Summer Blog Post August 5th

If you could do anything at camp, what would you do?

That’s the question many campers wrestled with today as we held our traditional Country Club Day. It’s basically Free Play, all day, and a welcome opportunity to take our foot off the gas after a long, competitive week of Color War.

Country Club Day begins with a 10:00 breakfast and Super Cleanup. When all the cabins are clean and the grounds are ready, campers are invited to spend the late morning doing whatever activities they like. You saw a lot of pairs and small groups and even entire cabins heading out for a blank-canvas day. Other campers had specific goals to hit for the day: the lake, arts and crafts and the Canteen were up there for many, same with archery, frisbee golf and the pool were all jammed.

Today is also the first day 5-year campers and counselors may paint their names on the walls of Arts and Crafts. A long CGL tradition, putting your name on the wall is a special thing for many of our campers (and alumni). The one rule is they may not write over anyone’s name already up there, so you saw a lot of creative artists staking out corners, parts of ceilings, window frames and even the floors to put their name into CGL lore.

The transition from Color War to Country Club Day is also a bittersweet signal of the end of summer. A week from now at this time, the bags will all be packed.

So, as Color War ends, an unspoken realization sets in across camp that our days together are in fact numbered. A week remains. It will be a week jam-packed with special events, Leagues and Tournaments and sacred ceremonies like Firefly.

But now you’ll also see campers and counselors (and supervisors) alike trying to wring the last drops of this incredible summer out, looking to make each of these last moments special. The little kids will have their Polar Bear Plunge and the big kids will have Midnight Madness, two more rites of passage of a dwindling Green Lane summer.

Today I asked a lot of campers what they planned to do with their Country Club Day. Some had a plan. Others were intimidated by the enormity of choices. In the end, today was a day to do whatever you want at camp, a day to begin to take stock and appreciate what you love most about CGL.

It was a day to be with your favorite people, doing your favorite things, in your favorite place.

How would you spend a Country Club Day at camp?