Back in the Saddle
July 1, 2023
Back in the Saddle
July 1, 2023
Trust me when I tell you it is not much fun to be without Internet services, not knowing why, and having no way to inform our families of the outage. Rob reported that after 11 PM last night, some very pleasant folks from the company that provides our services showed up and did what they could to get us somewhat back to normal. We have been warned to expect some bumps and bruises today as new hardware is installed.
Yesterday morning I awoke to a thin but dense fog. That was terrific news and even new campers soon realized this circumstance foreordained a bright sunny day soon to follow. Sara was up early in anticipation of capturing the overnighters from Pirate Cove who soon appeared in the gray mists of the lifting fog. The flotilla consisted of the War canoe plus a few kayaks. Her photos of the arrival home appear this morning, along with some proof that the skies did clear as predicted.
The counselors have been terrific at posting their photos on our staff network called Slack. Before the Internet went down, both Sara and I were busy downloading photos from that site to the Campanion Admin site and thus off to you. I count nine photo albums posted in the past two days and I took some comfort in knowing that those pix told a pretty good story even while my daily post got cut short.
I grabbed my phone/camera and hustled into the bright sunshine vowing to myself that I was taking only photos that revealed the bright blue sky for which New England summers are famous. I was delighted to stumble into the rowing clinic where James was working with three boys in our spanking new four-man rowboat. Fresh additions, too, are those Zest sailboats, which are “camp-hardened” versions of Sunfish and also are most popular with the campers.
Yesterday afternoon, we had sports games with neighboring camps and the news spread fast that the 12 and under soccer team had won two and tied one to win the “Baker Valley Tournament,” BVT for short. I decided to dine with Ezra, Elio and Jack, all of whom had contributed to the victory. What delighted me most was their philosophical take, not only on the soccer games but on the Kingswood experience generally. They agreed that the win was fun, but not essential, and by simply sampling as much camp variety as possible, rolling with the punches as it were, led to a very pleasurable summer.
As these same lads were driven off to Moose Scoops ice cream in Warren after dinner for having WON the tournament, one can be assured that their reasoned arguments at dinner gave way to the naked pleasure of Moose Scoops’ enormous portions!
We closed the day with a council fire session in the circle. Originally scheduled for Tuesday, we waited until Friday to get those near-perfect conditions for this function. Most important is a calm evening so that smoke does not disturb the gathering and some ambient colors of sunset helps too as we ask the assembly to focus their gaze on either the fire, the lake or the hills/sky beyond. Rob, Mike and I told some stories about Kingswood’s history. Todd, a fabulous story-teller, regaled us with two campfire accounts, the first on how one time he successfully got a cooking fire going in a downpour and the other on the time he burned the hairs off his hind legs while jumping over the fire pit. Too long to go into details, but I bet your sons will remember the details.
Some nice musical performances, Klaus teaching the campers the Kingswood camp song and the singing of Taps ended a wonderful camp day.
See you tomorrow.