“The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother”.
My apologies for my absence these past few days. Sunday night was just late when we finished our evening programme. By that time (almost 11pm), I just didn’t have it in me to try and get a connection and share some thoughts with you. And last night we had a pretty good storm come rumbling through around 10.45. It knocked out all the power and downed quite a few branches. We had just had our Five year Night celebrations, and I’d got back into camp and BOOM!, it hit us. The sky was alive with flashes and forks of lightning, and the wind blew with some fury. Apparently, we were just at the southern edge of this particular storm, so I don’t know how bad it must have been 10 miles north. But we survived, as we always do. While we have the greatest respect for Mother Nature, and we would never dare underestimate her strength and power, she has yet to bring a total halt to proceedings here on the shores of Sand Lake, although anyone who can remember the great storm of 1999 knows that on that occasion she came pretty close.
But enough of the weather. What about the things we have been doing, and things we can control. Well Green and White has started and is now well underway. Vroom, the popular game of running through the woods while trying to grab flags and avoid being squirted, was held on a gorgeous Sunday morning. After a 75 minute ‘workout’, the Greens came away victorious. This tied things up after the Whites had won the initial ‘cheeroff’. And so on to British Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon. Held on the near soccer field (Woody’s Pitch), this game involves a lot of running and chasing people with a sock hanging from their shorts. The Whites won the first game, but as is quite common in these things, the Greens came back to win a three-game series 2-1. So 2-1 to the Greens going into the rest day of no Green and White.
Monday was just Big Ten and a General kind of day. Everyone seemed excited by Five Year Night, which was coming our way that night. We had 23 new inductees into the Five Year Club (and even more for next year apparently). The rec hall lights are dimmed, and the solemn ceremony welcomes campers and staff alike; anyone, in fact, who has reached the Five Year milestone.
Today dawned warm and cloudy. Strewn all over camp were the remnants of last night’s storm. Our primary casualty was half a pine tree that somehow got ‘cut’ in half and ended up lying next to the Canteen, having taken out one of the new tables. And yet the tents that we have erected to enable us to eat outside remained intact. It’s funny how that works. The wind can sever a tree in half, while leaving flimsy tents, tied down with just a piece of rope, untouched.
We got underway with Runners and Chasers: definitely one of my favourite games here at camp. I can’t do an explanation of the game justice here, but suffice to say, it involves a lot of running in and out of a human line, while being chased by other humans. I’ll leave it that, but know that the Whites won this. Following that, we did the Shoe Scramble. There was a desire to the do the rug-pile, but we went with the shoes, which was just as well for the Greens, as they won it. They now lead the competition in both events won and points scored. There is another game tonight – Midnight Manhunt – but that has yet to start, as the boys are in Wasserman Hall as I write this, finishing off Song Night. This simple campfire requires the boys to take a popular song and turn it into a Menominee themed song. This is not a Green and White event, but just a pleasant distraction from the intense competition of the colour war.
Tomorrow is camper counsellor switch day. This is where the campers become us, and we them. We don’t lose total control, but the Senior cabin do lead the camp in place of the admin and the counsellors. It will be an interesting day for sure, and I will endeavour to tell you all about it tomorrow evening, weather and gremlins notwithstanding.
Until then, you know that all is well, so safely rest.
As ever…WOODY!
