Camp Green Lane Blog Post, August 3rd

Man has worshipped fire since the beginning of time.

It’s no different here.

Since the start of their Camp Green Lane careers, the four male Camper Captains—Abe Genkin, Eli Raskin, Dylan Regan and Skyler Servetnick—have been mesmerized by the signature event of Color War:

Rope Burn.

I know they have, because we all have been. No matter if the first Rope Burn you saw was in 1989 or 1969, or if tonight’s Burn will be your first, it’s a sight that will last a lifetime. A powerful image: two roaring fires set side-by-side racing to incinerate a thick braided rope set 12 feet off the ground. Rope Burn is a primal, sacred event that takes place atop a hill in the dark of night, so the two fires are all you really see.

But up that hill, 4 boys work like they’ve never worked before. They carry and build and sweat and test their limits and when it’s over, they will all be overcome with emotion because to even take part in a Rope Burn, to be on top of the hill and not at the bottom, is a special honor. The 4 boys participating tonight have been dreaming of tonight for years. They’ve been selected by their peers to do this, and they’ll continue a lineage that goes back generations. We’ll all remember tonight forever.

It’s been 10 straight years of Green Rope Burn wins; perhaps that may change.

Win or lose, one of the coolest parts of the build-up to tonight has been the coaching tree of camp characters that have fingerprints on tonight’s Rope Burn. Coaches have participated as former Camper Captains. They’ve been reciting names of former Captains all week, who did what and what traditionally works best.

Both Andrew Blizzard and Jacob Israel were Camper Captains five years ago, so they know what tonight is all about.

But really everyone in camp knows what tonight is all about.

It’s a CGL rite of passage. You never forget your first Rope Burn.

Years from now, 4 different Camper Captains will burn rope. Maybe tonight they’ll see it for the first time. Maybe they’ve seen it already.

But no matter who they are, no matter how old they are, I know one thing:

They will never forget their first Rope Burn.

Go get em, boys.