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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Summer Camp 1994 and 2014

It's not even spring yet and I'm busy thinking about summer. More specifically, I'm thinking about summer camp.


When I was my youngest daughter's age, I found myself preparing for my first camp experiences with church and dance groups. I didn't know what to expect and the anxiety was unbearable. My only understanding of "camp" was what I had learned from TV and movies. I grew up in the 80's and early 90's and there was plenty of media to shape my impression of what camp should be.



My expectations were a little skewed. 



My actual camp experiences came up lacking by comparison, but memories were made and I figured out who my real friends were.  There were no panty-raids, but there were snakes, outhouses, sing-a-longs, and cookouts. Among my most memorable experiences is my reason for an intense fear of veggie peelers. I was racing a couple of campers to see who could peel potatoes the fastest and may have misunderstood the goal. At least I won the finger-tip peeling race! 

(I still have the scar.)


What church camp looked like




What church camp felt like



Dance tour wasn't much different. 
(You see the only dark-skinned kid in the upper corner of that last photo? 
Yeah, that's awkward teen me. If it doesn't get better, it gets consistent, kids.)


This summer, my kids will be attending their first camp. The girls were granted scholarships to a remarkable performing arts camp in New York (I'm not telling you where exactly or which session because you are the internet and I am a protective mother.) and we are now trying to prepare them for their first flight without a parent or guardian and 3 weeks without us. Luckily, they've endured many flights and they don't suffer from motion sickness. If they made it to New Zealand and back with us, I have to have faith that they can make it to New York without us. Abe and I are working ourselves harder than ever to try to save enough to pick them up after camp and fly home with them. We've got some time, but we don't want to get caught with last minute booking fees, so the sooner we figure this all out, the better. 



Have a favorite camp story or a recommendation for camp gear? I want to hear it! Do you own a business that makes camp supplies? We'd love to do a demo and review for you! 




Wish us luck!

More camp posts will follow as we prepare our 
kids for the summer of a lifetime. 

(Or Lifetime Original Movie. Whichever.)







10 comments:

  1. What a great collection of movies!

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  2. I never really thought about how many camp based movies there are for kids/families! I never went to camp as a kid but I think I probably would have been really nervous to go because of the movies, too!

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  3. I never went to summer camp but I'd love to send my kids one day!

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  4. I went to all sorts of camps as a kid. Growing up in the woods it didn't hold the same weirdness for me with the bugs and snakes and such. The funnest was probably confirmation camp with the church though because we had a crazy bunch consisting of 8 boys and 2 girls. It was a lot of fun because we were all pretty wild and crazy!! Our youth director had fun reeling us all in!!

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  5. Sounds very similar to my camp and dance stories.

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  6. All great movies. Troop Beverly Hills was a favorite of mine :)

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  7. I have wonderful memories of camp! I love watching my children enjoy it too.

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  8. What a fun post. I always wanted to go to a camp just like the one in The Parent Trap or jump on a the Blob like they had in Heavyweights!

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  9. My favorite camp story is - I met my husband there! I was a camper and he was a counselor (scandalous!) the first summer we met, then the second summer (after which we started dating) we were both counselors.

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  10. I never went to a summer camp but I always loved the idea of it!

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