Happy Mountain Day!
Happy Mountain Day from Mentone! It may be a normal Wednesday where you are but here at Alpine it’s a camp holiday. To many the favorite day of the term. I’ll fill you in all the festivities but first I want to share a few of my favorite things from the past few days.
Yesterday afternoon Carter and I were at our house, across the road from the team sports field and the gym, when we received a radio call asking us to walk up to the road. Before we knew it we were surrounded by a cadre of costume clad campers and counselors, dancing to the beats put out by a bluetooth speaker on one of the staff’s shoulders. Naturally we joined in for a few minutes. But soon they scattered, quickly down the road to their next stop. Foreshadowing for today’s festivities? Perhaps. But officially they were a part of our Earth Games class, an Alpine unique activity, that combines silly, zany fun, sometimes mud, and loads of creativity. This was a “dance raid”. Raid not rave because they travel from activity to activity (but not certain ones like riflery or horseback) and surpise “raid” them with dancing.
Our brand new rifle range opened on Monday to much excitement and fanfare. It had been delayed finishing due to all the rain we received in May. It had not kept our riflery classes from shooting as we have temporarily located the range uptop on some land that is not near anything else, bussing boys up to their classes. Our new range is more centrally located, yet still in the woods and fenced in by large 16 foot fences around all sides. We have a new, fully covered 10 station shooting facility with much more storage, better lighting, and the ability to vary target lengths more easily.
Slaughterball is an Alpine tradition that dates as far back as I know about. It was long established when I came along as a camper in the mid 80’s. It’s basically dodgeball with a few unique Alpine rules. Boys love it because what’s not to love for boys throwing balls at each other in attempt to win for your team. That being said, sometimes it’s fun to spice things up a bit and add some variety to the usual. A few years ago we took the usual playground game of 4 square and turned it into Extreme 4 square. We use the tennis courts and chalk lines to make the 4 squares double the size and teams of 2 play each other, trying to work their way to the king square.
Merrick McCool, our assistant program director and resident creative, dreamed up a whole new evening for Slaughterball last night. Braves and Chiefs, our oldest campers who have played many times, arrived in the gym to Slaughterballpalooza. Merrick created a giant spinning wheel with about 8 or 10 variations to Slaughterball (most of which he made up in his head that day). The first spin landed on Disco Slaughterball. As the Chiefs descended on the court, the lights went off and disco strobe lights came on around the gym. The Bee Gees’ Stayin Alive rocked the speakers as boys alternately danced and threw balls at each other. The next spin landed on “Everyone vs Glenn” (needless to say, I was not informed or consulted on this one:). I lasted about 1.8 seconds as 100+ boys rained down balls my way. High fives and lots of laughs were exchanged afterwards. The next spin landed on Silent Slaughterball. An entire game was played by the Braves without saying a word. Fake silent cheers and hand raises throughout the gym were totally without sound. Other variations included sideways slaughterball, opposite hand games, and one where counselors could serve as immovable shields!
And now on to today’s holiday. On Mountain Day there’s no costume too big or small for breakfast. Alabama’s (famed country band from nearby Ft Payne) Song of the South blared on the speakers as aliens and cowboys and all manner of creatures strolled into the dining hall. Dancing and singing intermixed with blueberry and chocolate chip pancake eating had us all in a great mood!
After breakfast Richard Cox, our program director, led us in an all camp devotional. Then it was back to cabins to don those red and blue tribe jerseys.
Our Team Sports staff brought us a full morning of Olympic competition, tribe vs. tribe. Field events and some relays kept us busy all morning. And yes, there was music there too. That’s the beautiful thing about being unplugged for a time period. It makes you appreciate so much more. A little recorded music on Mountain Day gets us all excited.
The chiefs participated in a vaunted tradition; a giant relay race coordinated by head counselor, Nate McLaughlin. Each tribe assigned each 1st and 2nd year chief to a specific leg of the relay. The race required a vast array of talents from lanyard making to archery to tennis to horseback riding, running, and biking, canoeing and so many more. The starts were staggered and two counselors served as official time keepers for each tribe.
After a morning of competition, lunch could not have come sooner. Mrs. Gail’s Mountain Day special: BBQ chicken awaited us. Served with green beans, mashed potatoes, salad, and strawberry shortcake, we feasted. She cooked the BBQ chicken all night, low and slow, in our new camp ovens. It falls off the bone.
This afternoon we received several rounds of quick thunderstorms. Boys played games in cabins and several age groups held a skit competition. Cabins prepared one minute skits to be presented to the entire group after the rain moved through. After the weather boys also enjoyed some time to play in the many wet weather streams that flow after a good rain. Is there anything better for boys than making dams and racing “boats” on a flowing stream?!
The best part of the whole day (and maybe the term) comes at sundown, the Alpine County Fair!
Currency at the fair is dried pinto beans and specifically colored tickets for various dessert treats. The gym is decorated like an old timey county fair. Loaded with an envelope full of beans and tickets, boys are turned loose in the gym and field to play fair type games to their heart’s content. Cakewalks, Climb the Mountain, and the Sponge Toss are just a few. Of course the longest lines are always reserved for the fair food, including salted pretzel bites, Mayfield ice cream cones in multiple flavors, and sno-cones served by the Froggy Freeze mobile truck.
Thanks for reading and have a great night (even if it’s not as fun as ours, haha!) Glenn
