Widji Traditions/Culture # 1

Named Meals – Sub Sunday, Taco Tuesday, Waffle Wednesday and French Toast Fridays, I tried to change some of these my first summer to great resistance. I did manage to add diced chicken to the Taco Tuesday meal, but the rest are well intact.

Dream Scream – happens on Friday nights after the campers have gone to bed. Cabin leaders hype it up to their campers that the girls/guys are going to get one over on the other end. Little do the campers know that both ends are planning the same activity for the same time. The boys “sneak” across the lower field while the girls “sneak” past the Longhouse to the boys end. When they get to the opposite ends they scream to wake up the other campers and then run all the way back to their cabins “knowing” that for sure they did a great prank.

The Longhouse is loud most of the time – you get used to it after a while, but it can be overwhelming at first. It ranges from excited voices trying to convince the leadership staff that their table should go first up to the buffet line to cheers for their cabin mates, to mail call antics and various rhythms being tapped/banged out on the tables. Sometimes it’s very good, sometimes it’s just loud.

Meal time freeze game – to determine who in the cabin has to wipe the table and clear the dishes, cabins play the freeze game. This usually happens after they have gotten into some difficult to hold pose and the cabin leaders yell “freeze”. Campers can then be maneuvered into even more uncomfortable positions by their cabin leaders, other staff and sometimes other campers. The object is to stay as still as possible and hope that someone else moves first. The first person to move cleans up. I’ve seen a group of campers go most of a meal time in the frozen position and keep going even when their food is getting cold. On Saturday morning, The last day of camp, the campers get to call freeze on their cabin leaders and turn the tables on them.

Morning Monkeys – each morning before breakfast 1 boy’s cabin and 1 girl’s cabin duel it out to determine who gets to go in first for breakfast. They need to demonstrate something to the rest of camp and have them play along. A lot of spandex gets put on during these demos. Sometimes it relates to the theme of the week, sometimes to an event that has happened. Many are good and creative, some are lame. The SALTer cabins will also get involved with these and take a turn to win the right to go in first. Judging is done by the program and leadership staffs after the wise sayings have been delivered.

A wise man/woman once said… after the cabin leaders finish their Morning Monkeys demo, they head up to the top of the Longhouse tower to deliver their wise words. Once the wise words are delivered judgment is made and the winning side gets to go into breakfast first. Like so much at camp, some great advice comes from Yoda, “Do or do not. There is no try”.

Widjiitiwin Basketball which I have already blogged about, so see an earlier post or our Widji Ball Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WidjiitiwinBasketball and view the new video