The Independence of Summer Camp
July 4, 2019 by Don Gentle
The freedom to go to summer camp at High Rocks! That sounds good to me! The 4th of July was certainly the reason for much celebration today at camp! We started the morning with Jimmy Hendrix’s version of the Star Spangled Banner blaring through the hills for wakeup followed by many other patriotic tunes to get everyone moving.
I was especially impressed with the Hillside guys who went out on their overnight last night. It was a big step for many of them. Taking a group of little guys out for the night in the woods is no small task. It was fun to hear the stories of the night. I caught a couple of the masses rolling in as we were getting ready for our wake-up.
It was great to see so many of the guys who brought festive items for the Independence Day celebration. The dining hall was covered with red, white, and blue. We brought up our own basket of “flair” the guys to use as well. Our freedom breakfast was fantastic with the freedom to choose some many things! Scrambled eggs, Southern Grits, scratch-made biscuits (really! I watched Nathan cut every single one!), and sausage gravy. Of course, these already amazing items were accompanied by our usual cereals, fresh fruit, and yogurt. We had patriotic songs playing in the background all through breakfast.
We continued into the morning having a blast at our activities as the large “freedom ball” made its way around activities.
Lunch was full of energy and the crowd broke spontaneously into the Star Spangled Banner complete with one of our campers grabbing the flag from outside and waving it proudly in the dining hall.
Tonight we enjoyed an all-camp event called Freedom Games. We had a rainstorm that would not let go of us throughout the evening. We finally had to call it off for the fireworks show tonight. After some snack up on the hill, the boys headed back to the cabin for a shower. We will hit the boys with a big fireworks show on Saturday night instead.
It sure was a great day! It’s a pretty cool group of guys to spend a holiday with for the day.
Have a great night,
Don