A July Sunday

One way we punctuate the week at Rockbrook is to change the pace on Sundays. We follow a different schedule and plan special surprise events for the whole camp. It began today by sleeping in, which felt wonderful after the very full week we’ve been enjoying, but even better, the girls and their counselors came to breakfast in their pajamas and robes. Rick arrived much earlier in the kitchen and baked for us his yummy maple cinnamon coffee cake to complement the regular yogurt, cereal, and fresh fruit bars.

After breakfast the girls returned to their cabins to clean and sort things, as today is also the day laundry goes out. You can imagine how that might take a while! Around 10:30 the whole camp, dressed in their red and white uniforms, then assembled in cabin groups around the flagpole on the hill for a flag raising ceremony led by the Hi-Ups (10th graders). This included presenting the flag, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and singing “America the Beautiful.” As we stood in the bright morning sunshine, overlooking the Blue Ridge mountains in the distance, and flanked by the historic camp buildings, this was a very neat scene.

Next, the girls walked down the lower line to a special wooded area of camp for our chapel service. For years now Rockbrook has been explicitly non-denominational and ecumenical with no religious affiliation. It’s been a place where girls from all cultural and religious traditions (and non-religions!) can feel comfortable. Instead of specific religious texts or ideas, our chapel services are more thematic, focus on general human values (things like honesty, friendship and community), and are led by the girls themselves. For example, today the Middler line presented their chapel on “Simplicity” by leading several songs, reading a poem, and talking about what simplicity means to them. Sarah read (paraphrased actually) a short book to the girls called “Crispin: The Pig Who Had it All” by Ted Dewan. It’s about a spoiled pig who, instead of receiving the kind of big gifts he’s used to, gets an empty box from Santa. He naturally struggles with this at first, but in the end learns about imaginative play. Sarah connected it with camp, of course, noting how being at Rockbrook also encourages us to simplify (no technology!), yet equally inspires our imagination, sense of wonder and connections with others. The chapel is intended to be a quiet time for reflection and an opportunity to gather together as a camp community. It’s a nice balance to the zany fun we enjoy the rest of the week.

After lunch, which was a classic combination of baked ham (or tempeh), green beans and mashed potatoes, and after rest hour, which included a brief, welcome thundershower, the whole camp geared up for the Rockbrook Olympics. We divided into 3 teams, anticipating tomorrow’s holiday— red, white and blue —so that teams included girls from all three age groups. Each team, dressed and painted in their color, came up with a cheer and assigned participants for different relay events to be held down on the landsports field. We had a water balloon toss, a sack race, three-legged race, dizzy lizzy, spoon and egg carry, army crawl, sponge relay, frozen t-shirt thaw, a wheelbarrow race, and a huge, group hula hoop relay. The energy level was intense as everyone raced from one event to the next, stopping now and then for a drink or snack under the tents. For the final event, we all headed back up to the lake for a greased watermelon relay. Even more cheering! As is typical around here, we’re not really sure who “won” because we didn’t keep score. There’s just no need, and it’s really not that important, when you’re having this much fun playing and cheering everyone on.  So much fun!

Between Sessions

This is the time at camp when we have our 4-week campers but not a mini session group, a “between session” time. The first July Mini session girls left on Thursday and the second mini session girls arrive tomorrow. That means we have about 80 fewer girls around, but wow are they enthusiastic camp kids. Since they are here the longest, they know camp really well, and have loads of time to deepen their friendships and dig deeper into different activities. It’s no surprise that we have our best climbers and paddlers with us right now. These 4-week campers also tend to be Middlers and Seniors who, as they’ve returned each summer, move up from a shorter sessions just to have more time at camp. These are the girls who more than “love” camp; they say they “couldn’t live without it!”

Dinner tonight included a fun southern traditional food— boiled peanuts! Rick was able to get 80 pounds (!) of green, unroasted peanuts, so he decided to boil them up. It’s amazing how nice and sweet they taste even with nothing added but a little salt. With the peanuts, we had BLT sandwiches, chips and fresh pineapple. Over on the sidebar, I saw some leftover fried green tomatoes from lunch earlier. Talk about southern food! Rick’s been keeping us very well fed.

Tonight’s evening program was an all-camp game of “Minute to Win It.” We divided everyone up into small teams that then competed in several different crazy relay races. We found out who could eat an oreo cookie the fastest when it’s first placed on your forehead (no hands!). We raced to sort a bag of skittles by color. We tried to juggle balloons. We stacked Swiss Rolls, and balanced gold balls. It’s all pretty funny to see the girls tackle these challenges, so even the spectators had a great time laughing as different groups struggled through the relays. It’s marvelous to have this much fun with such simple props. Camp is often just that, being with your friends and enjoying activities you wouldn’t ordinarily do at home. Really great stuff!

Celebrating the 4th

Waking up at camp on the 4th of July is unlike any other day. It begins with someone riding a horse down the line outside your cabin and yelling “The British and coming! Wake up! Wake up!” (a reference to Paul Revere’s ride in 1775). The equestrian staff dress up the horses with red white and blue stable wraps, ribbons and shiny stars, and get everyone going with their shouts and sounds of hoof beats. Some of the younger girls hop right out of bed to catch a glimpse of the horses as they ride by. Such a unique way to wake up!

Being Sunday, we held our flag raising ceremony after breakfast as we do each Sunday at camp. All of the girls, dressed in their white uniform and red tie, assemble in cabin groups forming a single line arching around the flagpole. The Hi-Ups present the colors and raise the flag. With the mountain view in the background, and today bright sunshine, we all then recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing America the Beautiful. Immediately afterwords, everyone quietly walks down the lower line toward the chapel, along what’s called the “path of silence.” The Senior Line campers presented the chapel ceremony today focusing on the theme of “growing.” Gracie and Nani played their ukuleles for us, several campers read favorite quotes, and Jerry added a few words toward the end.

At lunch, it seemed like it was nonstop singing! All those 4th of July, patriotic songs, the girls know were sung (well, kind of shouted, actually). We heard Yankee Doodle, America the Beautiful, and Party in the USA, among other favorite Rockbrook Songs.

For the afternoon event, we divided the whole camp into three large teams (red, white and blue, of course) for the “Firecracker Relays” down on the landsports field. Each team had girls from all three age groups at camp, making this event another good way to bring the lines together. Everyone dressed in their team color and even added body paint to really show their team spirit. The first relay presented a crazy challenge for the teams— take a frozen wet t-shirt and thaw it enough to put it on. Starting with essentially a block of ice, the girls did everything they could think of to warm it up. They sat on it, squeezed it between two bare bellies, yanked and pulled it, until it finally came loose. Some of the other relays were the “Partner Carry,” the “Bucket and Sponge,” the “Spoon and Egg,” and “Over Under” (a race to pass a ball down a long line of people alternating overhead and through their legs). The final relay, “Greased Watermelon,” happened at the lake, a perfect place to cool and wash off after the field events. I’m not sure who really “won” in the end, since keeping score wasn’t the point of it all!

For dinner, Rick and his crew prepared an amazing picnic on the hill for us. He slow cooked pork barbecue with homemade sauce, made coleslaw, potato salad, corn salad, roasted sweet potato fries, rolls and had sliced watermelon for dessert. And following an old Rockbrook tradition, we served the girls cans of Cheerwine we had chilling in the creek. What a feast, and huge hit with the girls after running around all afternoon.

The girls took some time to sign up for next week’s activities, but then got settled in the gym to watch a movie together on the big screen. Sleeping bags, crazy creek chairs, and pillows are standard equipment for this weekly event. Tonight we saw the animated movie Spirit, which is a sweet story about a wild mustang and its first contact with human beings, both Native Americans and western settlers. The girls absolutely loved the movie, shouting and cheering all throughout it.

We ended our 4th of July with a fireworks display for the girls. Jerry, Jeff and Richie launched everything from the dock at the lake while everyone else sat on the hill for a perfect viewpoint. Ooohs and aaahs, bright sparkling colors the sky, and exciting booms filled the air. Celebrating together at camp was really special and a lot of good old fashioned fun.