It was 1996. We were the oldest campers, in the Phillies, and that meant we had to be prepared for camper captain, etc. The entire camp had been expecting Color War, but nobody had the slightest clue when it would break. The element of surprise is what made this such an outstanding break. We all left the dining hall after dinner expecting nothing more than a normal freeplay, but just in case anything happened, Graig Russo and I stayed together for the entire freeplay. We played ping pong for a little while, when some one spotted an airplane overhead. Graig and I looked at eachother in disbelief and continued our game of ping pong. No more than a minute later, we looked up and sure enough the plane was still circling camp. We dropped our paddles and joined the rest of the camp in staring up at the sky awaiting the airplanes next move. An orange banner of some kind was dropped and a lot of campers assumed that it said "Color War '96" on it or it said "Fake Break." !

Graig and I just looked at eachother with teary eyes and continued to watch the circling plain. After another minute or so, two parachuters dove from the plane and that's where we figured out it was the real deal. Him and I looked at eachother, jumped up and down a few times, and then hugged one another as the parachuter dressed as a cowboy landed on his feet near the deep outfield of softball #1. The indian parachuter was next and as he stumbled to the ground, Uncle Mel announced that we should all move on to the basketball court where Graig and I would find out that we were on opposing teams. Although we were split apart from eachother, we were the camper captains of our teams and had the best color war of our lives starting with the best break.

In the summer of 97, all that I can remember was the pre-color war stress everyone in my bunk (Biltmore) and the other bunk (Atlantis) had. It was terrible, we were all awaiting the break with the fear of learning who the future camper captains would be. The same question was going through everyone's minds..."Will I get it, or will I not?" There was so much tension everywhere in camp though, and I guess that is why I can remember the fake break all most more than I can the real one.

It was a normal freeplay, and I had been playing the traditional CGL game of taps with my friends Kelly, Jarred and Bondy on BB2. Someone came running down from the boys hard top telling everyone that something was up, so Jarred and Bondy left to go check out the scene. Kelly and I waited for them to come back and finish the game, but we began to get paranoid. What if something really was going to happen and color war really was going to break? Then what?! Just then, a loud siren was heard echoing throughout the camp. Many people started running up to the boys hard top, only to see a state trooper's car making it's way down CGL road towards the other road leading to the circle. The lights were flashing and the sirens were sounding soooo loud. Kelly and I ran past the basketball court searching for Bari and Jen who had been playing ping-pong. We finally found them, and the four of us huddled together. We all began to cry and reassure ourselves that no matter what happened, we would all be there for eachother. More and more people from our bunk began to join our huddle of tears. Suddenly, in front of the field office, the police car stopped. Out came four or five senior girl counselors (one which was ours), and Andrew Weingarten. It turned out that nearby police officers had been driving through camp in search of a basketball court to play a little game of b-ball. The counselors had begged the officers to play their sirens and flash their lights and drive into camp because it would be the greatest fake break ever. It took some explaining and convincing, but eventually they let the girls into the car. I later found out that Andrew got in there because it was his birthday and he happened to be there, but they were the ones behind the whole thing. It had been meant to be a tension breaker for everyone in camp, and that's just what it was, except I could have lived without it. My bunk was a little sore about how our own counselors made us crazy, but we eventually got over it and it's a good thing we did, because color war would break the following morning.

When I woke up, I couldn't find my counselors anywhere. We checked all over and ran to other bunks on the hill, but there were no senior girl counselors anywhere, except for Eve. We asked a lot of questions and got very contradicting answers. Rebecca Falgi's bunk was told that she was in the field office making an important phone call to a friend, but then another head staff person told them that she was helping them in the office. We knew that something was going on, and had a pretty good feeling that color war was gonna break, but we didn't know how, and started to doubt ourselves when we figured "Why would they make it no obvious that the counselors were gone?" Finally, it was time for line-up at the girl's flagpole and every bunk came up with something along the lines of "All girls who want to know where our counselors are!" Breakfast began and the waiters told us that they had been woken up early by Aunt Marlene and told to go set up in the dining room because they were "late." After the never-ending meal, we went back to the cabins hoping to find our counselors, but still there was noone around. Then BOOM, everyone started screaming and freaking out. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM every senior girl ran down to BB1, but there was noone there. We were directed by upper staff to go over to the lake and wait. Then, all the way from the archery came around 8 or so counselors male and female running with giant signs reading "COLOR DAZE ". Everyone was puzzled and not quite sure of what to do, so we ran back to BB1, where upper staff started to climb the bleachers, only to reveal signs spelling fake break. That might have been enough for the new campers, and sure the fact that there were more than 3 booms used helped, but our bunk still wasn't ready to accept the fact that that was it. All the counselors that came running with the Color Daze signs were wearing airbrush shirts saying either "Army" or "Navy." I was told that they were just part of the awesome fake break but I mean c'mon. So I started to walk back towards my bunk very slowly, and I had only reached Cadet Hill when all of a sudden BOOM BOOM BOOM! Then I knew it, I knew that this was the real thing and I ran as fast as I could down to BB1, but once again everyone was told to go to the lake. I remember standing staring at the water for like five minutes, not quite sure of what I was waiting for, then I saw it. Bubbles kept forming in areas by the Father Time rock. Then a little yellow tube started to poke through the water, and then another one. Slowly, two scubadivers appeared from the depths of our wonderful lake. Confused, everyone ran back to BB1 and sure enough, there were the upperstaff members holding up cabin lists. I cried and cried as I searched for my bunk.

I cried some more when I realised that I wasn't with some of my bestfriends, but little did I know, that from that moment on, I would have the best color war ever as a camper captain for the Green Army team with some of my closest friends for life.