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Was the summer camp a thing for particularly kids who lived in urban areas on the east coast? My SO who grew up in NYC has so many stories and went to many summer camps. He still talks about them occasionally. I was in the Midwest for most of my childhood and summer camps were not something most of us did. At least in my little area of the world. I was a Campfire Girl and we did go on mostly weekend trips a couple times a year. But never for weeks at a time.
I probably would have liked it!
Well, I lived in Chicago and at one time or another I went to both day camp and overnight camp. The day camp was through the park district. We took advantage of all the city had to offer like swimming, forest preserves, museums, nature walks crafts just lots of fun. I remember having a Native American come and talk about his tribe and customs of his people. I was fascinated. I also had my first acting gig there when I was around seven.
When I was eleven I went to overnight camp for two weeks sponsored by the YMCA. We did all the usual camp things. I loved all of it.
I remember ALMOST going to camp when I was in late elementary school and living in England (my stepfather was stationed at a USAF base there, and we attended American schools although we didn't live on base). If I remember correctly, in 5th grade I had 2 options, either Girl Scout camp, which sounded fun, OR a regular camp where a lot of my non-Girl-Scout friends (including, you know, BOYS) would be going -- and which I would have preferred. Trouble is, the Girl Scout camp had an earlier deadline BUT there was no guarantee that the regular camp would run that year. So if we didn't apply to the Girl Scout camp because we really preferred the regular one, and then the regular one didn't RUN, then we didn't get to go to either.
And of course that's what happened. (Honestly, I'm not sure my family could have afforded either option anyway, but it was a sad time nonetheless.)
Many years later, the summer before my junior year of high school to be exact, I went to cheerleading camp on Cape Cod. The camp actually wasn't great in terms of cheerleading (it was brand new and not very organized), but it was in a fantastic location and had a "relationship" with the football camp that went on at the same time. Now THAT was a fun camp ...
And this probably doesn't count, but when I was in grad school at Berkeley (early 20s in terms of age), I lived at International House and back then ('80s and '90s) they had a fall retreat for new residents, RAs, etc. early every fall. The setting was beautiful and peaceful and quite wonderful, but the first time I went, just after Labor Day of 1985, 2 friends of mine (fellow Berkeley students) had been killed the weekend before in a horrible car accident. So for me, that camp was about thinking and crying and just surrounding myself with the beauty of nature trying to feel something besides sorrow.
Yeah, almost 35 years later, I remember the pain of that -- but those were obviously unusual circumstances.
I remember ALMOST going to camp when I was in late elementary school and living in England (my stepfather was stationed at a USAF base there, and we attended American schools although we didn't live on base). If I remember correctly, in 5th grade I had 2 options, either Girl Scout camp, which sounded fun, OR a regular camp where a lot of my non-Girl-Scout friends (including, you know, BOYS) would be going -- and which I would have preferred. Trouble is, the Girl Scout camp had an earlier deadline BUT there was no guarantee that the regular camp would run that year. So if we didn't apply to the Girl Scout camp because we really preferred the regular one, and then the regular one didn't RUN, then we didn't get to go to either.
And of course that's what happened. (Honestly, I'm not sure my family could have afforded either option anyway, but it was a sad time nonetheless.)
Many years later, the summer before my junior year of high school to be exact, I went to cheerleading camp on Cape Cod. The camp actually wasn't great in terms of cheerleading (it was brand new and not very organized), but it was in a fantastic location and had a "relationship" with the football camp that went on at the same time. Now THAT was a fun camp ...
And this probably doesn't count, but when I was in grad school at Berkeley (early 20s in terms of age), I lived at International House and back then ('80s and '90s) they had a fall retreat for new residents, RAs, etc. early every fall. The setting was beautiful and peaceful and quite wonderful, but the first time I went, just after Labor Day of 1985, 2 friends of mine (fellow Berkeley students) had been killed the weekend before in a horrible car accident. So for me, that camp was about thinking and crying and just surrounding myself with the beauty of nature trying to feel something besides sorrow.
Yeah, almost 35 years later, I remember the pain of that -- but those were obviously unusual circumstances.
Yes, fall retreats are a shortened version of adult camps I guess....
sorry yours was saddened by your loss.
Receiving brownie points from parents when eagerly agreeing to attend an annual week session of church camp, oh, it was the best. For acting childish, breaking rules and accusing others of mayhem. Taking cues from those one and two years older these early teenage leaders (ha) paved the way to acting like glorified Eddie Haskels.
Ferried to an island in Lake Erie these mid-summer getaways were anticipated for five straight summers. With several hundred campers from a mixture of states it was not difficult to skip events, rearrange cabin settings to hiding pee-wee golf equipment and turning sprinkler flow to pool deck towel storage.
Although we weren't in on the greatest gag: PA system activated immediately after evening chapel, playing a loop of Hanky Panky (Tommy James & The Shondells). With around 45 minutes of optional time before head count in cabins most of the campers were headed to an interior refreshment stand, which had ping-pong tables and was a clique gathering spot. For more adventurous types that lighted putt-putt course was available for those not prone to mosquitos. As the door to the announcement booth somehow was locked, it took some time before the sinful sound was silenced. Our gang of misfits found it inspiring because possessing a personal transistor radio was against the rules.
Sneaky ways, middle of the night silliness never being attributed to our gang the setting provided the perfect escape for this. By choice we guys were housed on the 2nd floor, called The Villa, where food prep and the dining hall were. The monitor usually was out with other overseers hours after 'lights out.' So our capers were never figured out.
My parents never asked me about attending after 10th grade and I never brought the matter to discussion. Somehow I felt I had grown up. And so did my peers. Or was I still fooling myself? Am still in contact with two of these wacky campers!
I have wonderful memories of "sleepaway camp". I remember the postcards- I think we HAD to write several times a week. I think I still have some of the postcards I sent to my parents. The first year, I remember the first few postcards I sent had my parents worried, but I was having the time of my life. I started going when I was 9 or 10.
I grew up in NYC and I think the vast majority of those at my camp(s) were from the tri-state area but chiefly NY and NJ. I went to one camp for 5 years, then another for one year.
I even did one summer as a counselor when I was in college.
I had a best friend from the first camp, and we stayed best friends through adulthood. (sadly she passed away a few years ago).Through Facebook, I have reconnected with so many from those years and it's just a wonderful connection.
I have such good memories from attending camps for several summers, decades ago....do you? ....
What about your camp experiences was memorable?
I went to camp twice, same place both times, Camp Sam Wood in Portageville, NY. I must have gone in the late Forties. It was a Boy Scout camp, and it was that fact that made my one summer experience there just so-so. (I just checked, the camp still exists.)
The camp was divided into "villages" in the woods with Native American names. We slept on iron cots with thin mattresses, two to a tent. The tents had wooden floors. Each village had a privy...and I am guessing that there was an outdoor shower too, but that I am not sure of that. All of the villages ate in a central dining hall on the same schedule. At one time, not long before, kids swam in the creek that ran through the central area of the camp, but the summer I went there was a pool.
I loved the outdoors, and meadows and woods in my hometown, so this camp might have been a lot of fun. The problem was that I had very little interest in the rigamarole of scouting and I was used to being out in woods, etc. on my own with other kids and not honchoed every minute. Understandably the people who ran the camp couldn't take the responsibility of letting us run around the woods on our own, and as for the scouting stuff - it was a scout camp, so of course that was part of the package.
At one point, when we were not being well watched, I and some others decided to "walk to Pennsylvania" and took off on our own walking south in the woods. We were rounded up and caught hell.
The other time I went to this camp was in the spring for a long weekend and we brought our own tents and camped down near the creek. It rained steadily the entire time and we all just sat in our tents.
I have fond memories of summer camp too, which surprises me because of what a recluse I am now!
It makes me smile to remember:
1. picking popsicle sticks out of a can to determine what our after dinner chore would be (clear, rinse, wash)
2. making an arts and crafts project for a secret friend whose identity was revealed over a last-night campfire ceremony by the lake (where we launched little candle boats we made out of milk cartons and sang...yep...Kumbaya)
3. stumbling with a flashlight to the latrine in the middle of the night
4. diving off the dock into the cold lake water
5. learning how to paddle a canoe and right it if it turned over
6. camp songs with interminable verses on the bus
7. the camp store, where you could buy some essentials and lots of cr*p because your parents created a charge account (mine was gone in days lol)
8. archery, riflery, making lanyards
9. talking in the middle of the night in sleeping bags in our tent-cabins - rain on a canvas roof is loud!
10. the deliciousness of going home
Last edited by CarolinaMoon1; 02-17-2019 at 06:36 AM..
I have fond memories of summer camp too, which surprises me because of what a recluse I am now!
It makes me smile to remember:
1. picking popsicle sticks out of a can to determine what our after dinner chore would be (clear, rinse, wash)
2. making an arts and crafts project for a secret friend whose identity was revealed over a last-night campfire ceremony by the lake (where we launched little candle boats we made out of milk cartons and sang...yep...Kumbaya)
3. stumbling with a flashlight to the latrine in the middle of the night
4. diving off the dock into the cold lake water
5. learning how to paddle a canoe and right it if it turned over
6. camp songs with interminable verses on the bus
7. the camp store, where you could buy some essentials and lots of cr*p because your parents created a charge account (mine was gone in days lol)
8. archery, riflery, making lanyards
9. talking in the middle of the night in sleeping bags in our tent-cabins - rain on a canvas roof is loud!
10. the deliciousness of going home
Great recap of camp
Remember singing Kumbaya?
or
Kookaburra??
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