Taylor Christian Camp - Episode I

Welcome to the first mini-series “Check You For Tickmarks” has offered. The goal is simple: The following few posts will be a replay of each day of church camp. If you were there, this will give you an opportunity to see the other side of some of the more interesting events. If you weren’t there, this will give you an opportunity to see what camp is like since you used to go – you know, before you had air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and flashlights.

I had this idea that I would get up every morning to write this and discuss the highlights of the previous day. That way, I could be guaranteed a hot shower and a few minutes of uninterrupted time each day. Breakfast is at 8:15. It’s 6:38. I’ve already showered, shaved, and brushed my teeth. [NOTE: Who knew that one little eggshell mattress could do so little to hide the discomfort of a 3-inch 45-year old mattress?] I’m pretty sure I could write 15,000 words before breakfast. Keep reading. It won’t be that long.

So, let’s catch up. Yesterday was Sunday. The kids were supposed to arrive between 3 and 5. A vast majority of them got here at 1:45. However, camp doesn’t start at registration, young ones. On the contrary, camp started long before.

We came up Friday night to start getting everything ready. We unloaded two trailers full of food, lumber, sound equipment, 6-ft inflatable balls, and rubber duckys. We dabbled around camp for a while and then went to sleep. Friday was relatively uneventful.

Saturday, work began at 10 am. The agenda included building an 11-foot tall Hollywood Squares set sturdy enough to hold 9 staff members [Editor’s Note: the last day of camp revealed that the set could actually hold at least 15 people], manufacturing a Plinko board, erecting some PVC pipe structure, constructing a Family Fued faceoff table, and some girl work. Let the sweating commence.

There were about 12 of us up here at that point, so we split up and got after it. The short straws, of which I was one, headed down to begin constructing the Hollywood Squares set. We did everything but fell the trees for this thing. Honestly, it went very smoothly. Of course, this is compared to previous years where we spent countless hours constructing a saloon without the proper parts, and trying to make a cabin resemble a pirate ship using only junk we found in a dumpster.

2 hours in, the first level was built and, though untested, strong enough to hold a Prius.

Lunchtime. Campers, a little insight into the other side here… For the first day or two of camp, the counselor diet consists of Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, thin little pickle remnants, pickle-stained bread, and your choice of mayonnaise or ketchup. Why anyone would choose ketchup in this situation is beyond me, but it happens. Lunch involved sandwiches one and two of my weekend.

After lunch, we continued our plywood journey to the sky, careful not to jinx it by claiming aloud what we were all thinking – “This is actually working. We might get this done in a semi-reasonable amount of time.” After training my trigger finger to work with an electric drill that was apparently designed to be used by Bruce Willis in “Armageddon,” level two had been achieved and was fit for a Royal Rumble. In retrospect, my numbering system is off, as the ground was level one, so this meant we were pretty much done. It was approximately 3:00. To call this a victory would be an understatement similar to proclaiming “The Annexation of Puerto Rico” as just another play in Little Giants.

After helping and/or hindering some other projects, we set out to conquer our last two Saturday tasks…

First thing’s first: Let’s film a lip-dub. If you’re not familiar with a lip-dub, this was my introduction to the concept.

So we begin our walk-through of TCC’s lip-dub production. After a couple of run-throughs, we decide we don’t have enough daylight or general hydration to complete this today. A bottle of water and a shot of procrastination for everyone… We’ll take care of it tomorrow.

Task two: Tye-dye our camp shirts. In an episode of thinking outside the box, someone suggested we get white camp shirts this year and tye-dye. Fantastic idea. Everyone gets to pick the color of their shirt, and no one is to blame for the failed concept except the children themselves.

So we tye-dyed our camp shirts… I say “we” tye-dyed shirts. One of the other counselors [NOTE: For the newer readers, I try not to use names on here so as not to offend, incriminate, or aid and abed. Thus, we’ll call her Madeline] who was well-versed in tye-dye actually made mine, and bless her for it.

We made some game show signage, giant X’s and O’s for Hollywood Squares, and drank a ridiculous number of Sprite in an effort to produce 24 empty 12-oz. bottles. Then we slept… Longer than we would for the rest of the week.