Summer Camp

[octothorpe]

I've always had an obsession with american pop culture. One of the things that I've seen in countless films/videos/books/etc is the concept of "summer camp". Not the kind where your parents drop you off in the morning, and pick you up in the evening, but rather the kind where they drive for hours to some remote wooded area, and leave you there for weeks at a time. Activities like canoeing, Colour Wars, late night cabin raiding, songs by the fire, making random crap from plastic twine, and trying to avoid the countless mosquitoes fascinate me.

Did any of you go to such a thing? What was your experience?

What if we all decided to do this now that we're older? Sure, there are "adult" summer camps, some having a sex theme, some having an "elder hostel" thing. I'm not talking about recreating that, but rather the same thing depicted above, but with adults. Would we revert to our 12-year-old selves?

Hmm.

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

The closest I've come to an adult summer camp is the Badger Flat motorcycle run... and that's not really the same thing. Just lots of hanging out and whatnot... ;)

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Although I suppose, if you wanted, you could have "colour wars" ;-)

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Not very easily ... the host club (Satyrs M/C) and the Rainbow M/C have a fair number of members in common*. No other club turns out with enough members to pose a remote challenge to either group. ;)

---

* Although such men are sometimes referred to as either "Sanebows" or "Raityrs" depending on the order of membership, it's generally agreed that the first term is an oxymoron. In case you're wondering how this is possible - while the Satyrs M/C bylaws do prohibit members from simultaneous membership in another similar club ... the RMC doesn't qualify as a prohibited organization under their rules.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Ah, I wondered about that.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

See also Flies, Lord of the

You left out "massive overeating of Funyuns and other junkfood bought en route to camp", "life-risking on the camp's elderly and decrepit retired school bus", and your fleeting songs-by-the-fire item elided all the real campfire activities: Massive, deliberate overuse of barbecue lighter fluid and matches to get it going, aerosol bug spray blowtorches, marshmallow-on-stick Olympic torches brandished while marching around and humming the Olympic theme song, caveburgers, tossing in random crap made of plastic twine...

[otterpop58.livejournal.com]

Check out Camp Camp (http://www.campcamp.com/) (I believe that deege has gone for several years).

As a kid, I attended Echo Hill Ranch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_Hill_Ranch) - "a ranch camp for boys and girls, deep in the heart of the Texas hill country. It was then owned and run by the parents of Kinky Friedman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinky_Friedman), who was my counselor the year he got back from the Peace Corps in Borneo. Kinky and his siblings now own the camp.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, that sounds like fun!

[bluedevilsf.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it? I wanted to go this year! Maybe next year!

[urbear]

Yep, did that as a kid, about seven times over. Awkward, introverted and poorly socialized as I was, I hated it intensely the first couple of years, a little less so with each successive year. I never really learned to enjoy the experience; at best, I arrived at a certain level of tolerance.

I might consider doing it again as an adult, I suppose, given my later acquisition of reasonably good social skills.

Then again, I would probably still hate it. I am and always have been a city boy; I want concrete under my feet and chlorine in my water. I still occasionally have nightmares about an incident involving a slug that I found on my neck after a camp hike through the woods.

[danielefton.livejournal.com]

if given the opportunity to do something like this, I think that yes, most of us would revert to children. The men would likely be more enthusiastic about it since we tend to stay children no matter what age we happen to be.

I would love to do it. games of 4-square, relay races, campfires, outdoor movies. YES!

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Well, at 4-H camp I played Tevye's daughter in the drama club's prodcution of Fiddler on the Roof. I also did the dairy cow thing, milking cows, making butter, making cheese. And swimming every afternoon!

At Boy Scout camp I found myself tied to a trip, pissed on, and whipped with tree branches. And swimming every afternoon!

At Girl Scout camp, yes, my mother was a camp director and so we got to stay in the director's house, water sports were more conventional, rowing and canoeing. And it's with the Girl Scouts that I went on overnight camping trips canoeing on the Delaware River.

Oh, and too much singing of "Kumbayah"

[cellboy.livejournal.com]

I never did. I moved from Quebec at 7, so missed it there. Then refused to join the Boy Scouts (I was very very shy and introverted). But my parents pushed me to do other things close by, like after school sports, water polo (which I hated too). The only camping I did was a 2 day hike to Point Reyes, yrs ago, with gay friends. No sex either (girl friends) Was fun. No running water, no showers for 4 days. But that was it (I still would rather take a long hike to a secluded cabin by a lake instead).

But doing summer camp as you describe, would be fun. (I still would like to go to Burning Man too). And are men not children anyway? We would have a fun time :)

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I went to and worked at two summer camps when I was a kid and through college. Spending eight weeks with a bunch of other kids with some good counsellors and lots of activities was fantastic. I thought of it as a bit of being in utopia. I was the canoeing counsellor at both camps I worked at and also led 3-night overnighters on lakes and rivers in Vermont and Maine.

Riflery, bow and arrow, horseback riding, shop, jalopy (a model a ford), arts and crafts, theatre, lots of music - I learned to play the banjo one summer, hiking, canoeing, swimming, biking, goofing off, cookouts, overnighters, ....

Interestingly enough on labor day weekend when a bunch of us are going to be camping out in a Vermont camp ground (these trips mostly involve lots of cooking eating cleaning up while chatting), I'm going to take a day off to visit one of the camps that I went to / worked at because they are having a reunion and it is pretty near.

Twice a year (now 3 times a year) we have weekend dance camps - lots of contra dancing, but also lots of hanging around and chatting with friends, the variety show where I usually do something childishly clever. It definitely brings out some of the inner child and it is fun to be away in a somewhat isolated place with a bunch of old and new friends.

[brunorepublic.livejournal.com]

Went twice. Didn't like it at all. The thinking seems to be that summer camp is the best thing a parent can do for an introverted city kid.

It's not.

I spent most of the time avoiding the activities. I did, however, learn some of the filthiest jokes I've ever heard at that place.

[hwynym.livejournal.com]

Nope - never did it. We were lower middle class and there were (eventually) seven of us. I worked most summers...paper routes or the car wash or something like it.

However, my boss Liz, went to Camp Wohelo (first two letters of WOrk, HEalth and LOve) in Maine, which is where the Campfire Girls were started. She has lots of great stories from her time there and later as a counselor.

You might want to pick up this:



I met Abigail Van Slyck at a book reading in New London. I was reading from my contribution to Bi Men and she read from this book.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

That camp sounds oddly familiar. I think my ex girlfriend went to it for a bajillion years. Even while she was going to Smith (although obviously as a counselor). Hmmm....

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was wrong!

I did a little digging, and found out it was this camp: http://www.wyonegonic.com/

that she went to. Oldest girls-only camp in the US.

Yes, she's a lesbian, why do you ask? ;)

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

My senior prom date later turned out to be family ... we had a good laugh about that at my last HS reunion.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I went to summer camps from the ages of 8 through 17 (the last three years were at somewhat specialized music-oriented camps). Mostly I enjoyed it, although there were some tough times at the camp I went to when I was 13 and 14, where I didn't fit in terribly well. I learned some useful skills, a very few of which I haven't completely forgotten.

Oh, and jwg was my brother's camp counselor one summer.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how small a world it is.

Did you two know each other then?

[rsc.livejournal.com]

No, we met 15 years later, at a job interview.

Also, all three of us went to the same high school.

[macduff131.livejournal.com]

i never really went to a full-fledged summer camp. but i did go to soccer camp.

[weekilter.livejournal.com]

I went first to boy scout camp. At first I didn't care for it and had home sickness. The second year I went though my attitude changed entirely and was glad for the respite from mom. It was from that point on that I decided I wanted out from under the 'rents. My wishes were actually carried out on their own devices several years later when my parents, my sister and my older brother emigrated to Israel (leaving inauspiciously on the day of the Munich massacre in 1972.)

Summer camp - then v now

[capy.livejournal.com]

My first summer camp experience was really mixed. It was my first time away from home for any extended period, so I was really, really homesick and I didn't know a soul there. The surroundings were stunning - the rolling hills of Virginia - and I was actually okay at some of the activities. I resented (and still do) the mandatory team sports thing - I completely suck at things like football, softball and volleyball - but for the most part, it really was a fun time. If there was anything not quite right, it was the time away - it felt like forever, 'tho I'm sure it was only something like eight weeks.

I did see pubic hair for the first time and the prospect of group bathing really did turn a screw in my perverted little brain (I was eight), so there at least was that.

After I got involved in Boy Scouts, summer camp became a whole lot more interesting and fun ('tho there was still the inevitable team sports thing - basketball or softball, mainly). Most of those skills have carried over to "adulthood" (whatever that is) - rope-tying, especially. Oh, and I got to see some of my counselors nekkid, which really sent my eleven-year-old hormones into a tizzy.

Proper American Colloquialisms

[jeffbearnyc.livejournal.com]

>>the kind where your parents drop you off in the morning, and pick you up in the evening

"day camp"


>>the kind where they drive for hours to some remote wooded area, and leave you there for weeks at a time

"sleepaway camp"

but we did this as Boy Scouts in Europe darling?

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

You never joined the Boy Scouts? I did. And then some. Loads of fun. THe wilderness. Crushes. Grudges. Raids... the works! I won a batch for drama (HA!) as in theatre. Learned making knots some of which I forgot but it would not take much to refresh my memory. Learned how to cook... My brother even went to a Jamboree in Japan! The only thing is I still have a lousy sense of direction! :-(

So, what gives?

every summer for about 6 years yes

[rockey1.livejournal.com]

Bible camp which was fun actually. and 4-H camp which was also fun. some great memories.

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

Chris - I did Scout camp for 6-7 summers; a week, which was just enough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hills

The only other options then where church-based, which I didn't want to do (Catholic Camp - eek), and thanks to my dad I didn't have to. :)

Re the adult camp thing Mark/hotelbearSF posted this recently -

http://hotelbearsf.livejournal.com/183345.html