Super Saturday
Hard to believe that yesterday was already the final Saturday of Main Camp!
As you know, weekends take a break from the typical daily routine of camp, starting with an extra hour to sleep in. In the morning, boys could choose to participate in tournaments around camp, or in “Staff Shakeups” where counselors offered different activities.
The tournaments included:
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Flag Football
- Magic the Gathering doubles
- Chess
- Dodgeball
- Archery
- Foosball doubles
- Ping Pong
- Fishing
The Staff Shakeup options were:
- Volleyball at the landsports field
- Touch the Fence at tennis
- Sailing at the upper lake
- Cricket on the field
- Lake Lap contests
- Bucket Golf
- Talent Show practice at the Gym
- Play practice
- Fire building with Keepers of the Flame
Lunch was a very southern meal of collard greens, grits, cornbread, BBQ, and fried okra (with key lime pie for dessert!)
In the afternoon, camp split in half for all-camp-games. The younger Cabin Lines (Sorrel and Tsuga) played Manhunt while the older half (Robinia and Betula) played Family Feud.
For Family Feud, boys competed cabin vs cabin using the same basic framework as the classic game show. Just like the families in the show, cabins would work together to guess the top responses for each question. They included questions like, “What do a baby and an old man have in common?” or “What’s something you have 7 of?” or “What state do most people retire to?” It was a close game, with the Gold Team narrowly beating Green, 70 to 60.
For Manhunt, campers had to sneak over to the hidden base without getting “hunted” by the counselors, who were trying to pull their flag belts. If they could make it to the base and back, they would get two poker chips as a reward, which they would need to hold onto until the end of the game. Each time they successfully made it to the base and back they could get two additional chips, and at the end of the game all the chips were tallied up for both the Green and Gold sides to find out the winner.
Jeremy Gillespie was helping give out poker chips at the “bank” during the game. He remarked that, “between running back and forth with this game and the dance tonight, these boys are gonna be dead tired at the end of the day!” That’s right, yesterday was also the much anticipated dance with our friends at Camp Illahee!
After a big day of tournaments, games, and Staff Shakeups, the boys headed back to their cabins to shower and get ready for the dance. The younger half of camp would travel to Camp Illahee in Brevard. The older half of camp would stay here at Falling Creek to welcome Illahee’s older campers.
With their collared shirts and freshly washed hair, the boys were looking like gentlemen and ready for the dance. Their counselors gave them reminders to help them act like the gentlemen we know they are too. Counselor James Stone was talking to his campers about the basic manners they should have when meeting a girl. “Do you guys know the first thing you should do? Introduce yourself and ask her name.”
As the younger boys gathered in the gym to prepare for the drive to Illahee, you could feel the nervous excitement about seeing girls from another camp. “I’m gonna touch a girl’s hand tonight,” was overheard from one of the boys.
For other boys, talking with girls was the farthest thing from their minds. “What are you most excited about?” “The food.”
Some boys were looking forward to seeing their sisters who are campers at Illahee. Others were just excited to get out on the dance floor.
“Our counselor Harry is the best dancer,” Cabin 18 declared. “Yeah, Hare-bear hits the griddy.” Besides their counselor, they agreed that their cabinmate George C. had the best dance moves. George just grinned without protest, clearly excited to get out on the dance floor.
For the older campers who stayed at Falling Creek, we started with dinner, followed by some games together. Matt led a group of counselors in the classic “Dum Dum Dada” song, challenging everyone to follow along with the silly hand movements if they could keep up. From there, the dance floor was open and everyone had a great time!
Thanks to our friends at Illahee for being such wonderful hosts and great company. We had a fun time dancing and enjoying dinner with you! Today, we’ll be savoring our final Sunday of Main Camp.
