The Grand Bargain

July 7, 2005

You cannot expect Sara or me to be on top of every photo opportunity since there are hundreds of them per day, no exaggeration.

I am so glad that counselors are able to post their pix on the staff exchange site. Sara simply copies and pastes the best ones into the album with the counselor title. For example, someone was on hand to capture two bald eagles roosting in a long-dead tree down the lake a ways from camp.

The CIT’s went to Hanover where they were treated to a grand sunset plus a rainbow. I thought the sunset paddle, too, was a super caricature of life at Kingswood. And, sailors on a windy afternoon. Ain’t gonna be no Sara on board for those pix!

Note in my most recent album that Sara nearly always has little Anya and often Rob’s twins in toe when she is after those photos. Grandma and Baibhav help a lot, but Anya sure is a handful.

Yesterday, a hot day with not so much wind, found Sara happily going in the speedboat to get boys up close and personal. What terrific photos.

The Grand Bargain is a reference to the weekly ice cream parties to celebrate good cleanup and inspections. The featured photo of Henry J. with his letter home identifies the understanding! Very few boys, probably none, can get past the letter police standing in the doorway of the ice cream parlor.

Today promises to be another scorcher here in the north woods, though I could feel a nice breeze exhaled by the generous Mother Tarleton as I walked down to breakfast. I am told that this afternoon we have scheduled our “slip and slide” down the hill from Lakeview to Tramp Field, a steep pitch lined with mattresses and covered with both tarps and soap suds. My fearless prediction is that there will be loads of photos of boys careening out of control for your viewing pleasure. Stay tuned.

By the way, I have pretty much given up on trying to share rosters of trips and away games as the world has changed so much since those halcyon years of my youth when pretty much anything could go. Actually, to be truthful, it is a lot better that we be careful in such matters, and, if anything, these are the halcyon years for many of us.

So, just allow me to conclude by acknowledging that two rugged overnight hikes are off into the hazy mountains with end-of-day luxurious accommodations (by hiking standards) in the Appalachian Mountain huts at Greenleaf and Lake of the Clouds. The highest peaks in the northeast are their targets and here’s hoping there are photos galore soon headed for the counselor album.