that’s what Leon is doing right now…  Why? Because a key aspect of the magic of camp is that the campers never see “behind the curtain.” Tonight was the annual Saidie Hawkins party. We’ve been doing the EXACT same skit for 60+ years, right after dinner: Daisy Mae and her true love Li’l Abner and the rest of the Dogpatch crew (all played by staff  in hillbilly costumes with a country band) play out their tale of dashed hopes and dastardly deeds, then the whole camp dresses up in cowboy plaid and bandanas and denim…. The girls chase the boys and then we go to Rustic Lounge, for hay rides, corn roast, getting married and/or divorced by staff in crazy costumes, and a brief dance….

At 8:30 we sent the Juniors to bed and at 9 pm we led the Inters and Seniors to the front of the Main Lodge for an extravaganza skit Into the Woods, a theatre piece involving a witch and a wolf, a grandmother and a childless couple, a princess and a woodsman –  the classic, all enacted with sets and costumes and music and spotlights. It was, of course, the annual Colour War fakeout. But the campers don’t know yet that it was a fakeout.

And that’s why Leon and a crew of instructors are driving a truck around camp – to put away the barbecue from the corn roast, the hay bales and tables from Saidie Hawkins and the sets from the Colour War fakeout…. So that in the morning for the campers it will be as if magic happened.

Also today we were so excited to welcome home our 12 day long canoe trip from their whitewater adventures – the whole camp turned out at the trip dock to welcome them.

And today was Mini Camp. We welcomed 50 young children to camp for the day to get a taste of Arowhon. A fun day!