The 4th on the 3rd

Since the actual 4th is on Sunday (the day we do Opening Vespers), we just make our own national holiday. Camp is like that… we create our own little world, form it the way we like it, and make each day a great day. Today is going to be a really great one.

Lots of 4th of July outfits and accessories are being worn by the campers and counselors. I bought a really nice Uncle Sam outfit to wear to breakfast (it didn’t come with the hat, whiskers, shirt, and shoes… next year should see those improvements). We sang the traditional series of songs (Hail Greystone Hail, Odds Cheer, Evens Cheer, Star Spangled Banner), and ate a delicious breakfast casserole and fruit bar. At announcement time I let the girls know some of the details of Carnival this year (a Western theme). They were particularly excited about the mechanical bull ride, trapeze, inflatable pony races, and Dance Dance Revolution competition. Great Carnival food will feature Hot Funnel Cakes, a wonderful treat that Gervais and I cook to order. There will also be cotton candy, sno cones, popcorn, and so forth. Did I mention our NC BBQ picnic dinner? The pork cooked all night, we will pull it by hand and present the best BBQ to the girls. If they like BBQ, they will love this (it is amazing, we just get better at it with every passing year). It all finishes with the big fireworks show after the sun goes down.

Everyone is excited, it is a wonderful ending to a wonderful week.

The weather continues to cooperate. A very strong high pressure system is giving us sunny days, nice breezes, low humidity, and comfortable temperatures. It is agreed… Greystone is THE place to be.

I got a ton of pictures yesterday, but I won’t do many today (the other galleries else will be well stocked, I am sure). The reason: I am doing a ton of set up work for the evening… mostly fireworks, which are a big deal to me! I love shooting fireworks… camp lets me shoot a lot of them on the 4th. This year features a cornucopia of assorted wonder from a little fireworks store in South Carolina, about 1,000 pounds by my estimate. Names like “Crazy Lady”, “Bomber Attack”, “Hillbilly Hoedown”, “Saturn Missile Battalion”, “Thunder Road”, and on and on. I couldn’t resist. Imagine the delight of the man who runs the store when I arrived towing an empty trailer and a wad of cash! The men staff will be with me, we will be safe (I promise).

Closing our first week of Main Camp… amazing. Time really goes by fast (we can’t believe it is already Saturday), and seems very long too (we fit so many things into every day, usually big events take a longer time to happen). It leads to a funny frame of reference: we call it “Camp Time”.

It has been a wonderful opening to a wonderful year. Every detail has come together in a nice way, there is a glow of accomplishment that both camper and counselor feel at what has happened. Likewise, there is a new confidence of anticipation for the rest of the summer. Everyone feels this confidence in individual ways, we were all nervous about different things… but each concern is gradually lifting; a fog that clears to provide a perfect mountain morning. Wonderful feeling!

Remember to click on the right hand picture to scroll through the highlight photo’s from my favorites.

I hope your holiday weekend is wonderful as well. Thank you for checking in…

Jimboy