Camp Green Lane 100th Summer Blog Post, July 2nd

Today was hot as can be.

But today was also fun as can be.

In 1926, the year Camp Green Lane opened, there was a terrible heatwave here, too. It was worse, though. Between July 19-23, 1926, camp was cooked during a reported “hyper-heatwave” with temperatures breaking triple-digits during one of the most intense heat events of the early 20th century.

Today was not that hot.

It was warm, but we had so much fun. The regular schedule for the day was scrapped before our eggs even hit the table for breakfast and we shifted to the Steamy Day plan. Big props go out to Uncle Max, Aunt Robin and Tyler and his maintenance crew for calling an audible and re-setting camp like a water park/beach club seemingly overnight.

Slip and slides were built by the pool and Cadet hill, sprinklers sprung up all around camp and baby pools became activity centers for the biggest and smallest kids in camp. Being that this is camp, the kids were soon sitting in those pools with bathing caps they found in their bunks and we even filled some of those pools with ice. Because, why not?

Aunt Rachel and her lifeguards worked the pool and the lake all day, and quite honestly, if you never checked the weather, you would have thought it was a special event with all the laughing and smiles. It was just a fun day of camp.

Everyone was playing their music, we drank water and wore sunscreen and it was like a day at the CGL beach club for us. I didn’t hear one complaint about the heat and in true CGL fashion, dance parties were breaking out in those kiddie pools by the end of the day. The temps were high, but the vibes were cool.

Tonight, we’ll stay cool watching the Carnival Lip Sync acts, and tomorrow is arguably the most fun single day of the summer—Carnival. Yeah, it’ll be hot, but we’ll have rides and water ice and soft pretzels and, well, Carnival is just the best.

I don’t know what they did to beat the heat 100 years ago. They probably swam in the lake like we did (there was no pool until after the 1950s). It was also the block ice era, so maybe they ordered a giant block of ice to be delivered on a horse-drawn carriage. LOL.

Yeah, today was hot!

And it was a lot of fun too.

—Uncle Evan