Author Archives: rbc

We opened the third session of camp this morning, and it brought us something we rarely see on an opening day. It rained.

Not a dramatic mountain storm, it was a steady soaking that arrived right as the first cars did and settled in for about an hour, so the whole check-in line ran under umbrellas and pop-up tents while we greeted families, went over health forms, and moved trunks up the hill trying to keep everything dry. Not much later the clouds moved out and left us bright blue skies for the rest of the day. The rest of the morning the cars kept coming, and somewhere in the middle we began to see girls standing up through the sunroofs of their cars, half their bodies out in the sunshine, waving at everyone they passed. That part was entirely ordinary, even expected. These are the girls who have waited the longest, whose session holds off until the end of the summer, who have spent June and most of July watching other kids go to camp. A little rain was not going to slow them down, and it showed.

Arriving Together

We ask families to arrive according to their camper’s age, with certain grades assigned to certain times through the morning. Since our cabin groups are also arranged by age, this means the girls who will be living together roll through the check-in line within the same short window. They notice each other. There’s a good chance the camper in the car ahead is one of your daughter’s cabin mates, and you can watch the recognition happen right there in the driveway. Having the whole cabin group arrive more or less at once is ideal, because they can start setting up together right away, making beds, pushing trunks into place, taping up photos from home, and hanging fairy lights. It’s the fastest way we know to get camp started.

Once the last cars had come up the driveway, the whole camp gathered on the hill for our opening assembly, where we made introductions, learned a couple of songs, and heard from Sarah about a few important things, including what to do when the lightning alarm sounds. Then, hungry and perhaps still slightly damp, we went to lunch.

Baked to a Crispy Crust

Lunch was Rick’s homemade four-cheese mac-n-cheese, baked to a crispy crust, with cool watermelon and the salad bar alongside. It’s so popular it has become our traditional opening day meal, and there are girls who start thinking about it somewhere around the Asheville exit.

Dinner was pizza night, which starts with Rick and his team making the dough from scratch, flour and yeast and oil and salt, then stretching it onto sheet pans tray after tray. They turned out 34 cheese pizzas, 34 pepperoni, and 12 veggie, plus specialty pies for our gluten-free and dairy-free campers so that nobody sits through pizza night eating something else. Even after everyone had stuffed themselves, we had a few leftover slices.

Truly Refreshing

After a shortened rest hour, the Juniors headed out on camp tours and down to the camp store, while the Middlers and Seniors made their way to the lake for their swim demonstrations. Conditions were about as good as Rockbrook Lake gets. The recent rain had warmed the water a little, and under a bright afternoon sun, the lake we politely call “refreshing” was, certainly today, exactly that. Jumping in is still startling, and that first gasp is part of the fun. Our lifeguards are watching for comfort more than speed, checking whether a girl can swim out and back and tread water without worry, which earns her a blue band and the run of the whole lake. One camper climbed out after her demo and told me she’d be happy to get right back in.

Mini Commercials

Line meetings came next, each age group hearing from its counselors and line heads about cabin and line activities, and then we filled the gym for activity skits. These are short presentations by the counselors who teach each activity, mini commercials designed to entice campers into signing up. The paddling crew had a counselor sitting in a kayak in full gear, PFD and helmet and paddle, going nowhere on the gym floor. The craft activities brought the evidence: finished potholders, pottery, dream catchers. The biggest reaction of the afternoon went to the dance instructors, who put on a small show of the styles they teach and closed with a stretch of the Thriller choreography, which got everyone cheering. After dinner came more get-to-know-you games and the first activity sign-up of the session, where each girl selects the four activities she’ll follow during the day. She’ll keep those activities for three days, and then sign up for a new set.

By the time the cabins went dark, the ground was still soft from the morning’s rain and the air had that cool, wet-woods smell that settles in after a mountain shower. Inside, the talking kept going well past when it should have, the way it does on a first night, when there’s far too much energy in a cabin for anyone to fall asleep easily. These girls have waited all summer for this. From the sound of it, they’d tell you it was worth the wait.

The first cars were waiting at the gate before we even opened it this morning. Inside them sat smiling, excited girls who have been anticipating this day all summer long, some of them returning to a camp they already love, others arriving at Rockbrook for the very first time. Today was opening day for our July Mini 2 session, and because these campers are all Juniors and Middlers, things got started early, with check-in at the barn beginning around 8:30am. When each car finished with the office folks and the nurses and drove up into camp, a crowd of counselors met everyone jumping up and down, cheering wildly for whoever was inside. You could watch the nervousness on a new camper’s face dissolve into a grin before she even opened the car door.

Organizing the arrival by age works beautifully. In addition to minimizing waiting in line, cabin groups show up at very similar times, which means counselors can greet every camper personally and then gather the whole cabin to set up bunks together. Within minutes, each girl is making her bed next to the girls she’ll be living with, already chatting, already comparing hometowns and favorite activities. I know this quick drop-off can be a little frustrating for our alumnae moms, who would love to walk around camp and reminisce. After all, this place holds their memories too. But over the years we’ve found that a swift, cheerful goodbye is a real gift to the campers themselves, freeing them to fall in step with cabin life right away, while a lingering farewell tends to slow that settling down. The counselors know just what to do from there. By mid-morning, the new girls looked like they’d been here for days.

Meanwhile, an Ordinary Sunday

For the four-week full-session campers, this was a regular Rockbrook Sunday, which is to say a wonderfully slow one. They wandered into breakfast in their pajamas for the leisurely meal that Sunday mornings call for, complete with the donuts that have become a tradition around here. After some free time, the Hi-Ups led the flag raising ceremony, and then everyone walked down for Chapel, where this morning’s theme was Nature, a fitting subject for a camp so immersed in it. An assembly on the hill followed, and then came Rick’s famous mac and cheese lunch, gloriously cheesy and satisfying, always a favorite.

A little rainstorm brushed up against us during rest hour, cooling off the warm afternoon, and its timing could not have been better. The rain stopped right as we were ready to kick off the afternoon’s all-camp special event.

Jersey Day

The girls knew this one was coming, so many of them came prepared, having packed colorful team jerseys of every kind: basketball, soccer, football, you name it. We filled the landsports field with game stations and called the whole thing “Jersey Day.” With music playing and a yellow giraffe sprinkler spinning away, girls zoomed from station to station, trying a sack relay, joining a massive nine square in the air game, cornhole, several basketball games, a wiffle ball station, and a frisbee game. There was face painting and temporary tattoos, nachos and chips for snacking, and a craft table where girls could decorate foam fingers however they liked. The whole field looked like the happiest, most chaotic sporting event ever held.

Afterward we opened the lake, both for the arriving Middlers to take their swim demonstrations and for everyone else to cool off after all that running around. Lately it’s become a thing for girls to do tricks off the diving board, inventing poses mid-air before plunging into the water. Maybe it’s always been a thing. Either way, with a camera nearby, there seems to be no end to their creativity.

Dinner was hamburgers with all the fixins, seemingly unlimited pickles, assorted potato chips, salad, and fresh blackberries. Then the girls selected their next set of camp activities, the four-per-day schedule they’ll follow for the next three days before getting the chance to choose again.

Settling In

As the evening arrived, camp split into two happy scenes. The new Mini 2 campers gathered in the lodges for get-to-know-you games, Middler cabins in one lodge and Juniors in another, learning names and laughing at the kind of silly games that turn strangers into cabinmates. Meanwhile, the full-session campers headed to the gym for movie night and a showing of High School Musical, a fitting cap to Jersey Day, since it tells the story of a basketball star who ends up singing in his school’s musical. It carries a nice message for kids, that things go better when you have the courage to be your true self.

Walking back in the dark after the movie, I could hear the clatter of the girls getting ready for bed along the cabin lines. It’s a distinctive and pleasing sound: girls chattering to each other, giggles as bedtime routines unfold, and the occasional scream from someone seeing a “giant bug” of some sort. Lights and sounds along the lines and quiet darkness everywhere else in camp. I thought about how quickly campers begin to feel at home here. Even for those girls who just arrived with a few butterflies this morning, somewhere between the dining hall songs, Jersey Day excitement, and time at the lake, they seemed to belong here. Easy, and in just one day.

Instead of the rising bell ringing, hoofbeats came pounding up the cabin lines this morning. Riders decked out in red, white and blue, their horses just as dressed up with ribbons and paint, clopped along yelling “The British are coming! The British are coming!” Still in their pajamas, girls tumbled out of their cabins and made their way to the hill, hair in every direction, blinking at horses in the early light. I love this tradition even after all these years I’ve watched it, if only for the two seconds of pure confusion on a new camper’s face when she realizes those are, in fact, horses outside her window.

On the hill, small red, white and blue BombPops were waiting for everyone, cold enough to finish waking up whatever the horses hadn’t already startled out of them. Then came the more solemn turn of the morning: the Hi-Ups raised the American flag, and the whole camp recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang “America the Beautiful” together. It’s a strange, lovely sequence when you stop to think about it: Revolutionary War references, an unexpected sugary treat, and then all our voices finding the same note before breakfast. Only camp could make all three feel like they belong in the same five minutes.

At Rockbrook, the 4th of July is a sort of compounded celebration. Every day at camp is already a celebration with singing at meals, cheering at activities, the small triumphs everyone shares out loud. On the 4th, we kick it up further and paint all of that red, white and blue— bright colors poured straight into the celebrating that was already well underway. It’s one long, sanctioned invitation for everybody to be as joyfully ridiculous as they can manage, together, with the friends they’ve made so far this session.

By the time everyone reached the dining hall for breakfast, the decorations were in place: posters, streamers, and red-white-and-blue tablecloths turning every table into its own colorful parade. And it was then time to show off the costumes. One counselor arrived in a full Founding Father costume, powdered wig and long coat included, looking like they’d wandered in from 1776. Marston, our staff director, went a different direction entirely and became the Statue of Liberty for the day— green from head to toe, paper torch held high, playing the part with total conviction. Elsewhere, faces were painted into full American flags, headbands and beaded necklaces multiplied by the hour, and more than one camper had rigged herself a flag cape for the occasion. By mid-morning, it was hard to find anyone who hadn’t found some way to dress for the holiday.

The morning itself kept to its regular schedule of activities— archery, riding lessons, weaving, the usual rhythm of a Rockbrook day. What made it different was everywhere you looked: flashes of red, white and blue scattered across every activity area, a Founding Father wandering past the climbing tower, a green-painted Lady Liberty checking in on the schedule. Camp doesn’t need much of an excuse to feel festive, but on a day like this, the ordinary and the ridiculous ran right alongside each other, compounded for full effect.

Lunch on the Hill

Lunch gave us a picnic on the hill, plates balanced on laps, sun and shade on the grass with the mountains off in the distance. Rick and his kitchen crew had barbecue chicken and barbecue meatballs going, plus a barbecue tofu for anyone who wanted it, alongside corn on the cob, homemade coleslaw and potato salad, cornbread, and watermelon— enough food that nobody left the hill still hungry. To drink, cans of Cheerwine, kept cold in the creek since morning, made their way into everyone’s hands, a treat we save for days exactly like this one.

An Afternoon of Choices

After Rest Hour, the schedule opened into an afternoon of choice activities. At 3:00 pm, about fifty campers and counselors laced up for the ninth annual Betsy Ross Two-Miler, a running loop out through the camp woods. Afterwards, everyone moved between whatever activity option caught their interest: tie-dying socks red, white and blue, embroidering bandanas in needlecraft, painting a 4th of July banner for the dining hall, or wading into the creek for basket making and watercolors. Down at the lake, teams raced through watermelon relays, while archers aimed at balloons taped to their targets, and over at riflery, paper targets gave way to empty soda cans. At the land sports field, campers turned water guns on each other with more enthusiasm than accuracy, and a badminton tournament ran alongside the regular tennis matches at the courts.

Threaded through all of it was a running bingo game, cards filled in by tracking down the right person or scene: someone wearing 4th of July socks, someone with a full flag painted on her face, a camper from Washington, D.C., three people who weren’t from the United States at all.

Pie, Twilight, and Fireworks

As dinner wound down (which was a fantastic meal of homemade lasagna, salad and bread), six counselors gathered at a table on the hill for a pie-eating contest. With their hands behind their backs, faces first into the tins, and the whole camp gathered around to watch and cheer them on, they did everything they could to finish their pies. There is something enthralling, and admittedly a little gross, about watching someone disappear face-first into pie filling. But the uproarious cheering kept everyone going, and soon, to everyone’s relief, there was a clear winner to congratulate. Congrats, Hayley!

As the sky started to dim, campers and counselors filled up the hill again, this time for a dance party that carried straight from twilight into full dark, glow sticks cracked and swinging, music loud enough to pull everyone onto their feet. Once it was good and dark, around 9:30 pm, the fireworks began, and two hundred girls who’d spent the whole day being loud and silly, so freely celebrating, cheered and sang along to each colorful blast in the sky.

When the last firework had faded and the smoke cleared over the lake, all that extra color from the day, the face paint and glitter, was beginning to fade too, ready to be washed off before bed. But underneath, something more lasting remained, something true about every full day of camp: two hundred girls walking back to their cabins in the dark, glow sticks dim around their wrists, a little more attached to each other than they had been that morning. That part of our days doesn’t wash off.

Right after lunch, the cast list for Annie Jr. went up outside the dining hall, and for a few minutes there was no other news in camp. Everyone who auditioned found her name attached to a part. And there are a lot of parts to this show. Think of the orphans! Everyone seemed happy with their parts, smiling and chattering all the way to rest hour.

By afternoon, the news of the day had moved on to Cabin Day, our Wednesday afternoon break from camp’s usual rhythm. Most days, campers build their own schedule out of dozens of activities, choosing four and following whatever interests them most. On Cabin Day, that scatter comes back together as each cabin group makes a plan together for the whole afternoon.

Down on the Farm

Four Junior cabins started their Cabin Day with a sweet stop at Dolly’s before heading out to Further Up Farm, where the Manner family was waiting with a flock of chickens, a couple of ducks, and a turkey named Albuquerque who seemed to know he was the main attraction. Campers waded into the creek to mine for treasure, gathered wildflowers for arrangements bound for the dining hall tables, and spent a long, unhurried stretch getting to know the farm’s animals up close.

Soda Dives at the Lake

Back at camp, a handful of cabins gathered at the lake for soda dives, a Cabin Day classic that never gets old. Someone tosses a few cans to the bottom, and cabinmates take turns diving down after them. Whoever comes up with a soda in hand gets to relax and enjoy it, cold and fizzy, while the rest of the cabin explores the water further. Yes, at the end of the summer when we drain the lake (something we do each year), we always find a few elusive cans at the bottom.

Treasure Around Camp

Other cabin groups spent the afternoon on a pirate-themed scavenger hunt, dreamed up by their counselors. Clues were scattered across camp, and campers collected gold coins along the way before landing in the dining hall for a well-earned bowl of cabin-made Puppy Chow.

Sprinklers and Sunshine

Down at the land sports field, sprinklers ran and water balloons flew, a good defense against the heat of the day. A spray of water, whether from a sprinkler or a well-aimed balloon, feels great on a beautifully clear afternoon.

Hot Dogs and Sliding Rock

Dinner brought the whole camp back together for an American classic, hot dog night! We’re starting to get into the spirit of the 4th of July around here. The HUPs had a great time thinking of a few “American” songs to sing in the dining hall. S’mores bars closed out the meal, and not long after, the Middler cabins climbed onto buses bound for an evening at Sliding Rock, which is always a blast.

It’s easy to look at a day like this and think it’s a little crazy— chickens and gold coins, fizzy sodas and flower arrangements, and a turkey with an extra large name. I suppose in a way it is, but it’s also girls feeling right at home in the middle of it, finding a place for themselves no matter what’s happening next.

Looking around this Wednesday afternoon, you would have had a hard time understanding what was happening. A cabin of Juniors in their finest Granny outfits was hosting a tea party, complete with bingo. Down by the barn, another Junior cabin had gone looking for fairies, with a stop at the fairy salon along the way. Past the lake you’d find mermaids getting their hair styled, pirates racing corcls and hunting tadpoles, and a cabin of grannies chasing escaped chickens. It was, in other words, a normal Cabin Day.

We’ve written about this Wednesday tradition plenty of times before, the way the camp sets aside its regular schedule for an afternoon, the bonding that happens when a whole cabin sticks together, and the surprises the counselors dream up and keep secret until the last minute. During the week the girls scatter to their own activities, following their own interests, but on Cabin Day they come back together and do one thing as a cabin group. What that one thing turns out to be is a fun surprise, and a nice change of pace during the week.

Juniors in Make-Believe

Among the Juniors, the themes ran toward make-believe. One cabin switched to full Granny mode— dressing up, sipping tea, and settling in for a round of “Granny Bingo” on the dining hall porch. Another went on a fairy scavenger hunt and built tiny fairy houses in the forest. Two Junior cabins loaded up and headed to the Further Up Farm to pick flowers and meet a few chickens, with a stop at Dolly’s capping the outing.

Middlers in Motion

The Middlers scattered in every direction at once. One cabin made a day at the beach right here in the mountains, with beach games and an octopus sprinkler and picture frames decorated in shells and pearl beads. Another spent the afternoon as mermaids at the lake. There were pirates decorating eye patches between corcl races, a party in the Middler Lodge with felt sleep masks and freshly painted nails, a hike up to Castle Rock that ended with a snack of Puppy Chow, and a tetherball tournament that started with a quick swim.

A Senior Sorting

The Senior Line went bigger, turning the whole afternoon into a camp-wide game of Harry Potter. Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat divided the seniors into Rockbrook houses— White Squirrel, Chocolate Chip, Owala, Tetris Tots, and the Cardinals— and sent them off on a counselor hunt. The houses searched and received a nice reward of Coke floats and an hour of lake-side fun.

Sliding Rock After Dinner

After dinner, we gathered all the Middler cabins together and took them to Sliding Rock. There’s nothing quite like the shriek of girls hitting that cold mountain water at the bottom of the slide, and then climbing right back up to do it again. We followed our sliding, naturally, with a stop at Dolly’s, everyone’s favorite spot for a sweet treat. It’s a classic camp combination: busloads of damp, happy Middlers working through their heaping cones of ice cream, chatting and eventually singing with more force than seems possible.

It might seem random and scattered all over camp… a tea party and tadpoles, grannies and Puppy Chow, an octopus sprinkler and a sorting hat, numerous chickens and plenty of rushing cold water. But Cabin Day is joyfully creative, the kind of silly Wednesday we love at Rockbrook.

It’s hard to think of something more exciting than the opening day of camp. Something everyone has been anticipating and planning for and dreaming about. This is true for everyone involved. The year-round team of directors have been working toward this day for months. The staff members have just finished more than a week of orientation and training. Of course, the campers are the most excited because this is their chance to finally enjoy camp life like they’ve imagined it. Whether arriving for the first time at Rockbrook or, as is true for some of the older campers, for their sixth or seventh year, this is a great day filled with cheers, smiles, hugs, a few butterflies, and the delight of anticipating something really fun.

If you were here, this excitement was obvious. From the mob of fired-up counselors jumping and cheering on the hill, to the jittery campers smiling and waving as they drove in, arriving at camp today was a celebration. Fresh name tags were hung, trunks and other luggage moved into cabins, and cabin groups came together for the first time. Overall, despite a little glitch here and there, the whole check-in process unfolded smoothly. With this many people involved, camp life can sometimes be an exercise in patience. Thank you for yours today.

Our assembly under the hill on the grass beneath the big walnut tree was a fun introduction to camp. The campers sat together in cabin groups and enjoyed the view of the mountains in the distance as Sarah introduced the line heads, some of the other directors, and described a few safety reminders to everyone. Lunch was Rick’s masterful Mac and Cheese, salad, and sweet, ripe watermelon. This has become a traditional first meal at camp for us, and it’s always a big hit.

Down to the Lake

Right after lunch, it was time for the middlers and seniors to head to the lake. With Sarah, the other directors and all of the lifeguards organizing, the campers took turns demonstrating their swimming ability. We ask them to swim out a ways, back using a backstroke, and to tread water for a minute. Doing all that confidently earns a blue wrist band and tag, and qualifies you to swim anywhere in the lake (the deep areas). Other levels have different colored tags and bands, and are more restricted to particular areas of the lake (more shallow areas), but everyone who wants to cool off at the lake can do so.

Rockbrook’s stream-fed lake is famously “refreshing,” so most everyone was happy to jump in to cool off on this warm afternoon. These “swim demos” are a true community event with other campers and staff members cheering as each person leaps from the dock into the water. The mood is upbeat, encouraging and celebratory. The Juniors will have their swim demos tomorrow.

While different groups were swimming at the lake, others were touring the camp, learning the locations of different activities. If new to Rockbrook, there are creeks to find, hidden cabins in the woods, and important hubs of activity. The Alpine tower, for example, is in the forest behind the gym, and the camp store is partway along the path down to Horseback Riding Center. Woodworking meets in the same building as the Lower Pottery studio, and Yoga sessions are held in the newly renovated hillside lodge. Rockbrook is not particularly spread out, but there are a lot of activity locations to learn.

Activity Skits

We rounded out the afternoon by gathering in the gym for activity skits. Using costumes and songs, these skits are silly presentations aiming to entice campers to try the different activities. We saw a climbing demonstration, a Bob Ross themed painting and drawing skit, a magical transformation of t-shirts into tie-dyes, a wild west dance battle, and a Mulan-themed riflery contest, just to name a few. The skits did a great job conveying the spirit of exploration and fun for everyone no matter their experience or skill level.

One of the best things about arriving at camp is meeting all the people, all of the enthusiastic, kind people each camper sees and talks to each day. Cabin mates, counselors, activity instructors, the camp moms, directors, nurses, kitchen and maintenance crews— this whole community coming together on the same day to introduce ourselves and begin enjoying each other’s company. It’s a marvelous moment. Everyone’s here, and we’re ready to roll!