Tuesday, June 15th - It was definitely a bitter sweet walk back to the cabins form tent night. I had known about tent night from one of our last Go! Meetings at some point in April. I had mixed feelings about it. I was not so concerned with the heat, or the poor night of sleep. What I was concerned about was making it a fun night for the boys. I don't know any ghost stories and I am not typically the most outgoing/theatrical person. Tent night came and went and there was not a single moment where I felt the need to entertain them. They took care of it on their own, and just the same, they all fell asleep on their own. I never had to tell them to settle in, I never had to do anything except hang out and goof around like they did.
The day after tent night is typically the worst for the counselor. As such, Father Tim asks that the counselors who were in the tents stay back from the waterway, as well as take full advantage of all of the down time you can have in a day. What he didn't know is that I am just as much of a kid at heart as the campers and there was no way I was missing the waterway. I did, however, take off the a rotation to shower and collect myself. Later, I found Father Tim and due to my enthusiasm he was more than happy to allow me to go to the waterway.
Rec is never first for the group who had tent night the night before as a way of letting you fully wake up before running around. After a calm morning at Arts and Crafts, where I continued to perfect my awesome looking pillow case, it was time for Rec. Rec today was capture the flag. Here, it was on Field B and there was no hiding the flag. It was just who could dodge the other team, outsmart them, and reach the "flag" and get back. The flag was a sponge, a wet sponge. This made it difficult to grab it as you were running. There were many a time where people, while being chased, attempted to grab the sponge without losing momentum but could not grip it. It was a cool added challenge.
We won Rec handily against Toad Camp J. After returning to from Rec we had one station left. This would be my time to relax. Although I never got a chance to actually rest, it was nice to just move at a slightly slower pace and not be responsible for a group of kids for about 40 minutes. Towards the end of my break I walked over to the dining hall to see what was for lunch. No more than 30 seconds after getting inside, the skies opened up. The rain only lasted about 40 minutes but it was enough to end Rec early, and leave the rest of the campers to walk back from their respective stations in the storm. After lunch we all retreated to the dorms and waited to see if we would go to the waterway. I was hoping we would because otherwise, my going to Father Tim for permission to go would have been a waste. Luckily, the storm looked like it was breaking and we loaded into the bus.
We reached the waterway and it was bright behind us. As long as the storm kept moving east, we would see blue skies shortly. Unfortunately, the storm was moving west. Before we even lined up to go in the water, thunder broke out and we retreated to the hut next to the water. We never got in the water that day. It never let up. Between the thunder and lightening and then the rain, we waited for about 90 minutes before calling the bus back to pick us up. It was not a waste, though. This was the coolest it was all week. The breeze coming off the water and the cool rain were so refreshing. On top of that, Tim told a few long jokes, did a few magic tricks, and everyone just hung out. I was really glad, despite not getting to swim, that I fought to go that day. I definitely didn't regret not taking the day to sleep.
When we got back to camp there was no need to shower but dinner would not be ready for a while. We had time to just hang out and play some games. We even went over to the pavilion and Ms Holly led us in even more night time games later on. Aside from Poop Deck and a massive game of Simon Says, I don't remember what we played. Regardless, everyone had fun with it.
Dinner that night had been corn dogs and this was the first time I had to speak up. Before reaching camp, Patti had asked us if anyone had a special diet so she could let the cook know. I was in the back of the van, half asleep, and half thinking to myself - there will always be something for me at a meal - no need to say anything. Wrong! Unless I was planning on only eating Pringles from 6 pm until 8 am the next day, I needed to say something. Mr. Ron was more than accommodating and made me a delicious PB+J. I don't typically like these, but for some reason, it was really enjoyable.
After dinner that night myself and Andrew Gorman (the two leaders who had tent night the night before) were on Dorm duty. Every night, two male counselors and two female counselors are dismissed from the last evening activity first. The go to the dining hall, get some water, and maybe a snack, before heading to the dorms. These people are responsible for the kids that night. The rest of the counselors bring the kids back to the dorm, are relieved by the dorm duty counselors, and can do what they want. They can go down to Field B to look at the stars, go to the overlook, or just hang out in the dining hall, eating ice cream and talking with everyone.
I found out, since Toad Camp J was heading to the tents that night, that Tim (their leader) had been reading Swamp Left Pinocchio before bed. Not the Disney tale, but the original story of Pinocchio. He asked me, since I was there for dorm duty, if I minded taking over for him in his absence. I was thrilled. I used to hate reading out loud. After working at the day care for a year, and reading to the kids there, I had gotten really good at it. Some things you pick up on are when to change words for the age group, when to add in a "he said" if there has been a lot of back and forth dialogue but nothing written to keep the kids aware of who is saying what, and just the overall delivery. I grabbed the books, told my Swamp Right boys to behave since I would be in the other side and couldn't watch both, and settled in. No more than 1 page in, and Tim had returned. Because it was still ugly outside, he was not going to the tents - Father Tim deemed it too dangerous. He did not take the book back, and instead sat and listened to me reading. I was fascinated at how interested the boys were. They were all hanging over the edges of their bunks, listening to every word. It didn't matter that this version is totally different and much much darker, or that they were nearing the age where they don't need to or want to be read to before bed. They were on the end of their bunks from start to finish.
I read 3 chapters and said it was time for bed. That was all I needed to do. They all curled up and closed their eyes. It was magical and so easy. I took the job the rest of the week (at least all the nights I could).
I had given the older boys 15 minutes extra. I remembered that was something I always treasured as a kid - as I got older I got to stay up later. I let them stay up, on the condition that they were not loud. Instead of horsing around or being obnoxious, they all got together and played a game of simon says. Well, several games, but still. I was impressed that they chose this over just being boys and screwing around. When the time was up, I walked in and told them so. Because they had gotten this privilege over the younger boys, they were grateful and didn't ask questions when it was their turn for bed. I never had to say it twice. Within 20 minutes of telling them to go to bed the entire dorm was quiet. It was the fastest and calmest the boys went to sleep all week. I was pretty impressed and gave myself a little credit on how I handled it.
Since Andrew and myself were on dorm duty, we had to stay within earshot of the cabin. We sat outside and played chess and Stratego. The other counselors, knowing we had to stay there, brought us cake and ice cream. After about 45 minutes of sitting outside, with how quiet the boys were, I was getting really tired. It had been a long day and I got into bed. None of the other counselors complained because once one counselor goes into the dorm for the night, everyone else is free to go hang out. I think I was asleep in 5 minutes. At least it felt like it had only been five minutes and then all of a sudden my alarm was going off.
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