Fourth Of July

We celebrate the Fourth of July in a GAUDY, Exuberant, Open Hearted way at Greystone. Our day begins with the dining hall decorated in streamers with lots of red/white/blue “bling” for the girls to wear. We sing “Hail Greystone Hail”, do the team fight songs, then sing the National Anthem before eating. I spoke on patriotism (being proud of your country, THANKFUL for the gifts of our country) as a component of mental growth… encouraging the girls to take the simple attitude that we celebrate at flag raising and lowering every day home. The next time they go to a public event ant the national anthem is played I hope every Greystone girl will stand at attention and honor the flag (even if she is the only one).

Wes King and his sons played for the girls during Morning Assembly, a GREAT way to start the day! Wes married a Greystone girl and has a summer home next to camp. They LOVE Greystone and loved giving this Mini Concert for the girls on this special day!

Today will be a great day, one that will center around the Carnival and Fireworks show this evening. Our carnival really is a blast- a celebration of food, dancing, and fun with friends. It begins with a traditional NC BBQ picnic, the girls will sit with their cabins on picnic blankets on the front lawn (leaning back to enjoy the cool mountain breezes and warm evening sunshine). At about 7:00 we begin the carnival and the girls run from ride to food in a celebration that is made more memorable because of the custom T shirts that we will give out at lunch. After the big dance contest, we will adjourn to the lake side and eat ice cream while we watch my BIG fireworks display.

I get my fireworks from a roadside stand (now that I have lost my ATF license, I have to shoot consumer grade fireworks… a long story, basically I didn’t keep good enough records and they yanked my license!). The show is actually pretty great… the men staff help me set it up and do a great job shooting everything in a blaze of glory that the campers love.

We will go to sleep happy and full… what a great day!

Our Five Year Celebration was a huge hit last night, check out the live stream if you want a glimpse of camp life. Beautiful, funny, poignant, and sweet. The seniors did a great job, a wonderful moment for them all. Speaking a memorized speech to a packed auditorium of 600 fans is not easy, they were nervous but it did not show. They did GREAT! Afterwards the Seniors came up to my house and Margaret and I served them milk and cookies then Catherine gave their devotion on our porch. They went to bed with a keen sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Weather is a bit rainy, but I am fairly sure it will pass by the time we set up for fireworks. This pattern of scattered showers is not bad for camp but it can play havoc with my “consumer” fireworks (the big stuff can be shot in any weather but not the “road side stuff”!).