Kevin's Watch

I was watching Meatballs today and it brought back so many memories. I was shipped off to summer camp every summer from 6 - 16.

The first camp I remember was when I lived in Switzerland. I was six years old and had only lived in Zurich for 5 months. My parents put my brother and I on an overnight train into the alps. I shared a travel compartment on the train with three other children. When we got there the sun was just coming up and the you could see the Loetschental valley. Even at six I thought it was amazing. I did very well at camp and really enjoyed it. It was probably the only stability I had in my life at that time. The two things I remember best were that lunch was always a chocolate bar sandwiched in an italian roll. I thought that was the best lunch ever invented! The other thing I remember well was my brother. He did not do so well at camp and pulled huge clumps of hair out of his head. He was only 4 1/2 yrs old. They should never have sent him to sleep away camp.

But the formative time was my teen years at camp. I learned so much at camp. I learned how to play sports, interact with my peers, I learned how to be bad, to be a clown, to fall in and out of love, to play tricks on other campers, just to be silly. I learned how to act my age instead of the forced adult of the family. It was an escape from the real world. It was innocent and comfortable.

What are your summer camp memories?

severely burnt arm, diarrhea, poison ivy, chicken pox, mountain climbing, canoeing, sailing-good times

lorin wrote:The first camp I remember was when I lived in Switzerland. I was six years old and had only lived in Zurich for 5 months. My parents put my brother and I on an overnight train into the alps. I shared a travel compartment on the train with three other children.

whoaa...

When we got there the sun was just coming up and the you could see the Loetschental valley. Even at six I thought it was amazing. I did very well at camp and really enjoyed it. It was probably the only stability I had in my life at that time.

wow... this makes me think. I too have "gorgeous scenery" memories of camp...

The two things I remember best were that lunch was always a chocolate bar sandwiched in an italian roll. I thought that was the best lunch ever invented!

The other thing I remember well was my brother. He did not do so well at camp and pulled huge clumps of hair out of his head. He was only 4 1/2 yrs old. They should never have sent him to sleep away camp.

Boooo.

But the formative time was my teen years at camp. I learned so much at camp. I learned how to play sports, interact with my peers, I learned how to be bad, to be a clown, to fall in and out of love, to play tricks on other campers, just to be silly. I learned how to act my age instead of the forced adult of the family. It was an escape from the real world. It was innocent and comfortable.

*sigh* but boy am I glad you had that experience...

camp stories.. I have many lovely ones. Homeschool camp was one of the 2 highlights of our summer... along w/ the county fair.

This will be forthcoming.. unless I flake about it; but I don't think I will this time.

Vraith's been to band camp. That's just too cool.

when i was in the boy scouts went camping here...

www.nhscouting.org/openrosters/ViewOrgP ... rgkey=1812

many of my happiest childhood memories are from those trips.

especially when my dad would go - he stayed in the lodge they had there. bad back and all.

my best memory was going on the weekend of my birthday. (april 30th) the had a cake for me. and the next morning i woke up early - it was just the troop leader (mr. Russell) , my dad and me. we set up the fire and the grill next to the lake and started making breakfast for everyone.

during summer camp there, went canooing, hiking, animal watching. archery, shooting guns, basket making, lots of swimming.

fire making, all sorts of merit badges.

i read Agetha Christie's Ten Little Indians at summer camp one year. found the book there.

they had a snipe hunt one year during the spring - i was the only scout who got the joke.

when we are able to go back for a visit we have already gotton permission to visit.

Troop 81, Daniel Webster Council.

I never went to sleep-away camp, but I did go to Girl Scout day camp one summer. And I've been camping lots and lots of times.

I don't remember much about the day camp, other than trying to carry a bucket of water with another girl (it didn't work very well...) and eating raw potatoes in a pocket meal (if you're smart, you pre-cook the potatoes and meat before you shove it in the coals -- obviously our unit leaders didn't know that trick!).

Aaaaaah, school camp! I went for 6 of the 7 years between 1963 and 1970. To the New Forest in Hampshire, near Brockenhurst to be precise. We all went on a double decker London bus.

There were no facilities; our first job was to dig the lat pits (to empty the latrines into). An advance party had already put up the kitchen area and the marquee. The girls were in three 13 sleeper ridge tents, and the boys had bell tents - so we didn't go into the wrong ones

We washed in a river called the Piddle - I kid you not, and took our water from the other side of Piddle Bridge via a bucket that was emptied into a large tank on wheels. Here we are washing. Sometimes there were cattle in the stream and we had to wait! If a car came along while we were washing, we all rushed up to the road, put our towels over our heads and salami'd to the cars. I always imagined a fisherman, somewhere downstream, and the look on his face when all the soap, shampoo and toothpaste floated past.



There were about 40 kids and about 6 teachers. We stayed about 12 days each time, except for one year when several bad things happened. Firstly we had some strawberries that must have been off and half the camp was sick. Then a boy was bitten by an adder, my friend Sue was carted off to hospital to have an enema, then the rain came. We were up in the middle of the night digging trenches round the tents in our bathing costumes. The boys' tents were inundated and they ended up in the marquee all together with wet clothes steaming all around. That year we went home early.

We had a wonderful time. We all had to wear shorts, even the teachers and Canon Wright who must have been at least in his 60s, and always came down on his scooter on the Saturday (about 70 miles) bringing with him his communion equipment so we could have a church service on the Sunday (it was a church school). His tent was put as far away from the others as possible as he snored - loudly.

We had night and day hikes, wide games, pine cone fights, water sports and, at night, singing around the camp fire. We had a song called "Oh Sir Jasper do not touch me" which lost a word in each verse. When we got to "Oh Sir" the headmaster always said "That's enough". We had musical accompaniment using tin cups filled with varying amounts of water (my job that) and anything else we could lay our hands on, and singing in harmony as the school had several 4 part choirs. For Canon Wright we had "There was the vicar, vicar, drinking all the liquor, in the stores....." (Quartermasters Stores if you know it).

The kitchen area was sometimes the only warm place, and the job of feeding the boiler with pine cones was the best one of all. The food was very good - except perhaps for the HM's plum duff, suet pudding with dried fruit cooked in a muslin bag in the boiler.

It couldn't happen today. The Elf and Safety people would have a fit! Those school camps were some of the best times of my life and I remember everything about them quite vividly.

Unfortunately the year I missed out, because of our family's holiday clashing, I had to go to Guide Camp. What a load of Woosies! Proper toilets, and we had to build shoe racks and stands for bowls to wash in.

Campfire: Somehow my mom lassoed my dad into being a camp counselor for the guys at Campfire day camp one year when we were kids...
I remember fondly seeing my dad grinning over the pranks and antics of the pre-teen guys in his group - it was pretty unusual for me to see that side of my dad at that age.
There was also a lot of singing, (mostly silly songs) which I enjoyed.

Hmm... I'll get around to homeschool camp later.

Vraith wrote:But did, once, go to a music camp for a couple weeks in a place with a lot of nice looking hike terrain [by Ithaca, NY if anyones familiar]...

Ithaca! Yeah, it has some of the most incredible scenery ever... gorges, drop-offs, waterfalls, peaceful forests.
I was there for a program around the time when I was in college.
Went walking early practically every morning in the beginning... loved it.

I remember one bad year at summer camp where a bunch of teenagers were killed by a guy in a hockey mask. I think it was Camp Crystal Lake.

Actually, I only went one year to summer camp, and I think it was only one night, as it was with Girl Scouts. I went with my sister for some reason, maybe just to visit her. I remember, as I was a very cute little kid, all the girls just loved me. I remember crushing on one of camp leaders or something who had an odd name, like Pebbles, though that wasn't it. I was very young when this happened.

But I never went to summer camp on my own. I do feel like I missed out.