Last week was Summer Camp week around here! We all looooovvvvvveeeee this day camp! It was Scotty's first time, but Tommy's been going for a few years now. I was cracking up when I caught Tommy "showing him the ropes" the week before camp started: "Now, if somebody says they want a 'waterfall', they'll hold their mouth open like this, and you pour water from your bottle like this...see, nobody gets germs!"
This year, Tommy moved up to the Big Kid camp, and they sleep over in the canyon one night. So. Much. Excitement. Tommy wants to go TWO weeks next year so he can sleep out for TWO nights instead of one.
Here's Scotty's camp counselor (with all that energy!) and one of the many junior counselors (with those striped socks!) and they all have silly names....this is Aardvark and Tommy's main counselor was Gobbles and there's also Redwood, Cinnamon, Tree, Otter, El Gato, Thunderbolt....well, you get the picture. All the counselors, counselors-in-training, and junior counselors start out as campers. For years, just like Tommy and Scotty, they went to the day camp. Once they reach about 13 years old, they can go as junior counselors. As they get older, they can get paid to go as Counselors-in-Training, then they get paid as Counselors. It's such a great system! It's one of the most wholesome, lovely experiences. It's an outdoor camp, and they have
camp songs and
hikes in the canyon and they
tie-dye t-shirts and they come home filthy and happy and exhausted.
One evening they have a potluck and a skit night. It is so FUN! They sing songs and do funny little skits that they've worked on during the week. This is Scotty's group, and they sang "The time of ____ Camp" to the tune of "Time of the Season" by the Zombies. Tommy's group sang a camp-i-fied version of "I'm a Believer" (in my head? by the Monkees!) while Gobbles accompanied them on a ukelele. I mean, stop it, amirite?
If you don't listen to This American Life, you are really missing out on something wonderful. Here's a link to one they have in their archives
about summer camps. It captures the camp mystique, I think you'd agree. There are camp people and not-camp-people. I'm so glad my boys are camp people!
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I never was a camp person and look at the fun I missed!!!! Looks like your boys love it.
ReplyDeletelove love love love love love!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete@Betty ~ Erik and I were remembering that we both went away to sleepover camps! He spent a week in Yosemite with his Boy Scouts troop and I went in to the mountains for a week with 4-H. Which is kind of funny, because I am totally not prepared to send these kids away for a week. I'm sure they'd be fine. It would wreck me, though!
ReplyDelete@Michelle ~ I know! I love it too! Do they have anything like this where you are? Or is it an "American thing"?
I, like my sister Betty, am not a camp person. When we have a family campout, usually once a summer, we're there first thing in the morning and stay until after the campfire in the evening. At night we're in a hotel room with a shower and beds. The best of both worlds!
ReplyDelete@Pat ~ ha! I like your style! It's funny, because I read your blog, and your whole family definitely has the "camp" tip...you should be on the look-out for a 'summer camp' that occurs in a hotel. Club Med comes to mind, actually!
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