Opening Day.
“The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident”.
Hello Everybody
Welcome to the summer of 2022 and the first edition of The Word. My name is Woody, and I will be your ‘guide’ as we navigate the months of June, July and August from up here on the shores of Sand Lake.
We’ve been doing this for 95 years now, and we couldn’t be more excited to get the summer of 2022 underway. And underway is what we got at around 3.20 this afternoon as the buses came to a dusty halt outside the Mess Hall. I say dusty because after three days of hot, dry, sunny weather, everything has dried out, (it doesn’t take long) and the dust is easily whipped up. Indeed, today was probably the hottest day of the summer thus far. But no matter: the show went on, and the pep rally welcomed everyone – old and new – to camp for this summer season.
After everyone found their respective cabin counsellors, and headed back to their cabins to start unpacking, we began the five station rotation (the necessary logistics stuff that enables us to hit the ground running tomorrow), and we were almost done with that when the call for dinner (Piggies) was almost upon us. With a little bit of juggling with the schedule, we were able to finish the rotation so that by early evening all the boys had been deemed fit and healthy by our two wonderful nurses (Kate and Olivia): they’d been instructed in waterfront safety by waterfront director, Jeremy: they’d written a letter, handed in their phone and banked any money they might have (with Pam and Tom), and most importantly of all, they’d signed up for their Big Ten activities (more on that tomorrow).
We closed out our first evening down at the fire at Sand Lake. I can’t remember a warmer evening for the opening fire. We had wise words and jokes, a few songs, and we sang Taps together under the stars. A great way to end the day, I think.
I am – we are – so glad that you chose Menominee for your son’s summer camp experience this summer. If the stars align and the weather plays its part, then the next two, four, six, eight weeks should be a blast.
Everyone is here and all is well, so safely rest.
Goodnight everybody.
As ever…WOODY!
