Grooviness on the First Day Of Camp!

Hello future readers!

At 10 a.m. this morning Vivienne, me and all my friends got on the 2 buses to Camp Echo Hill. Here's who was on my bus:

And here are the kids on the other bus:

Back on our bus, Vivienne was acting kinda antsy.  I tried to read to her from my magazine, but she just wanted to ask more questions about camp. Bridget was new this year too, so she thought up a few of her own questions. Oh man! I hoped it wasn't gonna be this way all the way there. Then Kim turned around in her seat and said,
"Hey Julie.....sounds to me like Vivienne and Bridget are kinda nervous. Remember my first time going to camp and I was acting all scared and mopey? When you guys started singing, I started laughing and feeling better.  Maybe all Vivienne and Bridget need are one of our camp songs to make them feel better."
"Hey, super idea, Kim", I told her.
"Anything but 'Hey Bus Driver'", called Mr. Sanders from the front of the bus.
We all laughed. "We promise, Mr. Sanders", Kim replied, "we won't sing that one. But how about a little "Eenie Meenie"?
"Yeah!", we all answered.
I woke up Sunday morning, and looked upon my wall,
The skeeters and the bed bugs were in a game of ball
The score was 2 to nothing, the skeeters were ahead,
The bed bugs hit a home run and they knocked me outta bed!
Bridget and Vivienne started laughing!
I'm singing Eenie Meenie and a Miney Moe
Catch a whipper whopper by the toe
and if he hollers hollers hollers don't let him go
I'm singing Eenie Meenie and a Miney Moe".
We sang the rest of the song with Vivienne and Bridget howling and joining us on the chorus. Before we knew it, we had stopped by the front gate of Camp Echo Hill. Kerry, her little sister Velvet, and another little girl I'd never seen before were standing by the camp sign to meet us.

We all got off the bus and said hi to Kerry and all started talking at once. I think most of us wanted to know who this new little girl was.

Kerry raised her hand for us to be quiet and she explained that this new little girl's name was Mia Malone. She was in Velvet's cabin, The Grasshoppers. (the little kids have cabins named after bugs, and the older girls' cabins are after birds).  She told us that us older girls would be spending some time with the little kids this summer, and helping to teach them things. That sounded cool. All of us kinda look on Velvet as a little sister, so we felt sorta grown-up, 'cos we were gonna teach them!

Kerry said we should go up to the Dining Hall for lunch, and come back afterwards and stash our stuff. She would join us after she walked Mia and Velvet back to the little kids section of camp.

We had hot dogs, Oreo cookies and bug juice for lunch. Yummy!

Then Kerry got up to talk about the rules about camp, they way she always did. Then she told us that so many kids had signed up for camp this year, they had to build another cabin! Wow! So for the very first time, we'd be split up into 4 cabins! The Red Robins, The Yellow Canaries, The Blue Jays and......The Purple Peacocks!

She told us to check the bulletin board after lunch to see which cabin we were all in.  I hoped I'd be in the Purple Peacocks. Then came the big announcement. This year, we were going to put on a play! We were gonna work from a script that the boys' counselor Doug did for his final project during his junior year of high school, (and got an "A" on it to!)....FRANKENSTEIN! The whole hall went silent. I think we were all thinking the same thing. This might be OK for the boys to do, but us?

 Kerry told us that the boys would most likely be playing the Monster, Igor and the Doctor. But there were openings for Maria (the little girl),  the Constable (that's a policeman) and angry villagers. So we were teaming up with the boys again this year, huh? She told us we had today and tomorrow to decide, because we still had to make sets and props in Arts & Crafts, and rehearse. The sign-up sheet was also on the bulletin board. When lunch was over, all the kids checked the list of Cabin Assignments. Vivienne and I waited til the crowd had cleared. First we checked to see what cabins we were in:

Outta site! We were both in the Purple Peacocks! Then we looked at the sign-up sheet for the play:

 "Do you wanna be in the play?", I asked Vivienne.
"I dunno", she answered. "Do you?"
"Maybe", I told her. "It might be fun."
"Let's think about it", she said.
"OK", I agreed. "We've got until tomorrow. C'mon, let's go get our stuff."
Just then Bridget came over to us.

"Hey, we're in the same cabin!" she said to us.
"Yeah, isn't it great?"
"Sure...listen Julie, I know Vivienne's your friend, but I thought maybe since I'm new too, we could...."
"Buddy up?", I finished.
"Yeah, something like that. I'm still kinda nervous about being here."
"You don't have to be nervous Bridget. And Vivienne isn't just my friend, she's friends with all of us."
"Yeah Bridget, I'll be your bathroom buddy if you want."
"Super. C'mon, let's go see our cabin!"

The Purple Peacocks cabin was closer to the Dining Hall and Arts and Crafts cabin, but even further from the bathroom than last year.  *sigh* Kerry said if we really had to go and couldn't hold it, we could use the bathroom in the Dining Hall.  That was good anyway. Our cabin was pretty much the same as some of the others, except it smelled like fresh cut wood. We all started to get settled.

This year, we didn't have to bring sleeping bags. We have new sheets, pillows and blankets! All right!

Bridget and Vivienne noticed the new shirts on the bunk cubbies.

We hadn't gotten our bandannas yet. Kerry said the company they order them from sent pink instead of purple and they had to return them and place another order, Oh well, we probably wouldn't need them for a while, anyway. Bridget and Viv decided to share a bunk bed, but Vivienne and I chose the bottom bunks, so we'd be right across from each other. I started pulling stuff outta my bag, and reached for my radio. I turned it on and started tuning it in.

"Hey far out, Julie brought her radio!", Cheryl said all excited. "Can you get KSFD on that thing way out here?"

"I don't think so", I told her. "But maybe I can find some other cool station."

I tuned in a station that was playing The Sylvers, "Groovy!" said Vivienne.

We were all relaxing before we went to the Rec Hall.  Bridget brought a book on insects, so she could learn all about the ones here in camp,  She wanted to know the good ones from the bad ones. *giggle*

Well that's it for my first day, future readers. I gotta go now,, 'cos Kerry's hollering for "Lights out!"

Until next time,
Your friend,
Julie Newman