Night Activities
At 3 o’clock this afternoon my truck temp registered 73 degrees. And that was the hottest it got all day. And mostly a cool breeze blew all day making it feel even cooler. With beautiful baby blue skies and no rain in sight, we may have just enjoyed our best weather day of the year. Several folks said it felt like fall football Saturday tailgating weather.
We strode into the Dining Hall this morning at 8 to a rare Thursday pancake breakfast. Mrs. Gail’s pancakes are famous throughout the Southeast! Fortified with flapjacks, activities commenced with all in great spirits on this cool morning. Routines have been established in most activities. Campers and counselors alike are put at ease by the expected rhythms of each day. And they look forward to the subtle variations that each day brings.
One great variation is night program each night. Richard Cox, our program director, works hard to schedule games or activities for each age group that will please. I thought it might be fun to tell you about a few of these. That way you’ll have some context when your son comes home talking about angleball or ultimate kickball!
Spotlight is probably a familiar one to many, harkening back to childhood games played in the neighborhood. Basically, boys have a goal to reach sneaking through the dark from a starting point, while trying to avoid the “bad guys”. If you get spotlighted by a bad guy, it’s back to the start you go.
Capture the Flag also spans the generations. As a reminder, two teams separated by a midline, race across in an effort to grab the other team’s flag and get it back across the midline without getting tagged. Get tagged and you head to “prison” until a teammate races to free you.
Angleball might be the most bizarre and loved all at once. It’s part football, part ultimate frisbee, and part plunger on a pole with a playground ball on top. Two teams pass the football from teammate to teammate down the field and can run with the ball until getting tagged. A point is scored by throwing the ball at the 10 foot high plunger ball and knocking it off. But a large radius circle requires the throw to be made from 10 feet or out. The ball turns over when one team drops a pass or fumbles it.
Ultimate kickball is, well I really don’t know how it works. I know they love it. I can tell you it happens in the gym. It’s good old playground kickball with some crazy rules added in. And the gym walls make for some great pinball bouncing to keep the “field” on their toes.
Jedi Ball leads to the biggest cheers when announced at supper. It’s essentially dodgeball played on an outdoor field. Each team has a Jedi with a light sabre (pool noodle) on their side. When a teammate gets hit, instead of leaving the game, he sits down where he got hit. And the Jedi can give you new life by touching you with his pool noodle, I mean light sabre. The danger is when the Jedi leaves his safe zone, he too can be put out with a good throw from the opposing team. And once he gets out then it’s usually only a matter of time til his team is eliminated.
These are a few of the options Richard carries in his bag of tricks. As I write this boys are out playing some of these and more. Thanks for reading and good night for now, Glenn
