July 4th Report, Sorta Backwards
July 5, 2024
Just now, nurses Lisa and Renata greeting all of us on the steps to the Dining Room with the encouragement to “hydrate, hydrate and hydrate some more.” Indeed, yesterday was pleasantly warm without being pestiferous, and we were in the sun a great deal of the time. Water pitchers were to be seen on the breakfast tables along with the usual cartons of milk.
Everyone stayed up past their bedtime, too, as the fireworks did not kick off until nearly 10 PM. Somebody had the good presence of mind to delay breakfast until 8:30. Camp is a long haul and, happily, everyone wants their plan to go forward. So, taking a break here and there is very good camp planning.
Those fireworks were a highlight for me. In the olden days, we took bus loads of boys to a bit of a rough-hewn town where they waited for pitch black before commencing the show. We had to go over 1001 rules and protocols beforehand.
But, last evening, we just drifted down the hill to the Council Fire and had a ring-side seat for the homemade performance. Modest by fireworks standards, ours had the distinction of the aforementioned convenience, not to mention the gorgeous echoes through the surrounding hills, and Josh’s brightly lit drone flying very close to the explosions like one of those hurricane tracking planes.
There is more. The fireworks went off rather low in the sky, which made them seem really close by. Kingswood hilarity #1: Aaron, Ella and Tom were the pyrotechnicians, the one thing they having in common is that all are British. “We did consider turning the show against you Americans,” teased Tom, while Ella remarked about the “rain of shrapnel” that kept falling on them. What fun.
After the cookout meal held down by the lake in ideal conditions, we had an hour’s worth of evening counselor sponsorships before the concert started at the Theater-in-the-Pines stage. What a show. Swampy (Oliver Satola) sang a beautiful rendition of America the Beautiful and several campers joined the counselors in some performances that seemed to this amateur observer to have been rehearsed many times. Not remotely true. Kudos to Liam Jackson, Julius Cafiso and Max Berman for their efforts on the keyboard, drums and trumpet respectively.
There were a zillion photos taken yesterday and Sara promises to have them organized into albums for you sometime this morning. This might be one of those times when the pix can do the talking and I can keep this missive on the shorter side. Besides, I have something else I have to do and am anxious to get this posted. Boys being boys, they probably have already mostly forgotten yesterday and want to know what is coming up next, meaning right now!