Did you go to summer camp?

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:12 am

I didn't. We got to go to Grandpap's. By road it was 5 miles. We walked there through farms, cemeteries, creeks and woods.

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:46 am

Yes, I was lucky. I went to Boy Scout camp and church camp. We cooked our own food at the Boy Scout camp and slept in tents. There was a small lake, and we had canoes. It was a lot of fun. Church camp was just the opposite in that there were girls there. We slept in dormitories and ate meals in a proper dining hall. We studied something about religion, but I don't remember much of that.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 12:36 pm

I did, and I was grateful that my dear parents were willing to shell out so that they could be shed of me and I of them for a time. It was a good yearly pressure-valving for all. The knives in the kitchen start drawing one's attention, you see.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:03 pm

I am at a loss how to reply. There is no institution nor tradition of "Summer Camp" in Ireland or the UK. I did belong to the Boy Scouts and from time to time went camping with them. It was never for more than two weeks. Does this count?

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:06 pm

Absolutely.

dwest · Post by **dwest** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:20 pm

Starting in '56 we had "family camp" that lasted 5-6 weeks each summer located anywhere between Alaska and the Keys or the Canadian Shield to the Mexican Gulf Coast. Also a few trips to Ireland and the big island next door. I did Boy Scout Camp to teach "archery" as they called it for a week a few summers, I found it a bit boring, spent most of my free time birding.

maki · Post by **maki** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:03 pm

No camp, but we were turned loose on the world.
(They are still cleaning up the wreckage.)

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:22 pm

For a two week session. Camp Waredaca. Looks like it's more of a horse-riding facility these days, not a camp. I will clue you in to the era--one of my cabin-mates had a new t-shirt that said "Watergate, don't bug me." I think there was a picture of an insect also.

I sent my kids to camp a few times. They enjoyed it. Daughter #2 went on to be a counselor at Camp Cheerio in North Carolina for 2 college summers. The story is that Camp Cheerio got its name due to a British founder, not due to breakfast options.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 8:26 pm

I went to church camp two consecutive years. It was a week long, each time. My parents were the choir directors. It was fun. There was a creek and a swimmin' hole... course I never went in the swimmin' hole... but had a good time along the creek banks.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:01 am

I went one summer to a poorly run camp at age 10. Summers 12 and 13 were spent at a wonderful camp in Vermont. At 15 I went on a camp on wheels, touring the US by bus with a YMCA tour. This was one of the great, most memorable experiences of my life.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:57 am

Walden wrote:course I never went in the swimmin' hole... but had a good time along the creek banks.

Why "of course"?

My 4 brothers and I grew up in the country and we pretty much just had our own summer camp. We'd built tents and sleep out, play ball, work the garden (the worst!), and we even built a minature golf course in our backyard from a bunch a junk a few times. There were no bodies of water nearby but our family regular went to Pennyslvania State Parks or us boys to Cheat Lake to go swimming. And then my family did a lot of camping vacations.

Post by **benhall.1** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:52 pm

Similar thoughts to IB. There just isn't such a thing here in the UK. I went on residential courses, for, at most, 10 days, for various Youth Orchestras. That was it. They were great, though.

ancientfifer · Post by **ancientfifer** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:43 pm

Camp Chanco on the banks of the James River in Surry, VA at age 8, spent 5 or 6 weeks. Learned to canoe, shoot an arrow, identify poison ivy (and treat it) and how to make sassafras tea. Lots of camping and backpacking excursions with friends through high school. Later, self designed camp of going to Colorado via Greyhound bus and backpacking the Rockies all summer as a junior in college. The next year, did a "camp-like" excursion to Alaska with NOLS (Nat'l Outdoor Leadership School) and did a semester in the wilderness, and loved it so much I stayed up there another 3 months, totaling 6 months living in a tent. All awesome experiences.

MikeS · Post by **MikeS** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:58 pm

I spent three summers at Midwest Camp Habonim in Michigan. While I got plenty of Socialism and Zionism at home in Detroit, at camp I got these with the addition of digging latrines, baling hay, and learning to fix tractors.

We did get to swim, the food was good, and negotiating the politics of a self-governing camp was great training for the wider world. The camp is now Habonim Dror Camp Tavor and has a swimming pool, indoor plumbing, and yoga classes. I can not only put on my old f*rt hat and complain about how soft the kids have it today, I can point out buildings there that we campers actually built back in the '50's.

By the way, Benhall and I.B, the Habonim movement started in the U.K., in London's East End. They took a lot of organizational cues from the Boy Scouts. I believe they had training farms so their kids wouldn't be totally clueless if they someday ended up on a kibbutz. If you were a kid from Stepney or Whitechapel in the 1930's, I'll bet summer working on a farm looked like St. Tropez.

Gobae · Post by **Gobae** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:28 am

I'm glad I never went to camp. It would have ruined all the fun I had biking, camping, hiking, foraging, hunting, fishing, rock climbing, horseback riding, canoeing, and learning all sort of other skills in the woods around our house. I can't imagine learning all that sort of stuff with overbearing counselors and tons of "city/burb-kids".

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