What are the nights in the camp called? What pranks and pranks did you pull at children's camps? A unique collective experience


Last 24 hours camp life. Labor Kid `s camp The lighthouse says goodbye to another shift. A month of living in a collective farm barracks with clay floors came to an end. Children run amok. There are hated pillows with bedbugs lying everywhere; girls jump on the springs of assembled beds, crushing ripe Don watermelons rolled up there; To the next bed, my girlfriends and I chained Natasha’s bra, whom we didn’t like the whole shift, with a barn lock. All twenty-one people who lived in our sixth ward paint each other with ballpoint pens: arms, legs, backs, bellies, necks, cheeks...Phrases like: “Did you think you were in a fairy tale?”, “Don’t piss, we’ll break through!” ", "Honduras", "It's time to go home!", as well as telephone numbers, names, addresses, so that we can find each other later.
I'm packing my things. I have a good place, by the window, with a view of the Don steppe, or rather, first of the toilet, then of the steppe. Suddenly the concrete wall of this very toilet shuddered as if from a strong shock and, quickly cracking along its entire length, began to collapse. "Wow! - I thought.” The wall collapsed, revealing a row of stinking holes in the concrete floor. “Cool, well done, boys!” The toilet was completely unbearable, these huge holes, infested with maggots, frightened me with the real possibility of falling into them, and for some reason brought up thoughts of the afterlife. With a friendly squeal, the girls and I approved of the boys' prank. Although, of course, they suffered a lot later for this crime.
The last day was a success. Then there was a disco. This time almost no one got drunk, and Lenka and I didn’t have to gather our fellow soldiers from the bushes before lights out. Instead, all the girls gathered in the ward, trainees from the senior shift came to us and very sincerely explained that today was a royal night. Anything is possible this night. But not to us, but with us. Usually local village boys know about her and try to get in on the girls, and if they are lucky, they will drag someone away. Then, however, they will most likely return it.
But we weren’t so much concerned about whether we would be returned or not, we became incredibly scared that we might be dragged away. And somehow the counselors made it clear that from today they are no longer responsible for us.
In general, we - twenty and one more frightened goats - began to frantically move the beds, prop up the door with a mop, table, and chairs. A bucket was placed in the passage for needs. Several people whose beds stood near the windows began to beg the others to switch with them. And me too.
It was a fun night. Of course, they tried to climb into the windows. We screamed and ran around the ward. The counselors came to the screams and got bogged down in our barricades, after some time silence was restored and then, in the middle of this silence, the cheerful ringing of a stream against a bucket began to be heard, and then everyone began to laugh deafeningly.
Royal night!
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In the summer, many girls and boys aged ten to seventeen go to various camps, children's centers, sanatoriums - to have a good rest in nature. Some are happy to leave home to get rid of parental care, others just to have fun, and others want to find new friends. But, as Hans Christian Andersen said, “everything in the world has its end,” so the camp season ends and we need to go home. But before the bitter parting, a very bright and cheerful event awaits the guys - “royal night”.

It is difficult to say now why on the last night of the season it is customary not to sleep, but to make fun of each other “in all sorts of ways” and why exactly the last night is called “royal”. But in almost all camps this tradition is sacredly respected. On the last night of the season, all troops go to the fire late in the evening. They sing songs around him, fry bread on sticks, and tell each other stories. They go to their rooms closer to morning. But the “royal” night doesn’t end there! The guys are having fun to their heart's content, and the counselors turn a blind eye to their antics. The most interesting thing is that the usual “smearing” with paste is becoming obsolete, and new entertainment is taking its place.

Sergey, 25 years old:

In our camps, I remember, after lights out, boys with sheets walked around the rooms and pretended to be ghosts! After the horror stories about the coffin on wheels, this was pretty impressive. There was a squeal!

Yeah, we've all told each other at some point horror stories, and in the finale they shouted: “Give me my heart!” Boys especially loved to do this - it’s so nice for them to listen to girls’ screams of horror! But sometimes representatives of the stronger sex have fun in a completely different way: they throw spiders, beetles or something else into their beds or bags.

Valya, 17 years old:

When I was relaxing at the camp, on the last day the boys caught frogs somewhere and stuck them in the girls’ beds in the evening. How scared we were! It's good that we didn't go to bed!

At first glance, any prank seems very funny to us. And we almost never think about the consequences.

Asya, 15 years old:

My friends and I have fun on our farewell night like this: in the bustle of the night you never keep track of your things. But in vain! We stole boots, bags and hung it all on the trees. Sometimes even some of the contents of the bags! Very funny! But then some were very offended. Especially when their things were thrown high into the trees! But after this fun we tried to climb trees together and take pictures of unfortunate things and, as a rule, we laughed even harder!

Fun is an integral part of a “royal” night. The oldest teenagers usually celebrate until the morning. But in the morning they fall asleep so soundly that they do not notice the “procedures” that other “merry fellows” perform on them.

Cleopatra, 20 years old:

At night, the guys who were stronger than the rest carried the bed with the sleeping girl or boy into the hall. And it was so much fun to watch the facial expressions when he or she woke up! We also smeared the fingers of sleeping people with gouache at night and then looked at what patterns we got on the pillow, blanket and sheet!

Nastya, 18 years old:

We stole everyone's things, tied them up and hung them like garlands. Of course, they smeared the paste on sleeping people and on door handles! And once one girl was wrapped in thick threads - she found herself as if in a cocoon, and even tied to the bed! But she was sleeping so soundly that she didn’t notice anything.

Most kids are incredibly happy when they can get away from their parents in the summer and have a blast full program. And on the last night I want to come up with something especially fun!

Stasya, 14 years old:

We had fun pillow fights with flying feathers and throwing colognes and creams on each other! In general, we had developed a grandiose night program, but after this battle we were so tired that we fell into bed without undressing, all covered in paste, creams and feathers. In the morning, however, it was no laughing matter when I had to quickly clean the room!

On the “royal” night it is not customary to be angry with each other, because it is the last. But sometimes children, especially under thirteen years of age, show miracles of cruelty, and their dirty tricks end in a completely sad way:

Ksyusha, 12 years old:

I had a headache all day. I went to sleep in the room at a time when the whole squad was busy with something. I woke up with a burning sensation in my eyes: my eyelids were smeared with mint toothpaste and all my clothes were smeared. I wasn't laughing at all...

Children sometimes are completely unaware of what they are doing. After all, the “kids” are usually not allowed to go to discos with the older squads on the “royal” night, but they try to put them to bed early. But the juniors are trying to keep up with the seniors and celebrate the end of the season as it should be. Often it comes down to a competition of “who can scare who”, in which victory is measured not in points, but in the volume and duration of the screams.

Ira, 16 years old:

Then we were not very adults yet and slept on the last night. I was eleven years old. I remember I was lying by the window. And suddenly I woke up in the middle of the night from some strange sounds! She pulled back the curtain - dear mother! Someone’s creepy head, like the one from the movie “Scream,” appeared in the window on the other side, and I screamed terribly! The girls who slept in the same room with me jumped to the window. But the show is not over! A knife appeared from somewhere, and it’s scary to talk further! Half of the girls fainted, the other half, led by me, screamed and did not sleep all night! And the window, covered in red paint from the outside, was cleaned by our boys the next morning!”

“Royal” night is a storehouse of fun, laughter, interesting entertainment, positive and sometimes negative emotions. But it is simply impossible to argue with the fact that this time is a bright and memorable event.

Royal night

The old, old cemetery lived out its mournful life next to the Ogonyok summer camp. No one had been buried there for a long time - the cemetery church, where the dead were once buried, was cracked and askew. Wild pigeons now lived in it, their alarming hooting on quiet summer evenings could be heard throughout the entire area. Often, for no apparent reason, sensitive pigeons suddenly became frightened of something. They noisily jumped out of their seats, flapping their wings with a loud whistle, screaming in alarm - and, flying out through broken windows and holes in the dome, they rushed over the area for a long, long time. Their plaintive voices were heard in the heights until darkness.

There was a village at the same distance from both the abandoned cemetery and the camp. The road from the camp to it went around the forest, which significantly lengthened the path. That's why local residents We rarely visited Ogonyok.

However, the guys relaxing at the camp did not notice this. They saw the villagers only sometimes - when they went swimming. The meetings were mostly peaceful; the water of the local pond and its shore did not have to be shared.

The path to this pond ran right through the cemetery. Of course, it was possible not to walk past rickety monuments and rotten crosses, but to go around the old churchyard along the edge of the forest, but for some reason none of the vacationers did this. To shorten the road and shorten the travel time, everyone walked through the cemetery. Not feeling their feet under them, the kids rushed along it, trying not to look around; Also hastily, but every now and then, glancing sideways at the graves and looking around anxiously, older boys and girls passed by.

The cemetery was fascinating. On humid evenings, he curled between tall cemetery birches and wide-legged spruce trees. white fog. Twitching, he skirted the trees, sat down on rusty fences, shuddered gloomily, landing on graves overgrown with grass.

Many of the campers looked at him from above - from the mountain, from the windows of the second floor of the building, facing the cemetery. But no one dared to go out to the cemetery in the evening, much less at night. Go out, wander, shrouded in cemetery fog, look at the abandoned graves, stand, wait, listen...

Or maybe there was simply no time for this - after all, the cheerful life in Ogonyok did not subside for a minute. Music thundered there until darkness, there were discos, games and competitions were held. Having played enough and walked around, everyone, young and old, was so tired that they literally fell off their feet and fell asleep in a sweet sleep, barely touching the bed. After all, the next morning new entertainment awaited them.


Today, too, the camp was filled with lights, festively decorated, and the music was especially loud from the speakers installed on the disco area and on the roof of the dining room. Royal Night - the end of the second summer shift, that's what the population of Ogonyok celebrated!

No one ever sleeps on Royal Night! Many, in order to have fun at closing, patiently sit in the camp for the entire shift. After all, on the Royal Night, ANYTHING was possible!!!


It was almost dark, bright illumination bulbs were burning on the street, here and there there were trays with pies and soda, which the catering workers poured out to everyone who wanted it. Even the ice cream was not over yet - although some had eaten so much of it that they could no longer move and partially scattered to their buildings and fell asleep, while some sat on benches and sluggishly waved away mosquitoes.

Completed festive concert– they were preparing for it almost from the middle of the shift, – but the disco, which was usually closed at eleven o’clock in the evening, today promised to last long after midnight, and therefore they danced there with special enthusiasm.

The children of their teachers were chasing their teachers around the camp, screaming and hooting. They ran as fast as they could, because they knew: if the little one caught them, he would certainly roll them in the grass, smear them with toothpaste, cream from cakes and pastries, throw ice cream down the collar - in a word, make a mockery of their glory. There were a lot of products for this, and the former wards of the unfortunate teacher had even more fighting spirit - so the poor adults were now running around like crazy.

The teacher of the ninth squad, Nathan, for example, today, out of despair, climbed to the top of a dry pine tree without lower branches, which only one other person had conquered - a few years ago, the same unfortunate uncle, a physical education teacher, climbed it. The children chased him for a particularly long time, having tormented him with his morning exercises and many kilometers of cross-country races for prizes in the form of posters of rock singers he didn’t like. They divided into groups, and when one got tired of running after the harmful guy with ominous hooting, the other took over. So, the physical education teacher ran around the territory in zigzags. Neither the head of the camp nor any of the teachers could save him - such was the law of the Royal Night. The physical education teacher asked the children to stop and not run after him, but thin children’s voices commanded: “Forward! Cross! Health! Don't slow down! Don’t change the rhythm!”, and the race continued... When the physical education leader finally reached the last stage of fatigue, resentment and despair, a dry pine tree caught his eye. In one last powerful burst, breaking away from his pursuers, he screamed like a monkey and climbed to the top of the tree.

There he sat, changing the landing site from time to time - the dry branches creaked, threatening to crack and break off, the wind swayed the pine tree...

Or rather, it was not the wind, but the children who were shaking the tree, trying to shake the physical education leader off it. The pine tree survived, after a while the kids ran away to look for other entertainment... And the athlete sat on the pine tree until the pink morning clouds. Only then, having become bolder, he somehow went down - and already at the next shift his spirit was no longer in Ogonyok. They said that the tyrannical physical education teacher became a security guard, accompanying concrete products that were transported from Siberia to desert areas of the near abroad.

But no one in the camp was sad about it. He, a harmful tormentor, was driven out in revenge. And all the rest, in principle, beloved teachers and educators, just like that, to maintain the tradition.

No one could predict how long the unsportsmanlike Nathan was going to sit on the pine tree. Because they had driven the teacher up a tree, but the kids clearly had no intention of removing him. In the meantime, help from the service personnel will arrive... The guy who jumped onto the tree had no choice but to sit and howl at the big round moon rising over the forest...

The grown-up guys were no longer surprised by this. During the entire shift, they were not particularly obedient, so it was no longer interesting for them to take it out on their leaders, whom they already had a fair amount of trouble with.


And even more so after one of them came up with a wonderful idea.

“Guys,” Vovka, a boy from the fourth detachment, turned to his friends, “wouldn’t you rather go to the cemetery?” Right now!

“So we were going to smear our girls with toothpaste,” Mishka was surprised, tossing a tube of toothpaste in his palm. “I keep it warm in my pocket on purpose.”

“We’ll have time to smear them,” Vovka answered. - Later. It’s even better - while we’re at the cemetery, by the time we get back, they’ll definitely go to bed.

“The disco isn’t even over yet,” Andryushka added. - And all of us are at the disco.

“There might be a disco all night,” Vovka noted. “But not everyone will stay on it.” I want to smear Nikiforova. I don’t think she’ll be able to dance all night at a disco. She will go to the side. This is where I’ll paint it with patterns.

“And Petrushkina always leaves the disco early, it would also be good for Petrushkina to be specifically smeared so that she doesn’t show off,” Mishka grinned.

- Let's spread it. But first, to the cemetery,” Vovka said. - Today is the time.

“But you can’t take over the territory!” Andryushka scratched the back of his head.

– Today is Royal Night, everything is possible! And run around the territory, and in general! – Vovka exclaimed. “So we won’t get anything for this.” They will no longer be expelled from the camp or sent home. The shift is over!

“Well, yes...” the guys agreed.

– What are we doing there, in the cemetery? – Andryushka asked.

“Test your courage,” Vovka answered. - Just take it and go through the entire cemetery from beginning to end.

“Oh, that’s just any fool!” Mishka exclaimed.

And he stopped short.

A strange howl came from somewhere.

- What is this? A? - Mishka muttered timidly.

“I don’t know,” Andryushka answered barely audibly. - It seems from the side of the cemetery...


| |

ROYAL NIGHT.

A long time ago, when our grandmothers were still playing in sandboxes, in one camp one pioneer somehow displeased another pioneer. The injured party decided to take revenge. And under the cover of darkness, the offended future Komsomol member entered the villain’s room and painted a snowflake on his serenely sleeping face. Toothpaste.
Since then, it has become a good tradition to decorate your camp comrades with a cool and refreshing pores of the face mint substance from a tube. During the daytime, there was generally no hostility between the artists and the victims. Moreover, in everyday life they could be glass-breaking friends. However, at night there were rules. And if you managed to smear your friend so neatly that he didn’t even stir in his sleep, you’re handsome.
For some time, the camp administration tried to fight night arts. They threatened. They even kicked me out of the camp without refunding the cost of the trip. But it’s useless. The children painted other children at night and continued to do so. And then someone smart from the elders suggested streamlining this matter by allowing the pioneers to unofficially make night forays only once per shift.
On the Royal Night.
The night before departure. At Night, when there is nothing left to lose - after all, in the morning everyone will leave for their gray everyday life, and they will no longer be kicked out of the camp.

* * *
Royal Night is the finale of the camp shift. It usually begins with a long disco.
The last “diskach” is like a prom. They are preparing for it. The boys, who spent the entire shift gaining courage for the slower, understood that this was their last chance. The girls, while painting their faces, “spiked” the remaining perfume onto themselves. Even if by the end of the shift the bottles were still full. Such a nuclear smell, of course, made the boys sick. As a result, the level of courage in the blood began to go off scale. And this fact, I believe, brought the pioneers together. With the pioneers.
The DJ at the last disco traditionally cannot cope with the number of orders. The slow ones are pouring in one after another. One is more suffering than the other. The chaste distance between two children dancing in pairs, which usually reaches a meter, is reduced to just fifty centimeters at the latest disco. Almost a full hug, you understand, yes! Shame!
Particularly shy girls from senior squads use the final “disc” as their last chance to join the young leader’s chest. For these purposes, they order a white dance from the DJ, and at the right moment they jump off the benches and run to invite their chosen one. The one who reached the counselor first dances with him.
After the final, most infuriating "slow" - something like the main hit of Whitney Houston or Celine Dion - the children will have a second portion of events.
The second part of the prelude to the Royal Night is the pioneer bonfire.
The day before the event being described, the counselors and teachers of the harsh sex go to the forest to collect firewood. With axes at the ready and with longing in their chests. For three to five hours they are engaged in gathering, then - carrying and, finally, construction. Obscene language, mass mosquito killings, a bunch of dead nerve cells, poisoning the body with nicotine - and all this in order to pay tribute to tradition. In order for a skewed hut to be erected in a clearing near the camp, which was to disappear in a couple of hours.
After the big disco, the entire population of the camp, under the cover of darkness, in an organized herd, stomps to the hut. The structure, as a rule, already carries gasoline for ten meters - in case it refuses to light up voluntarily, the watchman Uncle Kolya has already soaked it with what it should.
The pioneers form a circle around the fragrant future fire. Irina Palna runs around, driving away those who suddenly decided to become too involved in the pioneer tradition. And only after all safety measures have been observed, the work of the leaders’ hands is set on fire.
Probably, our great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers - Komsomol members, patriots and romantics - experienced some sublime emotions looking at the pioneer fire. Maybe they even shed tears - from an overabundance of feelings and the realization that tomorrow everyone would have to go to their apartments. Our children have never experienced anything like this. They strove to quietly throw some larger stone into the fire or crawl closer to the fire, testing the nervous system of the camp administration for resistance.
In my memory, a couple of times Palna came up with the idea for the troops to make some kind of scarecrows from herbs, rags and branches in advance, call them some kind of human defect and conduct an inquisition ritual with them over a fire. A kind of Maslenitsa in the pioneer style. Otherwise, the process of burning wood is unremarkable.
Returning back to the camp, the counselors usually let the children go ahead a little, while they themselves linger for a couple of minutes near the remains of the fire. In order to, paying tribute to ancient traditions, extinguish the pioneer fire “in the pioneer way.” That is, with his pants unbuttoned.
In general, the goal of all long last dance floors and bonfires is the same - so that the pioneers are properly exhausted, tired and fall asleep without the slightest desire to have fun at night. This is what usually happens with most children: after a disco and a bonfire, they have just enough battery charge left to crawl to the room, take off their clothes and collapse on the bed.
They are the ones who become victims of those who have a more powerful battery in the anus.
These same “powerful batteries” wait for the even sniffing of their brothers, and then, as in the game “Mafia,” they raise their heads, meet each other’s gazes, and, winking and giggling, begin their dirty deeds.
Like any serious matter, transforming a friend with paste is divided into levels of difficulty.
Level one – color your bedmate.
Level two is to harass someone from the next ward.
And finally, the third “level” is to paint someone from another residential building with paste.
There is, however, also a fourth level, but only a few reach it. This level involves unnoticed penetration into the counselor's room and transformation of the sleeping counselor's physiognomy.
As a rule, average children do not rise beyond the third level, so they draw at night only on their own kind.
It happens that during painting the victim wakes up. It hurts. Moreover, to both sides. In this case, the half-painted pioneer, after some considerations, usually joins the society of Itinerant artists and goes to smear those who are in a state of sleep.
In the old action movies starring Schwartz and Vandamme, the tough guys work alone. Royal Night is not an action movie. Working for one is not the least bit interesting. Therefore, pioneers often look for accomplices in their work the day before. They confer and discuss who they will be friends with. There is a legend that once a ward of eleven boys agreed to anoint the twelfth at night. But the boys somehow did not calculate their strength and could not wake up at the appointed time to commit evil. But that same twelfth woke up. And he painted all the sleeping conspirators in one mask.
Here's a riddle for you, dear reader of my works. How can you make sure that in the morning your comrades don’t realize that it was you who anointed them?
Right! You need to anoint yourself too! And in the morning, put on an innocent face and be the loudest indignant. “Idiocy!”, you say. That's right. There is little. But you have an alibi!
However, the Night that is called Royal is not remarkable for its pasta alone. There are other, albeit less popular, entertainments.
One of these is moving the bed with a sleeping fellow somewhere into the corridor. This is a sweet and harmless, essentially, joke. In the morning the little man wakes up and at first cannot understand where he is. Then he takes a deep breath and rushes alone from his bed back to the room.
There is another entertainment - sewing a sleeping pioneer to the bed. I mean, with threads. In the sense of a blanket for a mattress. As a result, the little man ends up walled up like a butterfly in a cocoon. Attempts to roll over on the other side in sleep are unsuccessful. In this case, the victim, as a rule, wakes up and begins to scream wildly. By the way, a particularly nervous child can wake up up to forty people with one cry.
The Royal Night ends with the “morning of the Streltsy execution.” By the time the detachment’s administration, in the form of a teacher and a counselor, wakes up, the children have already managed to wash the paste off their faces and hair, and pick it out of their ears. A fair teacher tries to find the perpetrators of the crime, while an unfair teacher punishes the entire group. The punishments, however, are completely harmless - to wash the surrounding world of pasta and other substances: doors, bedside tables, beds, door handles and floors.
And only after this the children are allowed to proceed with their bag to the bus that will take you home.

* * *
Together with the Royal Night, the camp shift ends. And with it comes summer.
And if, my friend, you are not yet sixteen years old, then in a year you will have every chance to return to wonderful world called "camp". But if you are already too old to relax in the detachment, then there are practically no options to get here again.
Although – I’m lying. There is still one option.
Become a counselor yourself.

AFTERWORD.

The camp is completely filled with stories.
I never talked about much of what happened to us.
For example, about how we received a warning about drinking alcohol on payday. And the alcohol had already been purchased. And how Mikhalych had to break a liter of Belenkaya. Shattered.
Or about how the same Mikhalych rode the girls from his squad on the “Romashka” carousel until they were extremely blue. And then the girls lay in the grass and could not move.
I didn’t talk about how Dimon told the little children that Vovchik had a lot of candy, and how after that the children ran after Volodya in a large herd. football field demanding sweets.
Many stories are still patiently waiting to be told.

* * *
About ten years have passed since the events described above.
Outside my office window is the third of July 2015, Friday.
Friday. Accordingly, tomorrow a new camp shift begins at the Rainbow camp. The children will arrive. They will be met by teachers and counselors.
This means that the history of our camp continues.
Well, isn't it great, huh?!
Smiley.

August 14th, 2015 , 05:23 pm

"Royal Night" in the (pioneer) camp. This is the last night before departure. None of the adults installed it, but it exists behind the scenes. Sometimes the children themselves ask the counselors: “Will we have a royal night?” What can the counselors do? Take away and hide toothpastes, since on the “royal night” it is customary to smear each other with toothpaste. And this is the most innocent “fun”.

This is reminiscent of a rite of passage in traditional societies.

Teenagers in traditional societies are initiated by spirits. Adult, experienced members of the community only help initiation and create conditions for meeting with spirits. In the children's camp, of course, no one has ever heard of any kind of primitive “initiations,” but, nevertheless, the children themselves, at their own peril and risk, try to create some semblance of initiation. Adults prohibit it, but it’s like “the devils are inciting them.”

It is clear that children do not succeed in anything, and cannot succeed, but what is extremely remarkable is this unconscious attempt to create rite of passage. Actually, all the traditional signs of initiation are present here: a break with parents, a temporary stay in unknown world camp life, here the teenager must prove his willpower, not cry, and pass tests. But these tests are “not scary”, and so at the end of the race the children themselves give themselves and each other additional “super tests”. The last night before departure is chosen, of course, because the tests must be “terrible”, maybe even criminal. Well, in the morning we will “go home” and no one will hold us accountable for our crimes: yesterday our parents were not there, and today there are no teachers.

We should not forget that all the “fun” of the “royal night” has a sexual connotation. For the queens spent their nights as they pleased and with whomever they pleased. Of course, all this is more in fantasies and, as a rule, things don’t go further than smearing girls with toothpaste, but erotic arousal does take place, like the night before Ivan Kupala. On the "royal night" some miracles are expected, like the story from the film "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath." Without expecting such miracles, no " royal nights"It wouldn't be.

 

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