There’s No Place Like Dome
Welcome to the Camp Winnarainbow Blog! This feed is dedicated to providing daily updates on various Camp happenings with a special focus on camper quotations. DISCLAIMER: For matters of an urgent or serious nature, please contact the Camp office directly. This blog desk is not equipped to handle official business. Besides that, feel free to request article topics or special reports. Happy reading! —J. Payseno, Editor
PUPPET GROVE circa 9:12pm—Night has fallen on campus, bringing with it a pleasant sonic landscape: bird song, crickets, Streeter Creek, vehicles moving along the 101, kitchen staff clattering large pans around. From downtown Camp the audience ebbs and flows with cheers and applause as tipis perform their introductory skits. A pair of counselors stroll by, chatting, laughing, and crunching dry bay leaves in the gravel. After a short while, Wavy’s famous bedtime line, “Brush ‘em if you got ‘em!” alerts me to the conclusion of evening program.
Here in my outdoor office, I feel like these sounds connect me to the larger story of Camp, though no blog would be complete without some inanities from the clientele. I grab my trusty Moleskine and head for the toothbrushing zone to gather a fresh batch of first impressions. On my way there I become sidetracked by an unexpected nighttime scene at the Nurses’ Dome. A line of campers waiting to take their nighttime meds has formed outside the small geodesic structure that serves as Camp’s medical resource center. The area is fenced with privacy walls and lit with strands of rope light. A pair of teen staff nurse’s assistants chat with the waiting campers. These idlers will serve well as tonight’s quotation-givers.
“I’m excited about being with my friends,” says Star, 12. “I’ve been coming three years now. This session I’m going to do stilts, ASL and unicycle—but probably not all at once!”
“I like trains,” says Austen, 13. “I tried to take a train to Camp, but I couldn’t find one. Luckily I have very nice parents so they agreed to drive me.”
“Tipi skit night is where we introduce the tipis’ themes and all the people in them,” explains Cary, 13. “Our skit was ‘Totally Quilt’ because we are in TQ aka Turquoise Tipi. We made a quilt out of campers. I was Temu denim for 99 cents.”
“All the tipis have to make a skit about what color they are,” adds Caleb. “Our counselors wore paper In-N-Out burger hats and called our tipi ‘In-digo-N-Out-digo Tipi’. Sadly, I never received the deep-fried hoofed mammal I ordered. I would have been fine with any large, hoofed mammal: cow, horse, goat—maybe a giraffe even!”
“I already know the ropes,” says Sasha, 14. “I’m expecting lots of fun and snacks, hopefully some Goldfish—specifically Cheddar-Blasted. The regular ones just don’t give me satisfaction anymore. I’m looking forward to hanging out with friends. I have too many friends to count; I’m friends with everybody.”
Next to Sasha a young boy is reciting a repetitive song in a made-up-sounding language. He agrees to help me transcribe the “lyrics”:
Fa-ri-doo-ba-sa-mi-met
Do-ni-pwa-na-voo-di-net
Pi-na-sa-mi-ma-ni-set
Ga-na-fo-su-ma-bo
“It’s bug language!” explains Rowan, 12, clarifying nothing. “It’s ‘Sherman’s Song’ from the game Hollowknight Silksong. It took seven years to make because they only had four people in the devs. Also they had too much fun and kept adding things.”
“Can you include in your blog an unbiased quote that the Nurses’ Dome is the best place in Camp?” asks Teen Staff Nurse Assistant Aster, 17. “We not only have Vaseline, but we also have ice! We probably have a whole alphabet of remedies: Acetaminophen, Benydrill, Cerave, Dental floss, Extra whitening toothpaste, et cetera.”
“I’m on Teen Staff for the first time,” says Jolie, 15. “It’s a little hectic, a little chaotic, but I’ve got my JC mentor here,” gesturing to Aster. “The biggest difference between being a camper versus Teen Staff is that I have more freedom and more responsibility.”
As I take my leave the Teen Staff duo thank me for dropping by the Nurses’ Dome. I assure them that I will be back soon, likely with some ailment. My bad ankle coincidentally flickers with pain as I stride up the road.
Stay hydrated,
—J. Payseno, Editor