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