Did You Go To Camp As A Kid?

In My Humble Opinion
61

I never went to the classic sleep-away camp. When I was very young, I went to recreation at the local beach club. It was hell. The counselors made us run for what seemed like hours in the sand, pegged us in the head during dodge ball, made us play shuffleboard on hot pavement… OK, it doesn’t sound *that *bad in retrospect, but at the time I hated it. Plus, my father was kind of flaky and sometimes forgot to pick me up. There were also formal dances at night. Whenever I hear jazz being played by aging accountants, I die a little inside.

When I was older, starting the summer after 7th grade till the summer before junior year, I went to nerd camp (Johns Hopkins’s Center for Talented Youth) where you spend three weeks taking college-level courses on a college campus. It was definitely a transformative experience. I had gone to the same small school since kindergarten, with the same kids, who knew my older sibblings and knew that I was smart. And that’s basically all I was and all I knew how to be. At nerd camp, no one knew me so I was able to explore my own personality in an environment that was really open and where it was cool to be smart. I was so sad when it ended.

62

I went to Girl Scout camp when I was a kid. It was fun when I was 9-12 but not so much when I got older. We did most of the usual camp activities, plus backpacking trips through the hills of Eastern Ky, and we learned weird things like how to make Sassafras tea (it was terrible.) Our Girl Scout camp had its own terrorist gang, the International Revolutionary Committee, which kidnapped our unit leader’s teddy bear and demanded a bag of candy as ransom. The teddy bear was rescued by some girls who had gotten up in the night to tie the leader to her bunk.

63

Nope.

My parents were both schoolteachers, so they had the same vacation periods I did. We did have a place up the the woods in Maine that we’d spend lots of time at, which was a lot of fun.

64

Four years, I think- 1977-1980, I was 14-18. Camp Pyoca in Indiana, which while owned by the Presbyterian Church USA, was also used by the Christian & Missionary Alliance, my church at the time.

At first, the food was not great- either it got better with each year or I got more used to it/less picky about it. No abuse from counselors or kids. The counselors I think were volunteers from the churches or Bible college students.

Lots of activities- boating, swimming, fishing, archery, volleyball, arts & crafts. It was co-ed & some of the more developing girls were asked to wear T-shirts along with their bathing suits. PDAs were discouraged but happened. Private DAs even more discouraged but I’m sure happened, tho I never heard any stories of actual sex. I know one still-lasting marriage that resulted from meeting at camp.

Something that still amazes me- we were taken out on a nighttime hike, told a story about a hermit that lived in the woods in the 1950s (before it was made a camp) & killed people with a chainsaw, ate them & escaped from the asylum to never be seen again (a mix of Texas Chainsaw & the true story of Ed Gein). Then of course, we heard a chainsaw in the woods, a counselor disappeared, & then we saw his “butchered body” hanging in a tree. It was scary & hilarious & wonderful! And THIS was a relatively Fund’ist group- no way could you do this nowadays! I wrote a parody song that year- “The Ballad of the Chuch-Camp Cannibal” which was a popular request for the next three years (I wrote lots of parody songs back then- on Jimmy Carter, Idi Amin, Ted Kennedy & Jonestown, which I did at Talent Night, along with my Spike Jones song renderings- You Always Hurt the One You Love & Der Fuerher’s Face.)

Of course, we had morning & evening chapel. And as the week progressed, it got more Evangelistic & conversion-inducing. Evening chapel sometimes included a movie, and on the last night usually either an Apocalyptic sermon or movie- including the first two of the infamous THIEF IN THE NIGHT SERIES. And yes, there was lots of crying & committals to Christ (some which even lasted more than a week), and surreptitious “spiritual” hugs among the opposite sex (which was monitored by the counselors).

Of course, being a TeenFriar, I actually loved chapel & would get in all sorts of discussions & debates with the counselors & guest ministers.

And yes, I got in my share of surreptitious hugging of the more developed girls- nothing more than that though.

65

Once, in 6th grade as part of school. It was intersting having teachers teach fire building, canoeing, rope bridge building, etc. I got sick Saturday night though so I missed the game (one person in each cabin hid in the woods / campground - you got so many points for finding other hiders and so many if your hider remained hidden).

In spite of this it was still pretty fun. But not super awesome. Food was pretty good.

Brian

66

Oh man, here’s my camp story:

There were about 60 of us from school. We were all in the 11 to 13 age range. The boys and girls stayed in separate bunk houses which were separated across a courtyard.

We boys decided that we were going to go on a panty raid. As to what we were going to do with said panties once we acquired them, we really didn’t know. But that’s what you’re supposed to do when you go to camp, right? You go on panty raids.

So about a dozen of us boys swarmed the girls’ bunk house and we started going through the girls’ stuff. Man, we were rotten kids. Most of the girls were away on activities and the few who were there could do little to stop us.

One guy reached into a bag and pulled out a pair of underwear into which a girl had menstruated heavily. He let out a yelp and dropped them to the floor. Everyone scattered like flies. But the damage had been done. Everyone knew who owned those panties.

So, about two hours later, the shit hit the fan. All of the boys were assembled and marched into the cook house dining room where a makeshift “apology court” had been assembled. To the side stood a furious collection of adults: Our teachers, camp guides, and the humiliated girl’s parents (having driven two hours into the wilderness to pick up their daughter). In the centre, alone, sat the owner of said panties. One by one and in front of everyone, each boy was instructed to apologize. Which we did. And we meant it. Sobbing uncontrollably, it was obvious that she was completely devastated and humiliated. She couldn’t bring her face from her hands. She felt completely ruined.

After our class returned to school from camp there were only two weeks of school left before summer break, but the girl was not present. The school admin granted her a leave and passed her for the year. At the start of the next school year she was nowhere to be seen. Her experience was so humiliating for her that her family moved to a different city where a young woman might have the chance to reconstruct the fragile social fabric in which she dwells.

Sorry Trish.

67

I just realized I had repressed all my memories of my camp days.

The few that are coming back to me are filled with humiliation and pain.

68

Went to my church’s choir camp for 4 years, between 3rd and 6th grade. It was a 1 week program whose main goal was to introduce and begin learning the repertoire for the next year (aside from every Sunday morning, we would also serve as vocalists for about 5 large scale performances a year) - adults and children both went, with the adult singers serving as either staff or just there for a vacation. Our camp was in the middle of the woods in New Hampshire, on a lake. The cabins were wallless, but had cloth flaps, which didn’t keep anything out, so there were bug bites galore, and we had 5 kids in each cabin, with the most senior serving as the cabin “counselor”… my biggest memories of that place was the Green vs Brown points competition (sort of like Harry Potter’s school) and me racking up points like crazy for my team my first year there by completing ALL of the swimming tests. It was also the place where I first learned the REAL details of sex (everything except the biological stuff), and somebody always showed up with a trunk full of porn mags.

Now, another 5 years later and I’m going to a month long music camp, this time in Maine (on another river), this time studying French Horn. I went there for 3 years in high school, and everything I didn’t learn about sex at my previous camp (i.e. what it’s actually like to do it in person) I learned there. Yeah, all that stuff you hear about band camp is true. This time our cabins had real wood walls, and we had to start every day (at 6:30am) with a cleaning schedule. This was also the place I got into Ultimate Frisbee and Archery, two sports I was actually good at.

69

I started going to Boy Scout summer camp when I was around 12. I am now 25, and have never missed a year of it. I go every year with my troop. Each troop goes for 1 week. Camp lasts for 8 or 9 weeks.

70

Oh jeez, how could I forget about that 1 week at Boy Scout camp, back in 5th grade? To this day it was still one of the worst weeks of my life. The counselors (and some of the campers) were sadistic fucks who made kids clean the toilets with their TONGUEs if they misbehaved (I was on my best behavior, but I actually had to witness this) and we went on these awful hikes TWICE A DAY so that everybody was totally tired out just in time to start a second one after lunch. I don’t think I have even ONE good memory of that camp.

I quit scouts and never looked back after that week ended.

71

Nope. I grew up way out in the country so my parents didn’t see the need. For that and for never having shared a dorm room, I’m eternally grateful.

72

I spent a few summers at Phantom Lake and Camp Phillips

Great memories, I had a really good time. I’m sure my parents enjoyed the 1-2 weeks without me as well. If I have kids, I hope I can send them to summer camp. It’s a great experience

73

First of all, I really hope they didn’t. Why would you want your parents to enjoy being apart from you? They’re supposed to love you. :frowning:

I went to Girl Scout camp, in a “day and stay” program that meant I did two weeks where I was at camp for three days, two nights each week, as opposed to the full sleepaway camp thing where you stay for one or two weeks all the way through without coming home (and get killed by Jason Voorhees). I hated it so much. It was just an exercise in humiliation and bug bites and picking on the weird fat kid who just wanted to read and didn’t want to hike or swim in a filthy pond. :frowning:

74

Um, because even parents like to fuck on the sofa one week of the year? I can’t even wrap my brain around what you wrote. Enjoying (temporary) freedom from responsibility does not equal a lack of love.

Ahem. I KNOW my parents enjoyed their summers “off” even if they did miss me plenty.

My camp, still in operation was Camp Sloane. They did not, by the way, allow phone calls home (letters only) or “I wanna go home!” pickups except in medical or family emergency. There was one visiting day a summer. No electronics allowed whatsoever.

75

I went to those week-long religious camps too, in middle school and a bit in high school. It was very regimented: up early for prayer, KP if you had been assigned to it, breakfast, chapel stuff, mandatory Olympic-style sports teams (the winners had to do KP at the end of the week), lunch, four hours of free time, dinner, a bit of free time, devotions, lights out at a certain time.

76

To be fair, I should add that you could get horseback riding lessons if you paid extra at the camp I described, and the lake was fun for boating.