How Did We Come to Meet Pal?

Camp provides a huge range of opportunities for girls, chances to try new sports, acquire new skills, discover untapped talents, and of course meet and live with new people. There are wide stripes of fun woven throughout all of this, but the most significant things campers talk about is the amazing friendships they build while at camp. Living so closely together, and sharing so much time together, camp is perfect for making friends. It’s easy at camp to relax and be yourself, open up a little and trust each other. That’s probably why there’s something special about camp friends, why for lots of girls, they are their very best friends.

One of the traditional songs at Rockbrook is about camp friends, about the experience of making friends at camp. It’s called How Did We Come to Meet Pal? Here are the lyrics. Read them over, and then go to our camp songs page and listen to the tune!

Opening Third Session

Welcome, welcome, everyone to Rockbrook! We are all very excited to see you and to begin your session of camp in the “heart of a wooded mountain.” Over these next few weeks we’ll be creating something everyday, taking adventure trips, playing all kinds of games, learning to ride, shoot and flip, and more than anything, having a great time laughing and goofing around with friends.

Getting settled into the cabin is the first step— moving trunks and dufflebags, setting up a shelf of things near her bed (flashlight, book, photos, stationary for writing letters home, etc.), meeting her counselor and other girls in the cabin. While most of the campers are returning to camp from last summer, we’ve taken care assigning cabins so there’s always a mix of new and returning campers. It’s a good way to ensure that everyone will have new friends to make.

Rick and his kitchen crew prepared our favorite comfort food for lunch: homemade macaroni and cheese, with a tomato and cucumber salad, carrots and sliced peaches. Along with our regular salad bar and peanut butter and jelly station, everyone had a great first meal at camp… just right on a warm summer afternoon. It’s during meals that all those crazy camp songs come out too. The Hi-Ups (10th graders) got everyone going with big powerful versions of the “Coconut song,” “the Milk Song,” “An Austrian Went Yodeling” (Paola, our Australian who lives in Vienna, gets a chuckle from that one!), and others.

After lunch everyone headed out to the main hill in camp, some with their Crazy Creek chairs, for an assembly under the shade of the big walnut tree. This was a chance to learn more traditional camp songs, meet some of the Line Heads and other lead counselors, and to find our more about camp. We also were treated to a series of skits performed by the activity instructors and counselors, short songs and scenes they put together to explain what happens at their activity. It’s a fun way to let the campers know their options when it comes time to sign up for their activities, but also a good way for everyone to meet the other staff members at camp. My favorite was the swimming skit where Gracie performed a dramatic reading of a short story she wrote while the lifeguards danced and interpreted the scenes in the background. It was hilarious!

Next, each cabin of campers comes down to the lake to perform their swimming demonstration. This is a simple check of swimming ability were each girl receives a personal buddy tag if she can swim out 25 yards, back another 25 yards, and tread water for 1 minute. Meanwhile other cabin groups are taking tours of the camp, learning where all the activities meet, how to go through the tunnel to the equestrian center, and the trail to the alpine climbing tower. This is also the time, right before dinner, that the girls sign up for their first set of 4 activities. After meeting the counselors, finding out what the activities actually are, connecting with friends, and knowing where everything meets, the campers are now much more prepared to make their own choices about their activity schedule. By the way, all of this is why we don’t “pre-sign up” for activities before arriving at camp. We’ve found over the years that campers get so much more from making their own activity selections after arriving. It’s a big part of camp at Rockbrook.

After an awesome dinner of chicken fingers, baked potato fries, and sauteed local summer squash and zucchini, with Liz’s chocolate chip cookie bars for dessert, we enjoyed a relaxing evening on the hill before each Line’s (age group’s) evening program. It’s always amazing to see how quickly the girls settle into life at camp. Everywhere you look, it’s easy to see friendships forming, enthusiasm for what’s going on (even for clearing the table after dinner, for example!), and excitement for all the opportunities around them. It’s a cool thing. We all tend to stay up a little later the first night of camp. All this bottled up excitement keeps the cabins chatting late into the night, anticipating the first full day tomorrow. It’s gonna be a good one.

Twilight with Elsa and Jo

Super alumnae Elsa Claverie and Jo Littleton visited us at camp tonight and brought their ukulele and banjo. They held a special “twilight” activity for campers and counselors who wanted to learn a few traditional songs, and just enjoy singing together. It was a wonderful hour of song, laughter and smiles. Here’s a short video of a round we sang. Enjoy!

Living Camp All Year Long

Over in High Point, NC, camp continues all year round for the Council sisters. They show how it doesn’t have to be summer to wake up with a classic camp song.

Obama Loves the Baby Shark

Doo dooo, do dooo, do do.

Thanks Beth!

Songs for Camp

Lisa Loeb, singer and songwriter best known for her hit song “Stay,” has released a new CD of songs inspired by her time as a kid at summer camp. It’s a fun collection of original compositions and traditional songs all about going away to camp, the friends, the food, the fun, of just being at summer camp. She explains,

“The inspiration was the actual songs based in camp songs. In camp, we have gross-out songs, and ones like the peanut butter and jelly song. One of the things I loved most about camp is that you’re singing all the time. You did sports, and arts and crafts, ate a lot of fun food — you were singing everywhere.”

The CD has some cool guest artists helping out too, people like Steve Martin (who plays banjo) and Jill Sobule. We also like a lot of the great camp lyrics on songs like, “Are You Ready for the Summer?” “It’s not Goodbye,” and “Best Friend.”  If you’ve been to camp, you’ll really enjoy this CD.

You can hear the song “Best Friend” over at Lisa’s website. Check it out here.

When the Rising Bell Rings

Here’s something from this summer’s “Photo Phun” activity where the girls at camp run around with digital cameras taking pictures.  In addition to learning about photography and how to use the cameras, they play loads of games… things like scavenger hunts, nature alphabet, and photo stories.  This is an example by Deborah P. (passed along by awesome counselor Eva) that illustrates one of the classic RBC songs, “When the Rising Bell Rings.”  It’s pretty funny, but you have to click on the image to see the larger version and read the words.  Way to go Deborah!

Summer Camp Songs

It’s one of those things we do at Rockbrook… at meals, on the bus heading to the river, during skits, and all together at assemblies… we sing camp songs! From the crazy and silly songs, like the “coconut song,” to the more serious and traditional songs, like “Rockbrook Camp Forever,” there are easily over 100 different songs in the Rockbrook songbook. When you come to camp, and more than likely come back year after year, these songs really stick in your head, and then years later, maybe when you’re married and have your own kids (!), they’ll pop up again, and you’ll know every word.  Ask anybody who’s come to camp, and she’ll have her favorite camp song.