Day 165: Summer Camp

I never got to go to summer camp. I never really even thought about it much as a young kid. Growing up, summer camp seemed like something rich kids on the East Coast did because their parents didn’t want to have to deal with them all summer.

On one hand, I kind of envied those kids for the chance to get away to the woods, hang around other kids their own age at some lake where they could canoe or swim or fish all day. How flippin’ sweet it must have been to sit by a campfire every night before going retiring for the night in some cabin with a bunch of other guys and laughing deep into the night at fart jokes or creeping out to pull pranks. Hell, maybe you would even meet a cute girl if you were lucky at the end-of-the-camp dance and live the summer to end all summers.

On the other hand, the thought of heading off alone to some strange place with a bunch of strange people all under suspect supervision didn’t sound so enticing. I’d miss out on baseball season. I’d miss out on the swimming pool social scene. Would they have fireworks at camp? You probably couldn’t sleep until noon or beyond. There’s probably no air conditioning or TV. Do they have popsicles?

Later on in life, seemingly every summer camp I witnessed through the power of TV or movies was either filled with lunatic serial killers, oversexed teenagers, or a band of misfit losers trying to find their place in the world by conquering the suckheads who had the world handed to them on a silver platter. Always there was beer and girls in short shorts involved. Always there were cutoff shirts, bad headbands on the boys, and some nerd who mucking up everyone’s good time. Still, if Jodie Foster could have a good time at camp, why couldn’t I, I’d reason.

As an adult, I’ve been able to look at summer camp through the eyes of a parent. All of my kids have headed off to some summer camp or another, including my four-year-old who has ventured off each day this week for a few hours at the YCMA camp. My older kids did the church camp and week-long overnight camp scene. I truly believe those camps were as tough on me and their mom as it might have been on them being away from home. I’m not sure to what extent they enjoyed their stays, if they did at all, but I know while they were away I seemed to do nothing but wonder what they were doing and if they were happy and OK the entire time.

But each time they went, I also envied them a little bit. The only camps I went to were basketball camps, which obviously centered around basketball day and night. Seeing some of the camps my kids went to made me want to jump in a canoe and paddle around the lake. Climb up to the top bunk. It made me wonder what if I had made friends with kids I stayed in contact the rest of my life. What if I had met a cute girl? What if I had got to play pranks and learn skills and met different people from different places with different ideas and ways of doing things.

I’m happy my daughter is camping this week, fishing and making crafts and going to a different park each day and making new friends. I even like it when she tells me each night, “The teachers are so bossy; they don’t even let us take our shoes off.” I like that she’s seeing the world from new and different views. I hope it helps her always look forward to summer and hold summer in a special regard.