I did from about age 9 through 14 and loved it. Swimming in the river, the mosquito bites and the infernal itching, trying to sneek peaks into the girl’s shower (and some pretty intense make-out sessions during the last summer I went - Kelly, where are you now?), the musty smell of the cabins when first opening them for the summer, “I don’t think you can throw a rock that far - Oh, man, that’s going to hurt tomorrow,” a blood pact between friends,…all very fond memories.
How about you? Did you go to camp as a kid? Any recollections?
I went to camp every year from about 3rd grade through high school, and have far too many marvelous memories to post. Hikes. Admiring particular counselors. Sneaking out at night to another unit to see my friend. Building a raft and steering it down the lake. And later, as a Counselor-in-Training, the make-out sessions with a dishwasher from the kitchen. It was the first time anybody ever touched my … oh, never mind. But it felt good
Though we don’t do the American style “Camp” here, as I understand it. This was a week-long school excursion to one, within the school year. Not “summer camp”. School holidays (vacation) are for fucking about at home doing nothing, ask the average Aussie kid if they’d like to spend them with yet more regimentation, and they’ll tell you to bugger off.
I went to camp all summer from the ages of six to 15. The first year really sucked because I went to a camp that I hated, where they didn’t let you pick your own activities to do and the staff were all jerks. The following year I found a camp that I loved and went back year after year.
We had a fantastic lake for swimming and boating. That’s where I really honed my swimming skills and eventually got my lifeguard certification. Really cheap plastic kayaks were fun, too. And there was arts and crafts, and a crappy theater with no ventilation. (That’s where I began being a theater tech nerd.) And color war!
Hmm, I wonder what ever happened to that girl Amy…
For a month in the Texas Hill Country every summer from age 10 to 14. Very primitive cabins on pretty rugged land. It was the exact place where Roy Bedichek wrote Adventures with a Texas Naturalist. Athletics, woodcraft, gun range, nature study, horsemanship, swimming, etc. It was pure heaven.
I went to Boy scout camp for one week each summer (plus extra days after I became Order of the Arrow). Very traditional camp with swimming, canoeing, rowboating, and general Boy Scout skills.
My daughter MilliCal started similar camping last year (one week sleepaway with the Girl Scouts), and is doing it this year as well. She gets theme weeks (Robin Hood – archery and catapults (which i don’t remember Robin Hood using) last year. Zookeeping this year)
Here’s a link to the article that prompted me to ask the question:
I remember a few kids being miserable and calling their parents to come pick them up. I suppose it is better than being miserable, but oh the shame of it …
"Twas at camp that I saw my first real, honest to god, in the flesh female breast.
I went to Space Camp in the 4th grade. It was at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo. We built model rockets, put together an underwater PVC structure, saw the rocket sled that propelled the first man faster than the speed of sound, and visited White Sands. It was pretty awesome.
Started when I was 7, continued till I went away the college, climbing the tiers of kitchen staff, junior counsellor and full counsellor in my later teen years. I almost took a job as their Horseback riding director right before starting law school, but to my eternal sadness, it just didn’t work out.
At school I was the rejected, friendless nerd. At camp, people treated me completely differently - I had loads of friends and got along with everyone. It was a good sense of perspective on how arbitrary all that popularity stuff is. BTW, a friend that I met when I was 10 at sumemr camp is a bridesmaid in my wedding!
I used to spend the whole summer away (8 weeks) and cry when I had to come home. I never spent a minute homesick in my life!
Me neither. Boy Scout camp was single-sex, with any Girl Scout camps FAR away. And neither I nor anyone I knew leaned any other way. Camp was a pretty asexual experience.
I went to camp in western NC for a bunch of years as a youngster. I remember so many ropes course & rock climbing excursions that I wasn’t afraid of heights at the end of a 2-week session.
One memory of camp has been coming back to me lately.
When I was 12, I met this girl, Ellen. I liked her. The next year, when my brother was a counsellor there, I got a peek at the campers list. Ellen was on it. I guess I showed visible enthusiasm, as my brother’s girlfriend, Mary Ellen, kind of teased me about it. Mary Ellen was a girl that my brother met in high school. She must have been 17 at the time.
Wow. She’s been a member of our family for a really long time. A month ago, I met their grandson.
Hmmm, we probably did a lot of the same stuff. I did “Adventure Camp” in western NC, ages 10, 11, & 12 (would’ve been '91-'93.) It wasn’t a traditional camp in that I think there were only a couple places we stayed two nights in a row, but we did horseback riding, camping, rock climbing, rappelling, ropes courses, whitewater rafting, etc. My friend and I still talk about this one counsellor, Katie. So hot. She seemed so old and mature, but I’m sure I’m a lot older now than she was then.
It isn’t quite the same as American Camp but here alot of kids go to the Gaeltacht, to a Colaiste Gaeilge to learn Irish and to be immersed in an Irish speaking environment. Courses are usually in the summer and usually last three weeks. I’d say the average age at them would be 14. Kids 10 to 18 go though. I went twice and loved it, even though I was bullied terribly lol.
It’s actually Shuttle Camp , and I met the guy who rode in the rocket sled, John P. Stapp who was about 85 at the time. Also, the museum holds the International Space Hall of Fame.
I went to Bible camp once, when I was in third grade. It all went pretty well until one night there was a tornado warning and we all had to run outside in the rain and hail in our pajamas to get to the shelter. I was terrified and never went back to Bible camp.
Finally, a few years later, I got talked into going to a three-day Girl Scout camp. Again, it all went pretty well until the final day when one of the other troops’ leaders (and mother of one of the girls) died from a diabetic attack. I never went back to camp after that.
I did not. I was an *extremely *shy kid and was terrified of the thought of being away from home and family. I did go to a day camp once when I was ~9 and then to a basketball day camp when I was ~14. Those were ok, but I never spent a night away from home or family (either was ok… home with a babysitter was ok or travel with family was ok but not away from both home and family) until I went away to college.
Just to reassure anyone who’s got a kid like that, I turned into a well-adjusted, outgoing, happy adult. So paralyzing shyness as a kid doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re kid won’t grow up to be ok.
