an intense game of water polo. I have a sneaking suspicion Kyle will be highly sought after when the Color War Tug-o-War comes around.

Another crazy phenomenon that happens around here is Dippies, which is when a group of clinically insane campers and counselors wake up in the morning and run down to the pool to swim a lap. The Dippies crowd has had a great turnout so far, but we’ll see if my Sleepies crew catches up once we really get into the full swing of camp.

So, thankfully, camp is back in full swing. There has been a loomster, a group of devoted Dippers has formed and children are already getting experimental with their food. Clue was a smash last night (Cabin 5 found out that Lindsay Heiman/ Ms. Scarlett was the killer), tonight is our first cabin night and tomorrow is Cacapon.

It’s just so good to be here, and of course we are all loving camp life with all of our camp family.

Around lunchtime Sunday, a group of camp counselors in purple shirts emblazoned with the Camp Tall Timbers name waited nervously under the pavilion outside of the mess hall. Inside the cafeteria, the kitchen staff was hurrying to prepare their first massive meal in almost a year. The soccer nets were hung, the tents were rigid and the new putting green was ready for action. These were the final moments before we all escaped the everyday grind and began the next installment of the best days of our lives.

Then there was the sound of a large diesel engine in the distance and the crunch of approaching bus tires over gravel. The bus from Baltimore had arrived! Soon after the van from Tyson’s Corner and Rockville pulled in and finally, after all these months of waiting and the terrible snowstorms of this past winter, the first session of Camp Tall Timbers 2010 was under way!

If you’ve never been there, I have to try to explain to you how magical the first few hours of camp are. For those of us returning to CTT, the anticipation to see campers and counselors for the first time in what seems like forever is almost unbearable. It is very exciting to see familiar faces like Brandon Kagen, Miller Friedman, Hayley Sanders and Sydney LaPorte running around on these fields again, eager to recapture the magic of previous years. There are new faces as well, like Zach LaPorte and Caiomhe Ni Dhroighneain. They are quickly adopted into the camp lifestyle and soon understand the importance of things such as the summer’s first loomster, which Jakeabel was able to snag, and the excitement over being the first person to finish their class schedule (the honor went to Jennifer Heiman).

There is already a buzz in the air concerning Color War, Murder Mystery Night, an upcoming trip to a skating rink and attending a Winchester Royals game. It took the campers no time to man the tetherball courts and begin trying to hit a baseball to the art shack. And it didn’t take long to recapture the magic we were forced to put on hold at the end of last summer.

As we all were at the opening campfire singing John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’, I couldn’t help but think of how perfectly that song  sums up the magic and the almost irresistible pull of Camp Tall Timbers. As we work our way towards a life-size game of Clue tonight and a trip to Cacapon on Thursday, it is hard to argue with the idea that our little slice of West Virginia is almost heaven, and that these country roads surrounding camp have indeed brought us home.

In just a few short hours, the campers, counselors and administrators of Camp Tall Timbers will dress in their best and begin filing into the dining hall for one last dinner together – the always bittersweet session-ending banquet.

The food will be good, as it always is. The campers will look presentable to outsiders for the first time in quite awhile thanks to their fancy clothes, and the conversation will almost certainly bounce around, touching on all of the fun activities, laughs and memories that have been made at CTT this year. From the opening campfire, to Monte Carlo Night, to skating night and to the murder mystery we solved this morning I expect everyone will be bubbling just thinking of this last session.

Later tonight, we will sit as a group around a special campfire and reminisce – not only of the special activities I’ve already mentioned, but of everyday occurrences. We could think about something learned in lacrosse class, possibly a play made in a CTT baseball game, maybe even something memorable from bunk time. We will look back on water fights, Pirate Day, bowling night and mealtime shenanigans with fond smiles.

One thing I know for certain is that tonight, after the packing is done, the thinking starts. You think about the activities, about the counselors, about your friends and about the rest of the CTT family. You think about how you will miss camp in the next 11 and a half months and how you dread boarding that bus in the morning. I know we all long to see our families, but we always hate to leave this place.

During the closing campfire tonight there will undoubtedly be a lot of smiles, a lot of laughs, a lot of introspective looking back and almost certainly a few tears. Even though we can make like a Cubs fan and remember there is always next year, this one was special. This is the one we will remember most vividly for the next year and therefore, these are the CTT memories that will be emblazoned in the front of that special section of our brain where we store our Tall Timbers memories until next time rolls around.

Tomorrow morning, there will be a breakfast and then it will be time to say our goodbyes. We will say goodbye to our friends, to our bunkmates, to the counselors and most importantly to this small sect of land we call our home away from home. This is the place we come to get away from everyday, and tomorrow we will head back into everyday.

On the way to the bowling alley last night, several counselors kidded that we have become institutionalized by CTT. I fear this may be true for both campers and counselors so don’t be surprised when your child doesn’t leave the breakfast table because he or she is waiting for announcements to begin. If they slam an empty pitcher on the table, don’t blame them – that one’s on us. Because we are responsible for some annoying habits like these, hopefully your camper will bring home some good things as well.

Hopefully, your child will want to be outdoors and active. Hopefully, they will want to spend time with their friends because they have learned every moment is precious (you figure that out when you only have a few weeks together). And hopefully, they will live every minute to its fullest, and seize each and every day – because that is what life here is all about. We wake up every day with the attitude that we can make today better than the day before and hopefully this is something your kids can now exhibit as well.

All in all, we have had a great summer at CTT and everyone involved is sad to see August 15^th preparing to pop up on the calendar. That day may end this summer for CTT, but it doesn’t end what CTT stands for. We still have our friends, our health and our fondest memories of good times here. Every day of the summer stands as an unforgettable one, and I know that as soon as the dust from the outgoing buses settles we are already looking forward to those same buses dropping off kids for 2010.

This is my first year at CTT, and lord willing it won’t be my last. Personally, I have had the best summer of my life and I feel very privileged to be able to chronicle it every day. I hope you all enjoyed reading my little tidbits of information and I hope I can be here next year to bring it to you again. I have met some incredible kids, made some great friends and shared a million and one fantastic moments with my CTT family.  I can attest that this place is special, and I want everyone to know the smiles you see on campers’ faces in the photo section are real.

Since I have the forum to do so, I want to thank everyone that made it possible for me to be here and bring you, the CTT families, closer into the fold of life at camp. I know I’ll be choking back tears tomorrow when we all say goodbye, but they will be bittersweet. Bitter because I feel like I’m leaving my life for the last two months behind on a dirt road in the West Virginia countryside, but sweet because I know I made some great friends who will last a lifetime. That really seems to be the word that sums up the end of camp – bittersweet.

So all that being said, I’d like to say thanks to everyone for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, because I enjoyed bringing it to you. If you are ever passing through south side Virginia look me up and we’ll sit for awhile. Otherwise, thanks again.

I know I can’t wait for next year. I’m ready for first session 2010 to begin right now. But unfortunately, we’ll just have to wait. So goodbye for now, and I’ll talk to you in June.

Until last night, I never realized the wide range of talents that the campers at CTT possess. There are the normal skills, such as playing guitar or singing, but at the same time there are some people here who can do the most bizarre things you’ve ever seen in your life. Regardless of whether the person has a flair for the common or the outlandish, everything was on display last night at the CTT Talent Show.

There are a lot of talented musicians here and they relish nights like last night so that they can display their skills in front of the camp. Gerald Wrona rocked out the solo to Green Day’s ‘When I Come Around.’ Jason Gersh belted out a new original tune that he has been writing for six months. It was called ‘Bones’ and he received a standing ovation from the audience.

Ethan Polk-Trauman and cabin three took the stage to perform his original CTT song, which is a bouncing, catchy number that talks about the good friends we make at CTT and the good times we have with them.

The last musical display of the evening came from the counselors of A & B and Jacqui. They took it upon themselves to show their lack of singing talent by butchering ‘Love Story,’ which is normally sung by Taylor Swift (and it should stay that way). Luckily before it got too embarrassing they were joined on-stage by at least half the camp, and I believe most of the people left in the audience were singing along as well. It was a fun rendition of one of the most popular songs at camp, despite the very rough counselor-only intro.

Despite the heart-warming musical numbers, everyone in camp was grossed out at least twice by two of the most bizarre talents this camp has ever seen. The first of these was the weird talent displayed by cabin five.

The boys who refer to them as the BCC 5 (Best Cabin in Camp) gathered before the show and realized that none of them really have a ton of talent that they wanted to display. They certainly didn’t have a cabin-wide skill, per se, but there was one thing they all can do.

So here is cabin five, standing in front of the camp holding water bottles. They then pick them up to their nose and begin to drink the water through their nose. To prove it, they spit it out of their mouths and into the trashcan. They didn’t win, but everyone was grossed out.

At the end of the night, the boy’s tent group was named the winner of the boy’s cabin competition for their ability to freeze for long periods of time (specifically, the entire talent show). Cabin A won the girl’s competition for a cute little act where they asked each other if it was time, and then when it was they switched their posture.

So, from guitar playing, to bad singing, to milk shooting to leg switching, campers at CTT have proven they can do it all. It was a fun talent show to see, but tonight they will have to display a new set of skills if they want to come out on top at Bowling Night.

This is one I’ve been looking forward to. It doesn’t have the pain potential like skating night does, which is always a plus. Not to mention, I don’t have to listen to the A & B counselors butcher perfectly good songs. This is shaping up to be a good for Ol’ Tom.

But really, at CTT they are all good nights. I know I’m dreading Saturday, when we all go home and I think everyone else is as well. But today is a showcase of the Best of CTT, where kids will participate in a mash-up of the most fun activities we have had this summer and it should be a great day with a lot of variety. Tomorrow will be fun as well, but I can’t quite tell you what it is yet…

Regardless, we are having a great day here even though it is one of our last. We are trying to make it a memorable one, and with the people here there is no doubt in my mind it will be.

Good news everyone- I made it through skating night completely unharmed! No ice, no bruises, nothing! Most of the campers can say the same thing, not to mention the fact that we all had a blast last night when we trekked to the roller rink.

The DJ kept the vinyl spinning and the campers kept their wheels rolling all night. As usual the veteran campers proved themselves to be the best skaters. Stevie and Sam hardly hit the ground at all, the Schwartz brothers alternated between beating everyone at pool and impressing us with their roller skills and even Gerald showed some people up.

The young kids struggled a bit more, but they gave it a good try. With assistance from counselor Susan, the girls from cabin A stayed on the floor almost the entire night. I don’t think Kacey ever let go of Susan’s hand, but she was out there giving it everything she had. Some of the guys from the BV, like Mason, had a few hard falls but stayed up for most of the night.

All in all, skating night was a fun time for everyone. Most of us managed to stay upright for the majority of the night and we all had a great time grooving to the music.

With only a few more days left in the summer, we are all starting to prepare for those inevitable goodbyes. Despite this, there is still quite a lot of fun to be had in the summer. We still have the talent show, the banquet and I even hear rumblings about a bowling trip. So as is typical of the end of any session at CTT, we are all excited to get back and see our folks but dreading leaving High View. With so little time left, you can rest assured that those of us here at CTT will be living every minute to its fullest until we pack up and leave here Saturday.