It's probably safe to say that most of us were up before hearing the tell-tale scratch of the needle on the worn-out grooves of the Reveille record. Today, noone had trouble getting up, or dressed. (Wearing Lenore green and white, I think...) Breakfast couldn't be done quick enough. I'm sure there were announcements. Blah, blah, blah. Who was really listening? Back to the bunks for our best clean-up efforts ever, and then inspection... Then, at the appropriate time, the entire camp headed up to the Lodge to wait on the front lawn for the first glimpse of our parents, as they rounded the curve of shrubbery on the entry road. So, picture nearly 200 girls, ranging in age from 7 to 17, jumping out of their skins in nervous excitement. I believe parents were admitted at 10:00 am., and there were always some early birds, who managed to sneak in. Here was the protocol: Campers had to wait behing the birdbath on the lawn. Definitely not on the road. Counselors were present to keep us within the boundaries. Once you saw your parents, you could run down and greet them. As parents began to arrive, you'd hear a shriek, and then you'd see girls running past you, screaming and crying all the way down the hill. As minutes went by, the remaining girls would move forward, towards the birdbath boundary. I remember this so vividly, because every year I was at Lenore, my parents were almost always the last two to arrive. In 1959, I remember commiserating pathetically with one or two other girls whose parents were "late," Now, we're not talking HOURS late here. It was probably ten or fifteen minutes late. But, to us, it was a humiliating eternity. I remember thinking to myself: "Who wants to run at this point?" But, when my parents finally did appear, I barrled down that slope like everyone else. (A few years later, when my sister was at Lenore, we'd share in this annual misery together.)
With parents all arrived. The first thing we all did was take them back to our bunks to meet our bunkmates, counselors, and everyone else's parents. PVD was special from the standpoint that even though they were told not to, parents always brought candy, treats, and gifts for us and our counselors. Contraband of any kind was always cool. Once the goodies were checked out, we all headed out to basically show off all the skills we had mastered in three weeks: we dragged our parents to the fields, tennis courts, arts classes, and our various "majors." Sometime during the morning, I think, we had an Assembly, to which all our parents were invited. All of the teams marched in, proudly singing our Green and White team songs. We always also sang a group song that wasn't color-war related. (As mentioned earlier, in 1960, we performed "Robin Hood," which was easily the highlight of my day...) After two hours of activities, box lunches were provided for the families, that we picked up in front of the dining hall. We all picnicked in front of our bunks.
After lunch, energy restored, it was time to take our parents on the half-mile trek down to the lake to show them our swimming and boating skills. However, the biggest line was always to water ski. ( In 1959, I'm not sure I was even able to get up on skis yet) Once all campers had gotten their exhausted parents back up the hill and into main camp, there was usually ice cream waiting for all. The last part of our afternoon, was generally devoted to free time, and around 3:30 or 4:00, "good -bye" punch and cookies usually signaled it was time for our parents to leave. Invariably, there were some hysterical, sobbing campers, but I remember most of us walking with our parents back up to the birdbath and saying "good-bye" without too much difficulty. The goal seemed to be to get us back in the Lenore routine as quickly as possible.
By dinnertime, things had calmed down substantially, and there was always some special evening activity that was planned to take our minds off of our parents. Despite that, after 'Taps" played, under the cover of darkness, there was always someone who would be crying, or passing around some candy...
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In 1969 (and other years, I think), the special activity was rollerskating. I recall that year especially because the Green team elected songleader, Robin Densen, got into an accident and broke her arm! You can see her in a cast in my bunk photo and the team photo.
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