Summer runs away from you really fast. Jillany just reminded me that I haven’t written anything for WEEKS now, and that’s how the summer is feeling like the weeks have flown by without my realizing it. It’s what happens when you’re having so much fun.

I think they got the new flat screen TV working in the lodge this week. They’ve been using it to play a video that explains the rules of capture the flag, which by the way, the boys won yesterday, and last night as I was closing down the lodge, it had fun questions on it that kids were guessing the answers to, like, “What’s the name of the Boys’ Village Director?”

I also leg song service last night. I do every Thursday, but for some reason, last night was even for fun than usual, filled with energy. I like to take some time when I lead music and ask a few kids a question or two, and last night I asked three campers, ‘How many years have you been coming to Big Lake?’ One answered, one year. Another answered; two, and one girl said that this was her fourth summer. Then I told them that this was summer number 10 for me, and then we sang the theme song from my first summer – Everyday. They sang along, and it was just like it was 2001 again.

It always surprises me how music works like that, how it gets into your soul, and a good song transcends age or time, how the #1 song from 10 years ago is still being sung by campers today, how we still have cinnamon rolls on Friday morning, extra staff getting up early to help roll out the 800 or so dough balls of sticky goodness. It’s these constants that I’m most thankful for working here at Big Lake, the little things, the tiny details that really make my summers so special.

Tonight, we’ll sit together and have bowls or potato soup, and it’ll feel like any other Friday night, but that’s why I’m going to love it so, cause I can count on the incomprehensible dull murmur of noise coming from the tables as people talk about riding on the rocket, or what their time was on the Olympics’ obstacle course. I know Casey Bartlett will have a bowl of vegetable soup, and Chad Torkelsen will have a one of corn chowder. He’ll stick some cubes of cheese in it, melting them into a gooey mess, and then I know after campfire, we’ll all stand in a circle, singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy” together before CADCO goes off to clean the bathrooms.

I also know that both Casey and Julie will have forgotten to restock their cleaning closets, and I’ll have to trudge down to the shop to get some brown paper towels, but you can’t always get what you want, right?

J