I’ll have to admit, I thought we were crazy when I saw the “Program Notes” this week and saw that Sliding Rock was scheduled for tonight. After all, it’s Saturday night of a long holiday weekend. The weather has been absolutely perfect, gas prices are lower, and it’s hot everywhere except the mountains. That’s a … Continued
Time flies when you’re having fun. Apparently so. I signed some checks today and the date jumped out at me. July? Already?! Really? A sure sign of a great summer is that it does fly by…too fast, in this case. We are rounding the corner into the weekend, and wrapping up week one, and what … Continued
There are balls bouncing in our driveway and some music playing in the background…lots of voices and an occasional squeal. The sounds of summer. Liza, our two-year old Lab is whining at the doorway. She loves to play ball. Soccer is more her game than basketball, so she’ll do what she can to steal the … Continued
There are several theories of child development that really interest me. One is that of “acceptable risk.” The idea is that a child’s healthy development through young adulthood relies to some extent on navigating the waters of risk and consequence. Teenagers are risk seekers, and many that they choose (as you know) can be unhealthy. … Continued
I certainly don’t want to jinx things, but one sure sign of a great staff is that I have not seen a homesick tear yet this summer, and we are almost four weeks into the season! An interesting phenomenon with homesickness…the campers who struggle with it at the start of a session are usually the … Continued
Our kayakers didn’t need to leave camp today! They could have launched their boats at the top of the steps across from the office about 2:30 and ridden the deluge all the way down the driveway! We got an inch of rain in about half an hour! Luckily, by a little after rest hour (we … Continued
If you ever toured Illahee before visiting, you were probably serenaded at least several times by groups of campers singing, “Welcome to Illahee…the mountains echo welcome to thee…” The sounds of camp were certainly echoing from Heigh Ho and Hillbrook hills as we started our four-week and mini 1 sessions today. All is “right” in … Continued
A number of years ago, we threw caution to the wind and changed a tradition at camp. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth from the 13-14 year old age group, that change is now a tradition, and one of my favorite at camp. Before, final campfire was a parade of activity heads acknowledging this … Continued
We emphasize over and over in pre-camp “counselor camp” how important flexibility is in the camp world. Our weather has been pretty darn close to perfect considering that we entered the session very dry. We were watering all of our new grass and rhododendrons like crazy trying to help them gain a foothold when the … Continued
I’m starting to write tonight toward the end of gutter sundaes…7 tubs of ice cream, a case of Hershey syrup, several cases of whipped cream, a box of sprinkles and about 12o feet of vinyl gutter. That’s right…the stuff that catches rain from your roof. Only this gutter has taken a trip through the Hobart. … Continued
