Don't forget to make your way into Muddy Pond for some sorghum. If you're not fortunate enough to have it available year 'round, stock up at the General Store. It tastes great on biscuits! These make great gifts too.

Opening Camp Before Precamp

Although I grew up at camp, I never arrived before the staff. I used to wonder who opened up the camp before everyone got there and wondered how early they arrived. Well, at this time, the director, a girl from the Mennonite community and I will be working Tuesday through Thursday. By Friday morning, the staff will arrive. And the following Tuesday the campers will arrive and summer camp will be in full swing.

We'll work on unpacking the office, getting electric, water and phone service turned on. UPS and the postal service should be heading our way with trunks and mail. SYSCO will get their first order and deliver the day before the staff arrives. The kitchen will be unpacked, reassembled, counters wiped down, and dishes washed. It's going to be a big job, but working in the woods is invigorating.

In trying to think what I'll need to help assist my job, I packed a tool box, a machete, ibuprofen, and of course will take food and water. Let's hope this will be ample for day 1.

It's almost time for coffee in the woods! My cup is ready to go. I yearn for the misty mornings on the lake, the dining hall before the campers wake up, and sipping on that first cup of coffee of the day on the porch of the dining hall as I basque in the beauty that was chosen at this specific location in the 70s. It was the summer of 1976 that the dining hall porch had regular traffic at the 2636 Muddy Pond location. Many feet have passed over the porch. Years of picnics have been shared there. Guitar lessons have been taught on the benches. Conversations while waiting to get into the dining hall have filled the area. And loads of clean laundry wrapped in butcher paper have been piled up, still warm upon arrival.

Then next time you have coffee on a porch in the woods, think about the great memories you've had at Monterey. They'll never be broken. They live on in campers who cherish her name. So keep all your memories of camp days at Monterey. For they will bring you joy and cheer through all the year.

Come down to Monterey, come down to Camp and you'll do things that you've never done! Please join us for the annual Camp Monterey Alumnae "Mother/Daughter Weekend" on July 6-July 7. Activities begin Saturday following rest hour (3:00 pm). Plan to stay for the Pageant followed by a picnic lunch on Sunday! Sleep in the lodge or stay locally in a hotel if you need to. For more information, email CMAlumnae@gmail.com or the Camp Monterey office while in session (931) 445-3579. Please reply by June 30.

One Month Away

It finally hit me today that Camp Monterey will be underway next month! Remember how the second Tuesday of June is the first day the campers arrive? The camp staff arrived the Friday before to set up their bedding, clean out the cabins and set up the bunks, prepared the areas they'll be teaching in, and attended meetings and training prior to Tuesday morning. 

Since it's a month out, it's time to pull out the trunk that's been stored all winter. It should be interesting to see if anything was inhabited, shrank, or just needs to be thrown away. Any costumes accumulated over the year can be collected and possibly used for a camp party. Craft supplies, kitchen supplies, storage containers, ropes, books, and any other surplus items are great for sharing at camp. But this will be the summer I invest in a Thermarest air pad for camp outs. As a child the ground didn't bother me as it does in my 40s. That was a lesson learned last summer. If I want to be able to hang with the campers, this will be the best way I can think of. 

I'm officially in pre-camp mode. My thoughts are of camp. My Facebook and Twitter (www.twitter.com/campmonterey45) pages reflect my enthusiasm and encouragement to stir the fire in the alumnae. So until next month, it's time to get busy getting ready for camp.

Party

Well, party finally arrived. After a week of hard work, missing some classes, staying up late, painting murals, teaching skits and dances, the Wataugas hard work finally paid off. The theme was OPPOSITES ATTRACT, so the theme allowed endless possibilities.

Since this was my first time as a senior staff and first time at a party since 1994, it gave me a whole new appreciation for what it was like being in their shoes. It's hard work, creativity and practice. But everything comes together in the end. Each person on the team is allowed to shine in more than one aspect. Campers learn, dance and act during parties where they may never do it during the school year. I was one of those campers. Parties at camp were my only acting and dancing times. And so many things remained the same: costumes, the hour aide bell to allow time for picture taking and socializing, dinner, party songs, murals, Hemlock dance, officers skits, skits about the staff, short little snippets, and of course finale. Then comes the clean up!

Party time brings the realization that camp is nearing the end, friends will be leaving camp and heading back home to school, and that this part of one's youth will never be forgotten. The memories of Monterey live on in campers who cherish her name.

Star Campfire

Monterey here's our promise to be loyal and true
For we shall never forget, all we have found through you.
Nights that we spent by the campfire, watching the embers fade away,
Then we'll recall days we loved best of all, when we were at Monterey.

The camp assembled around the flagpole and proceeded to walk down the path to the campfire site near the old JC camp/old archery range. Nolichuckies on the right and Wataugas on the left. Team songs! Introduction to the campfire theme: stars. Skits performed by the older campers about astrology. Then onto the good housekeeping awards, progress awards, unit spirit and finally Maid of Monterey. Wednesdays at Camp Monterey are still something to look forward to!

What were your favorite memories?