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.