“And when the sun had set, the chief called a council of all his braves.”
That’s how we start our council fire gatherings once a week as calm and temperate conditions allow. I was referring to the weather with that last sentence, but could just as well be identifying the mood we ask of the boys as well. We started the meeting by asking them “why do we hike the mountains?” and we got some excellent responses. One youngster suggested the “relief” he felt upon a successful venture, a new admission, and I had to agree with him that putting on warm clothing as the evening turned cool was high on my personal list of reasons to hike.
Rob and Mike talked a good deal about the Kingswood value of “hiking with a swagger,” which translates easily into the command that our camp takes pride in never complaining aloud, even if conditions have deteriorated or the going gets really tough. The boys listened with great attention as Rob recounted a story from long ago of a camper who got hypothermia and was “cocooned” into a sleeping bag and fed hot beverages until he got better.
“Are these reasons TO GO or NOT TO GO on trips?” I had to inject. I was pleased when the strong consensus was TO GO but not be “that guy” who complains or uses poor judgment on the trail. We ended the council by urging campers to start working to get into the Varsity Club, Kingswood’s lone record-keeping agency. In today’s photo album, you can see some boys checking out the large display of bulletin boards at Buzz City where Varsity Club procedures get great exposure.
Sara says she has a large batch of photos to put up a bit later, so my set suffices to prompt this report. I like the photo of the one-on-one guitar lesson with Miguel and Teo. A lot of close counseling goes on here at Kingswood and this writer notices it every time he encounters such personal touches.
We had a U15 baseball game here at Kingswood yesterday afternoon and I drove my golf cart right up to the mound to get a close up of Colby Bohnen who pitched six solid innings and launched a missal of a home run off the roof of Roadside to lead the home team to a 5-4 win. Almost as entertaining were the scoreboard operators in deep right center field who maintained a most accurate accounting of the proceedings.
Everything went well yesterday as the trampers from Mt Washington and Liberty/Flume gave their excursions high grades, as did the overnighters who hit the ledges of “Sunset View” at the northwestern end of Tarleton. The fishing expedition to Belle Island, on Newfound Lake, is not yet back but we have messages from them that all is well.
Lastly, and quite possibly the highlight of the day was the Lake Swim event of last evening, after dinner but before the council fire. Actually, some boys decided to eat dinner afterwards but there was a lot of action down by the lake and everyone there stopped what he was doing when the spotters announced that junior camper Oliver Berman had a full one minute lead over the others and came running to the beach to celebrate his just-over 30 minute endeavor. “Were it an asphalt highway, I could not have walked it any faster,” I had to observe to anyone who would listen to me. Great Camp.