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Do you guys use codewords for things at camp you don't want your campers to know what you're actually talking about?

For example, we call paychecks "twigs"

For the bar: at one camp they called it the Post Office and at another they called it the Library.

At my old camp we called Time Off, TO or something like that, but I'm not quite sure why we didn't want to tell the kids we got actual Time Off.

There's the "library" for the bar and "Office Depot" for the club. Asking if you "plan on getting any books later?" if wondering if your going out that night.

All the counsellors use code words, even for the older campers (like CIT's) who know full well what we're all up to.

we use a code word for a snake, elvis, but that is really the only encoded word we use.

Tuck = snack
Camp time = one hour difference so it's dark when the kids go to bed
Going to smoke = going for a jog
Smoking area = jogging track
Bitch = princess
Hook-ups = purple (girls are red and boys are blue and there's no "purple" at camp)
Micca (it's a mineral) = froli gold

Hmmm that's all I can think of at the moment off the top of my head...

I have a question. Do actually go out while on your time off? Is that allowed? I know at my camp if your underage and you go to a bar, you could potentially be fired. Just wondering.

Basically the only codes we have at camp are for emergency purposes. For example, if there is an emergency on the water (we're on the coast)the loud speaker will say "a director's name and then report to the pier NOW" we try not to use the word now in our daily conversaion just b/c of it's meaning during an emergency.

Pretty much I think the rule at our camp is that if u return to camp drunk then you could be potentially fired no matter what age u r.
In the long run Im sure going to bars on ur time off isnt completely condoned but since the van driver drops people off in town at tim hortons and picks them up 5 hours later at the same spot I dont think theres too much they can do about it. What the counsellors do on their nights off is up to them in the end to use their common sense.

We have a whole set of CB radio codes we use... But aside from that, I think the main one is "apple" for cigarette. Some of the campers have caught on, but you still hear a lot of "I'm going to eat an apple" after dinner.

We have many code words:

Seymour:Snake
Yellowstone:Bear
Rising Sun:Fire
Red Cross:Call 911
Blue Cross:Need the Health Supervisor

Also among the councilors we use "At the end of the road" to talk about the bar at the end of the road to camp. It's literally 5 minutes walking from camp. The bar itself has a policy on who they will serve alcohol to but everyone can come in bc they serve food too. As long as the alcohol itself isn't on camp then there are no issues. Even ths Adstaff get drunk on their nights off, but theres atleast 2 adstaff on each night who don't leave or dirnk. Between sessions, the councilor drive a few 100 feet off camp into the woods and have hige drinking parties. Everyone, no matter the age can drink then.

time off is ______(counselors name) time,boyfriends are brothers, going to walmart is going to the library

"E" = eaglet = smoking area
fileing your nails = smoke break
space cadet = really dumb campers ( i said it once to a fellow counselor and a camper overheard me and said 'we're not cadets we're juniors')
I know there are more that we use (especially up at the barn) but i can't think of them right now

we are also allowed to drink no matter what our age on camp. The only rules are that there is to be no alcohol or drugs on camp, and we are not to work under the influence or come back to camp from time off under the influence---all are strictly enforced.

I honestly think that's the best policy because no matter what most underage people will try to drink regardless of the rules. This way our camp has boundaries and it's very clear you will get fired if you break them. Since it's so cut and dry we never had a problem and everyone abided by the rules.

We too have huge drinking parties to celebrate the beginning of camp, the end of camp, and during session breaks when all the offduty counselors go camping together.

At my camp people started to use the word "Constitutional" to refer to "Smoke Break."

these are some radio code words

green = intruder in camp
red = fire
blue = health supervisor/nurse now
marshmellow = homesick camper
take a walk = smoke break
vegas = smoking area
doing paperwork = time off

there are some more that i cant remember right now

at my camp, we are not allowed to have any alcohol or other drugs on the property, the smoking area is near the camp rangers house, which is like 100yds down the road. if we do go out drinking, we can not come back to camp under the influence

We use "fiji" for when we're on break at the lake and don't want to be bothered

I don't fully agree with this. I have worked at one camp where there was hardly any drinking problem at all. Some of the over 21s would go out at night but since they only had 2 hours off and had to drive themselves no one ever got drunk. The underagers had very little access to alcohol on their time off (well maybe on their days off, but not on the nights when they had kids).

The last camp I worked at gave counselors 5 nights off per week and like your camp, had a van that took counselors into town. Unevitably all the counselors (even the 17 year olds) went to the bar. The camp also had a no "drunk" policy, but they actually knew that everyone drank every night. Even if you've only had a couple and don't think you are drunk, you may not be capable of taking care of campers. And, if you are drunk, you may be able to sneak past the head counselors, since all you had to do was sign your name on the sign-in board.

In response to your post, I do not think that underage drinking is going to happen regardless of the rules. If the time off rules of your camp do not allow staff to go out for 5 hours at night, like if their time off is from 9-11 am, then there's a much less chance they will be drinking. In the 4 years I worked at the first camp, only the last year did I ever even have access to alcohol. In the first 2 days of my second camp, alcohol was abundant (of course at the bar, not at camp). I found the fact that everyone went to the bar every night ridiculous, as this was the part of camp most counselors enjoyed the most. They were not their for the campers, and I think that drinking could be minimized.

we used to refer to intruders as deer. so this would be the radio conversation.

unit: we have a deer in unit X
office: ok. what is the deer doing/wearing?
unit: it's wearing jeans, a red hat, and a down vest. I think it's carring a fish pole and is headed towards the lake.


We also called smoking "having a cookie" , this would get kinda confusing cause it was a GS camp.

If we had codewords for anything this year i didn't know about them, atleast for like just counselor things. Actually now that i think about it, i don't know any emergency commands either because i don't carry a radio on me!! Anyways two years ago there were codewords they were:
Painting= Smoking
Sailing= Drinking
Playing Tetris=Hooking up (I don't know why it was tetris and i only heard this one once during camp anyways)
That was it, i was also a CIT at the time so thats all i got.

I'm sure that there are commands that we have for over the radio, but typically if there is ANY form of an emergency at camp we have an air siren that goes off alerting everyone.

Ha! Years ago we had the codeword "playing cribbage" for hooking up. Seems like you'd pick a two-player game, rather than tetris.

Games seem to be the popular choice for this one haha. Maybe its the "fun" aspect in it. I agree a two person games seems more well suited, or atleast a more recent game that doesn't involve a handheld or some kind of system. I'm sure if the kids had heard that they would have tried to find it at some point!

mkay...there are the important/needed ones, most used, and a few faves :

popsicle stick - backboard
mr.s - snake
mr. s with hershey kisses - copperhead
bandit - raccoon
leaky faucet - camper has wet her bed
code green - just lets the health lodge know youre coming
code yellow - need assistance transporting camper
code red - most serious; usually ends up with a 911 call
mr. ed - horse
mr. a - alien

we have more...cant think at the mo

Ours aren't very fun... just basic codes... but here they are.

Code Blue - Rattle snake.
Code Red - Stranger.
Code Orange - Fire.
Code Fun - Missing camper/ staff member.
Code Yellow - Problem at the pool.

The only code I've had to use was code blue... it kind of made me mad because when a code is on the radio no one else is suppose to say anything until the situation is take care of. So I say code blue (the parents are there dropping off their campers btw and have all seen the snake 15 feet away from where their daughters are sleeping) and craft director, acting counselor for the afternoon comes on talking about a mouse. And she wasn't short and sweet about it either. Granted it was stuck to the mattress a girl was suppose to be sleeping on... but the stupid snake got away because I couldn't talk for like... 5 minutes. Sorry, that got long.

I really can't get over the fact that people underage will drink, even on time off, when inevitably you're still in charge of some many young lives. We have a lot of underage counselors and the only ones that drink on time off are the ones that get fired the next day for it. Our staff knows this up front and there is no questioning the rule. For the counselors over 21, they are allowed to drink, but can't come back to camp under the influence. Most people over 21 just don't drink for the summer. It's a job where you are a role model for the summer, whether you're on time off or not. If you want to argue this, please feel to email me.

I'm quite suprised at this, I thought the whole idea of having codes over the radio was to not panic the campers? If we sounded a air siren for an accident at the stables (which we had but was dealt with very swiftly and the girl was back at the dance later that evening), then the whole camp - campers and staff, would be slightly panicked.

We have a system which the kids are told about each week, in that if they hear the bell ringing constantly it means that there is a serious danger; ie a major major storm, an introder who is posing harm etc.

I'm talking about a really big emergency where an ambulance would be called or something like that. I worded that wrong by saying ANY. Emergencies at the horse barn do happen and typically the radio that is at the horse barn is used to just contact the health officer and any staff that needs to be notified. Last year i was bucked off a horse and they just called the health officer, no siren. When i say ANY i most mean water and land emergencies where there is a missing person involved and we will be running all over the place and a head count needs to be taken. Sorry for any confusion.
For storms and fires we ring the bell more than 50 times (when we typically only ring it 8-10 times).

I cant think of any code words we use. We have an intercom system throughout the camp. We had a few emergencies over the summer but most of the campers did not hear about them because they happened during siesta. If there is a missing camper we have an air siren that goes off and everyone has to run to the field if is nasty outside then we go to the dining hall. We are divided into are cabins and units and counted. Then extra counselors are sent all over camp to search for the camper. We always have a practice drill in the beginning of the session. Last summer we did not have to do it for real thank goodness. We almost had to but we found the camper in the counselors cabin sleeping. If there is another kind of emergency it go out over the intercoms and the intercoms are in counselors rooms. Usually the counselor is able to hear it but most campers do not hear it in the cabin.

smoking=coloring

rainbow child - misbehaving or odd camper
hanging out with SAM- smoking
meeting with john- using the bathroom
going to church- drinking
archery and riflery- the local bar

code words

Smoking= taking a walk, having a doughnut (that was a few years ago though)

We're allowed to tell campers we have time off noe but before it was your night off was a meeting and your 30, after working a weekend you get 30 hours off during the week was called a conference.

in their office: taking a poop

taking a run: Sneaking off camp to get food, or something else.

I'm sure there is more but I just cant think of them right now.

What is really the big deal about campers knowing that counselors have time off?

Some of the couselors have nicknames that are innapropriate for campers. Such as...

Drunk Dave (counselors) = Double D (campers)

Keeping time off a "secret" is common at many camps. It seems weird to people are used to having that be open; likewise, talking openly about time off seems weird to people used to keeping it a secret. I grew up at a camp that didn't talk about it, and moved to a camp where it was spoken of openly.

Basically, the idea is that kids might feel hurt if they think their counselor needs time off from THEM. I've decided I don't think it's a huge deal; kids know that counselors are employees, not, you know, their mothers. What does annoy me is any kind of talk about "I can't wait until my time off" or any discussion about what people did on their time off in front of kids, even if it's benign. Or counselors who keep checking their watches and stop participating in an activity because they're just going off in fifteen minutes anyway. The kids at my last camp took counselors' having time off pretty casually.

One year at my home camp when we had a new director, there was no rule about talking about time off, and the counselors were horrible about it--they were totally working for their breaks, and made no secret about it (like, jumping up as soon as someone came to relieve them--"YES!! Two hour break!" You need to strike a balance.

Since I'm totally anti-lying-to-kids, I don't like it when people make up stories (or are required to) about time off... I prefer the "I was taking a shower" or "that's when I had my me-time" (since the campers have me-time as well).

Night Off: Rocket time
Regular Time Off: Sub building time

Bar: The monkey
Smoking: Take a walk
Staff eval: Chit-Chat (well, that's what I called them )

- Teenster

the only code word I can think of is:
FFF
we have a low elements ropes course, and it gets pretty stinking hot on the course. We have to have 2 adults and at least 3 staffers on the course during sessions. Since our camp is in a forest, we call it "Fun in the Forest". By the middle of camp, nobody wnats to go chaperone the Fun in the Forest anymore, so it gets nicknamed F*&$%ing Fun in the Forest, or more appropriately FFF!

smoking- I need to go pick up some supplies from programming.
beer- Is there extra milk tonight?
any other alcohol- Is there any chocolate milk?
going out/to the bars- We're going to walmart.
going to walmart- We're going to walmart.
hooking up- They watched 90210 yesterday.(started when the show was on years ago.. someone tried to change it to OCing last year but there was an uprising)
fast food- I'm need to go get some more vitamins.
hour off- I'm going to get my ___ checked at the health center.
color war- Tomorrow is supposed to be partly cloudy!
meeting with UL/VL/director- Ahh I've got summer reading!!

When a staff member goes on their break time they say they're "Going to the Office" An old director thought that saying you were "Going on Break" my hurt the campers feelings and that the councelors didn't like them anymore. That line of thought has passed but the code stuck.

smoking a cigarette = "putting on some hand cream"
going on a milkshake/soda run = "chilling out"
bedwetter = "broken zipper"
time off = "counselor time"
going to the bar = "having a singing contest"
fired = "at their family reunion"

going to smoke=going to the library to read a book
problem camper=SOS
That's all I can think of right now

We have several codes for incidents in camp:

Stray cat: Intruder/Unauthorized Person
Campfire in ____: Fire emergency
Harry Potter: Lightning
Semi Trucks (We're right off the highway): Thunder
Missing package/mail: Missing person
Honey: Bee/wasp/hornet nest
Making phone calls: Using the restroom

They're not TOO cryptic, so they're easier to remember in case of a real emergency, but they can tip off the staff before the campers catch wind of what's happening (or before the camp siren goes off).

The unofficial code words used by staff at the camp I last worked were:
Doing paperwork - break time
Apple juice/Salad - Alcohol
Brother - Boyfriend
Darts - Cigarettes

I know there was at least 1 code word that I've heard over the years but of course can't remember one of them for this post!

Oh, well actually one camp had "BZ"s or Broken Zippers which is what we told the kids happened to a sleeping bag if a camper wet the bed and the other kids noticed a sleeping bag was missing during the day sometime. It was off getting fixed. :)

I've thought of some others:
gator=schooner
snake=dingy
pee laundry=ive got a present for you