We take our charge of in loco parentis very seriously.  It looks to be a sparkler of a day here in New Hampshire and I’ve just returned from a full-camp gathering in the “shady knoll” where the staff went over some special orders on the day.

The following is a near paraphrase of what Rob Wiff reported to the group:  “It is going to be very sunny and warm for the next several days.  Be sure to put on sun block and drink plenty of water.  I cannot personally apply lotion to your face or pour water into your mouth, so this chore is on you.”

Not entirely.  We’ll be visiting clinics with a large vat of sun block in tow and encouraging clinicians to take an extra water break as needed.

At that same meeting, two hikes for today were offered, one to our easiest mountain (Cardigan) and one to the hardest prerequisite for our Varsity Club membership (Moosilauke.)  Not only that but there were sign ups for basketball, baseball and tennis intercamp games for this afternoon.    I happily witnessed counselors gently urging boys to participate and no one will get cut from team rosters.  I also liked it when some of the younger campers were redirected from the Moosilauke sign-up line to the Cardigan one.  First things first, kids!

Yesterday was the first totally normal day of the session, not bad for being just the third one.  I came across quite a bit of one-on-one instruction during the morning clinics and got a laugh out of watching the counselors join in with the boys where appropriate during A and B Block in the afternoon.

Last evening we had our first council fire session.  Todd got there early to build a nice sized fire (i.e., not too big) and got it lit with one match, a camper doing that essential chore, natrurally.  It being a young group with many first-time campers, we started with some interesting stories about camp history.  We stressed the solemnity of such councils (meetings) and got great cooperation from the boys.  Still, I could not resist the light side of things and related the story about the watermelon rind fight involving the entire camp many years ago!

Sara certainly hits a ten strike with her dive tower shots – morning, noon and night.  She mostly features close-ups of boys in motion while I concentrate on posed photos and ones that capture the larger scene.  I am told that both approaches are appreciated. And, while I enjoyed asking the baseball juniors to pick their 2022 baseball trading card poses,  I must defer to her quality over mine.