Camp Blog

In just a few short hours, the campers, counselors and administrators of Camp Tall Timbers will dress in their best and begin filing into the dining hall for one last dinner together – the always bittersweet session-ending banquet.

The food will be good, as it always is. The campers will look presentable to outsiders for the first time in quite awhile thanks to their fancy clothes, and the conversation will almost certainly bounce around, touching on all of the fun activities, laughs and memories that have been made at CTT this year. From the opening campfire, to Monte Carlo Night, to skating night and to the murder mystery we solved this morning I expect everyone will be bubbling just thinking of this last session.

Later tonight, we will sit as a group around a special campfire and reminisce – not only of the special activities I’ve already mentioned, but of everyday occurrences. We could think about something learned in lacrosse class, possibly a play made in a CTT baseball game, maybe even something memorable from bunk time. We will look back on water fights, Pirate Day, bowling night and mealtime shenanigans with fond smiles.

One thing I know for certain is that tonight, after the packing is done, the thinking starts. You think about the activities, about the counselors, about your friends and about the rest of the CTT family. You think about how you will miss camp in the next 11 and a half months and how you dread boarding that bus in the morning. I know we all long to see our families, but we always hate to leave this place.

During the closing campfire tonight there will undoubtedly be a lot of smiles, a lot of laughs, a lot of introspective looking back and almost certainly a few tears. Even though we can make like a Cubs fan and remember there is always next year, this one was special. This is the one we will remember most vividly for the next year and therefore, these are the CTT memories that will be emblazoned in the front of that special section of our brain where we store our Tall Timbers memories until next time rolls around.

Tomorrow morning, there will be a breakfast and then it will be time to say our goodbyes. We will say goodbye to our friends, to our bunkmates, to the counselors and most importantly to this small sect of land we call our home away from home. This is the place we come to get away from everyday, and tomorrow we will head back into everyday.

On the way to the bowling alley last night, several counselors kidded that we have become institutionalized by CTT. I fear this may be true for both campers and counselors so don’t be surprised when your child doesn’t leave the breakfast table because he or she is waiting for announcements to begin. If they slam an empty pitcher on the table, don’t blame them – that one’s on us. Because we are responsible for some annoying habits like these, hopefully your camper will bring home some good things as well.

Hopefully, your child will want to be outdoors and active. Hopefully, they will want to spend time with their friends because they have learned every moment is precious (you figure that out when you only have a few weeks together). And hopefully, they will live every minute to its fullest, and seize each and every day – because that is what life here is all about. We wake up every day with the attitude that we can make today better than the day before and hopefully this is something your kids can now exhibit as well.

All in all, we have had a great summer at CTT and everyone involved is sad to see August 15^th preparing to pop up on the calendar. That day may end this summer for CTT, but it doesn’t end what CTT stands for. We still have our friends, our health and our fondest memories of good times here. Every day of the summer stands as an unforgettable one, and I know that as soon as the dust from the outgoing buses settles we are already looking forward to those same buses dropping off kids for 2010.

This is my first year at CTT, and lord willing it won’t be my last. Personally, I have had the best summer of my life and I feel very privileged to be able to chronicle it every day. I hope you all enjoyed reading my little tidbits of information and I hope I can be here next year to bring it to you again. I have met some incredible kids, made some great friends and shared a million and one fantastic moments with my CTT family.  I can attest that this place is special, and I want everyone to know the smiles you see on campers’ faces in the photo section are real.

Since I have the forum to do so, I want to thank everyone that made it possible for me to be here and bring you, the CTT families, closer into the fold of life at camp. I know I’ll be choking back tears tomorrow when we all say goodbye, but they will be bittersweet. Bitter because I feel like I’m leaving my life for the last two months behind on a dirt road in the West Virginia countryside, but sweet because I know I made some great friends who will last a lifetime. That really seems to be the word that sums up the end of camp – bittersweet.

So all that being said, I’d like to say thanks to everyone for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, because I enjoyed bringing it to you. If you are ever passing through south side Virginia look me up and we’ll sit for awhile. Otherwise, thanks again.

I know I can’t wait for next year. I’m ready for first session 2010 to begin right now. But unfortunately, we’ll just have to wait. So goodbye for now, and I’ll talk to you in June.

Until last night, I never realized the wide range of talents that the campers at CTT possess. There are the normal skills, such as playing guitar or singing, but at the same time there are some people here who can do the most bizarre things you’ve ever seen in your life. Regardless of whether the person has a flair for the common or the outlandish, everything was on display last night at the CTT Talent Show.

There are a lot of talented musicians here and they relish nights like last night so that they can display their skills in front of the camp. Gerald Wrona rocked out the solo to Green Day’s ‘When I Come Around.’ Jason Gersh belted out a new original tune that he has been writing for six months. It was called ‘Bones’ and he received a standing ovation from the audience.

Ethan Polk-Trauman and cabin three took the stage to perform his original CTT song, which is a bouncing, catchy number that talks about the good friends we make at CTT and the good times we have with them.

The last musical display of the evening came from the counselors of A & B and Jacqui. They took it upon themselves to show their lack of singing talent by butchering ‘Love Story,’ which is normally sung by Taylor Swift (and it should stay that way). Luckily before it got too embarrassing they were joined on-stage by at least half the camp, and I believe most of the people left in the audience were singing along as well. It was a fun rendition of one of the most popular songs at camp, despite the very rough counselor-only intro.

Despite the heart-warming musical numbers, everyone in camp was grossed out at least twice by two of the most bizarre talents this camp has ever seen. The first of these was the weird talent displayed by cabin five.

The boys who refer to them as the BCC 5 (Best Cabin in Camp) gathered before the show and realized that none of them really have a ton of talent that they wanted to display. They certainly didn’t have a cabin-wide skill, per se, but there was one thing they all can do.

So here is cabin five, standing in front of the camp holding water bottles. They then pick them up to their nose and begin to drink the water through their nose. To prove it, they spit it out of their mouths and into the trashcan. They didn’t win, but everyone was grossed out.

But if the crowd thought that was rough, there is no way they could have been prepared for what came next. The counselors were, and they immediately moved to the back of the room and averted their eyes when Zach took to the stage with a saucepan full of milk.

To make a long story short, he sucks it in through his nose and shoots it out through his tear ducts. It is a gross thing to witness, plain and simple.

At the end of the night, the boy’s tent group was named the winner of the boy’s cabin competition for their ability to freeze for long periods of time (specifically, the entire talent show). Cabin A won the girl’s competition for a cute little act where they asked each other if it was time, and then when it was they switched their posture.

So, from guitar playing, to bad singing, to milk shooting to leg switching, campers at CTT have proven they can do it all. It was a fun talent show to see, but tonight they will have to display a new set of skills if they want to come out on top at Bowling Night.

This is one I’ve been looking forward to. It doesn’t have the pain potential like skating night does, which is always a plus. Not to mention, I don’t have to listen to the A & B counselors butcher perfectly good songs. This is shaping up to be a good for Ol’ Tom.

But really, at CTT they are all good nights. I know I’m dreading Saturday, when we all go home and I think everyone else is as well. But today is a showcase of the Best of CTT, where kids will participate in a mash-up of the most fun activities we have had this summer and it should be a great day with a lot of variety. Tomorrow will be fun as well, but I can’t quite tell you what it is yet…

Regardless, we are having a great day here even though it is one of our last. We are trying to make it a memorable one, and with the people here there is no doubt in my mind it will be.

Good news everyone- I made it through skating night completely unharmed! No ice, no bruises, nothing! Most of the campers can say the same thing, not to mention the fact that we all had a blast last night when we trekked to the roller rink.

The DJ kept the vinyl spinning and the campers kept their wheels rolling all night. As usual the veteran campers proved themselves to be the best skaters. Stevie and Sam hardly hit the ground at all, the Schwartz brothers alternated between beating everyone at pool and impressing us with their roller skills and even Gerald showed some people up.

The young kids struggled a bit more, but they gave it a good try. With assistance from counselor Susan, the girls from cabin A stayed on the floor almost the entire night. I don’t think Kacey ever let go of Susan’s hand, but she was out there giving it everything she had. Some of the guys from the BV, like Mason, had a few hard falls but stayed up for most of the night.

All in all, skating night was a fun time for everyone. Most of us managed to stay upright for the majority of the night and we all had a great time grooving to the music.

With only a few more days left in the summer, we are all starting to prepare for those inevitable goodbyes. Despite this, there is still quite a lot of fun to be had in the summer. We still have the talent show, the banquet and I even hear rumblings about a bowling trip. So as is typical of the end of any session at CTT, we are all excited to get back and see our folks but dreading leaving High View. With so little time left, you can rest assured that those of us here at CTT will be living every minute to its fullest until we pack up and leave here Saturday.