A Glorious Mountain Day

Glenn Breazeale | May. 30, 2018

A day like today is why we have camp in the Mountains. First of all, no rain all day!!! A gift from God considering the forecast. It was a typical early summer day in Appalachia - overcast and breezy, cool all day. Temps stayed in the low 70’s all day.

Boys have just been in the gym singing their hearts out at Glee Club. Glee club is an old school tradition at camp (in case you couldn’t tell from the name!). We gather after dinner and sing classic rock songs rewritten with Alpine lyrics. “I wish they all could be California girls” becomes “I wish they all could be Camp Desoto girls”. “Wild Thing, you make my heart sing” gets redone as “Slaughterball, you rock the gym walls”. And maybe most popular is “Say it’s French toast” to the tune of Weezer’s “Say it ain’t so”.

And speaking of French toast, we started our day off with a heaping stack of it, coupled with bacon. We also serve a breakfast bar at each meal. The bar holds fresh fruit, granola, and yogurt, a nice complement to the hot breakfast served each morning.

The boys attended their first three activities in the morning, with a nice fruit and cracker snack mid morning for sustenance. The first day of activities is always filled with such anticipation and promise. Boys hustled out of cabins, some with towel in hand, others shod in boots. Still others ran to the field anxious to break out the new soccer or footballs for the season.

Lunch hit another high note. Chicken fingers, lima beans, mashed potatoes, and green salad awaited us. We eat family style at tables of 12, each with 2 or 3 counselors. My family and I eat all of our meals with the boys. We love to watch the conversations that take place between campers and counselors.

After a much needed rest hour your boys tried out activities 4 and 5 for the first time. The sun even peaked through the clouds late afternoon, an added gift.

Dinner tonight consisted of spaghetti noodles with meat sauce, buttered toast, green salad. All in all this was a banner first full day of Jr Camp! Your boys will sleep well tonight. Thanks for reading and good night for now, Glenn

Glenn Breazeale
Glenn Breazeale

Like his own father, Glenn grew up as a camper at Alpine for six summers, coming from Jackson, MS each summer. He has served on staff at Alpine since 1997, working full time as Assistant Director from 2003 to 2005 and Director since 2006. Prior to that he gained experience serving in various capacities including cabin counselor, Head Counselor, Head of Project Adventure (Ropes course), Horseback instructor, and Program Director. Glenn’s love of camping and his desire to preserve the traditions of Alpine drew him back to camp to offer young boys the same opportunities he experienced. He met and fell in love with Carter during a Square Dance with Camp DeSoto.