Last night was Cabin Night, an esteemed Camp Tall Timbers tradition. It works like this: at breakfast, every cabin or tent group engages in a mad scramble for the best spots. It’s like for ten minutes all the counselors are engaged in some sort of medieval-courtesan, uber-polite yet totally ironic scramble, complete with deals and exchanges whispered just out of earshot of Admin. I’m exaggerating. But still, when my kids, Girls Tents, ended up with the pavilion, I was super pleased. We didn’t even have to think about what we’d be doing: it was Disney Movie Night. Indeed, when evening activity rolled around, we popped in Pocahontas and sang along with all the songs.
I love Cabin Night. It’s kind of geeky of me, because there are so many other awesome evening activities that are way more high profile, but there’s something about it that makes me happy. I think it’s that because even though we live together, cabins and tents spend all day running around in classes and free swims, goofing around with other kids from other age groups, that they don’t actually have that much time to get to know one another, at least not in the first few days. Cabin Night is one of the first times we really get to form those crazy-deep, supercharged, important camp friendships that mean so much. Cabin Night is when we stop pretending to be cooler than we are and belt out every single word to “Colors of the Wind” because let’s be real, that’s everybody’s jam.
Girls Tents watched a movie, and Boys Tents played cards, and I don’t know what cabin this was, but somebody was having a whole lot of fun playing dodgeball in the gym. It was kind of rainy, but that just made it better. It was cozy, just like Cabin Night is supposed to be.
Today we’re going to Cacapon to go swimming, run around and have a cookout. It will be loud and boisterous, and maybe kids will hang out with friends from their cabin, but maybe they won’t. But that’s okay either way, because those cabin bonds have been solidified. We’re all part of a community now. We belong, and that’s what camp is about.
Other Tall Timbers Happenings
– Loea Kang and Jill Boylan made it up the hard side of the rock wall
– B4 Challenge completed the human knot in 24 seconds
– Crawford Hemmis won Zip Zap Zop in Improv
– At Lake Activities, Adin McGurk won Somali Pirate Wars