CBS Glossary

When you first ask your campers about their time at Camp Balcones Springs, they will probably be silent. After a quick thaw back into normal life, the stories will begin to leak. After your initial excitement, you will experience an immediate challenge; your camper is speaking in a new language. The following blog is an attempt to help you interpret those stories.

In an attempt to organize this glossary, I will collect the terms into four groups - Locations, Activities, Apparatus*, and Terms and Phrases. In each group, terms will be listed alphabetically, and I will do my level-best to explain what each word means in context.

This is a semi-authorized, informed by experience and memory, edited by reality glossary of camp terms.

Locations Amphitheater - If you take the road behind B Compound, it will lead you down to a meeting location on the shore of Lake Ted. This small stage with permanent benches is where Baseline is held every Sunday morning.

Archway - Just beyond the Circle Drive is the iconic Archway. This is where you first checked in with photographers on opening day. It’s just a good landmark to know.

Balcones Beach - This is a manmade beach on the far side of Lake Ted. It’s home to beach volleyball, specialty snacks, canoes, kayaks, SUP boards, and good vibes.

Bluebonnet Room - This is the stand-alone room adjacent to the Archway. It is home to the camp store.

Bone Yard - This is a dry storage area for large sets, toys, and vehicles that is behind the barn. No actual bones, tho.

Circle Drive - When you enter camp and turn right at the fork, that road leads to the main office complex. It circles around the flag pole, and sends you back to the front gate. The Circle Drive is where we line up for morning and evening Flag Pole

Compounds - Cabins are collected into small groups by location. We call them compounds. They are labeled alphabetically, separated by age and gender, and are home to campers.

Double Deckers - D and E compound are both two-story cabin structures, with two cabins each on the top and bottom floors. The most infamous double decker is located in B compound. The oldest campers in B stay there, and it is ground zero for the wildest times at camp.

Fishing Pond - the fishing pond is adjacent to the circle drive. You pass it as you walk from the parking lot to the archway. The fishing pond is home to perch, bass, catfish, turtles, and some very patient ducks.

Flagpole - In the center of the Circle Drive is the Flagpole. This is where all of camp gathers each morning and evening to practice the verse for the summer, raise and lower the flag, hear announcements, locate lost things, and tell jokes.

Gridiron - This is the large pavilion located between the soccer field and the main office. The Gridiron is an all-purpose meeting space for SOS, dances, night activities, dance class, and rainy day PHUN.

Grode Pond - If you poorly shoot a basketball, slice a pickleball, or spike a volleyball too hard, it is very likely your ball will roll toward a picturesque pond. This won’t seem bad until you venture closer, smelling the water and whatever it’s hiding. Many have jumped into the Grode Pond and regretted their choice. Once that mud hits your clothing, the smell remains forever.

Hippodrome - I’m old enough to remember when the basketball court was uncovered. Thank goodness that is no longer the case. Once they added a roof, the court complex got a name, the Hippodrome.

Live Oak Room - An all-purpose meeting room attached to the Rio Grande and the Main Office. The Live Oak room is home to indoor classes, staff meetings, cabin hangouts, and all of our yearbooks. This is the room you where you met the nurses on Opening Day.

Rio Grande - Affectionately known simply as, “The Rio,” this is the CBS dining hall. It is beloved, loud, and looks best when we remove all the tables and dress it up for a late night dance.

The Thicket - named after the Texas biome, the Thicket is the epicenter of Oasis. It is a shady spot with old trees, snacks, ping pong, and the newest toy at camp, the giant pool. It’s also the launching point for Ted’s Dread and a staircase down to Lake Ted.

Activities 3-Ball - This is a team competition staple played on the baseball diamond. In this game, 4 people are “up to bat” at one time. The first three players throw a frisbee and a softball, and kick a kickball. The fourth player runs the bases after all 3 are in the air. The goal is to try to run the bases before the kickball and softball are placed in a bucket on home plate, covered by the frisbee.

The Amazing Race - The grande finale of team competition. On the last full day of camp, every single camper competes in a massive relay race. The winning teams are the champions of team comp for the term.

Baseline - On Sunday morning, all of camp walks down to the Amphitheater for a church service. Songs are sung, guest speakers deliver a message, and it crescendoes with camp sweep.

Cabin Cleanup - Campers must clean their cabins every day. This means making beds, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing the sinks, showers and toilets. Your camper will come home knowing how to do these chores.

Camp Sweep - Cabins aren’t the only thing that gets cleaned by the campers. On Sundays, each cabin is assigned a camp location to clean. This helps to keep camp beautiful. Woe unto the B compound cabins who are cursed to clean up the very water balloons they once threw.

Major - older campers choose a handful of activities to focus on every day. These concentrations are called Majors.

O-Ball - Imagine if you combined Nukem with tennis and knockout. This game, played on the tennis and pickleball courts, is an elimination team competition game that creates legends.

Oasis - After recharge, all of camp heads to the Thicket for a snacktime. Oasis has been a part of camp since the beginning, and it is the best place to ramp your energy back up before the afternoon.

PHUNanza - Camp shouldn’t be all about schedules. PHUNanza is a time of day in which campers are given the freedom to free float to any activity they choose. Counselors are stationed all over the property, and are always keeping a watchful eye on your campers.

Pow Wow - Before Recharge, counselors lead their cabins in a small lesson designed to build and reinforce character.

Rage in the Cage - We put dodgeball in a batting cage. This popular team competition game is pure madness and a camper favorite.

Recharge - You don’t want campers running around in the hottest part of the day. That’s why, after lunch, campers go back to their cabins for a rest time. Just don’t tell the little kids it’s naptime.

Rocks - This team competition game is basically small-scale speed rounds of capture the flag.

SOS - Who cares what the acronym stands for? After dinner and evening flag pole, camp meets in the gridiron to sing songs, watch skits, and prepare for the evening activity.

Team Competition - Every camper is placed on a team, and every day, the teams compete in various games to earn an advantage in the Amazing Race.

Apparatus Blob - I mean, it’s the iconic giant pillow in the middle of Lake Ted. You jump on, then your friend jumps on, and you get catapulted into the lake. Beloved since 1993.

Charlotte’s Web - You know those bungee cradles at the mall that your campers always want you to waste money on? They can jump on ours for free. It’s behind the art shed.

Screamer - Strap on a harness, attach yourself to a long wire, let your cabin hoist you up, release yourself and SWING. This “toy” can be found at the climbing tower.

Ted’s Dread - It’s a 900 ft zipline over Lake Ted. Nobody will make you take the leap, but you really want to do it.

The Tower - You can’t miss the climbing tower. It’s right in your face the moment you drive on property.

Dustin’s Treehouse - Between the Art Shed and the Thicket, you will find a massive custom-built treehouse. Wedginator Phrases Black Team - When counselors make the move to Leadership, they have to move from being team coaches and sponsors to being impartial. They conceal their teams of origin by joining the Black team. No sponsor, no cheers, total mystery.

Five Bullets, Baby - The primary cheer for the Texas Rangers. Ask your camper what it means.

Good Fold - Campers are invited to lower and fold the flag each evening. If campers do a particularly good job, it’s common for campers to clap and shout, “Good fold!”

Leadership - Tenured and experience counselors are hired each summer to lead departments. Some lead activities, like sports, outdoors, or fine arts, while others are in charge of the compound experience. Leadership are some of the most beloved staff at camp.

LT - The abbreviation for Leadership Training. This is a highschool program after Sr. Camper and before Work Crew.

“NuhNah NuhNah” - Flagpole operates on a strict schedule, and attendance is mandatory. With 20 seconds to go, all of camp will count backwards. If you are late, you will hear all of camp chant “NuhNah NuhNah” at you. Why? Because you will be running a lap around the soccer field. The phrase began because some campers in the late 1990s used to sing “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.”

“Pick it up!” - If you drop a cup, silverware, a plate, or anything in the dining hall, you will be greeted with the entire room shouting at you,

Purple - When boys and girls hang out together? Purple.

Rock Up - We are hygienic at camp. Just to be safe, we have campers make fists and place them on top of each other rather than hold hands for prayers.

Scampers - The portmanteau for “Senior Campers” Sucker fish - Some counselors are assigned to collect luggage and move it from car to cabin and back on opening and closing days. These are the Sucker Fish.

Tatonka - The Lakota word for bison or buffalo, and the primary cheer for the Rough Riders.

Work Crew - These are the oldest high schoolers. They serve the camp by working in the kitchen and all around property. Contrary to assumptions, these campers might be having a better summer than anyone on property.

• “Apparatus” is a grammatically acceptable English pluralization of “apparatus.” One might think the Latin plural would be, “apparati,” but that’s not the case. “Apparatus” is a proper plural because it is in the fourth declension. See! I did use those Latin courses after school.

By Jimmy Miller CBS Alumni & Parent