It's summer camp, summer camp, sum sum summer camp

click on "contact us" dobritte, like she said....she's the big kahuna here.

At the risk of appearing whiney about my childhood again (honestly, I'm a very happy person now), Gargamels post was exactly the type of stuff that terrified me about the prospect of summer camp.

I never was, am not now, and never will be the type of person who enjoys getting together with a bunch of people to "do stuff", i.e. organzied sports, arts & crafts, putting on a skit.

Anyway, the way summer camp was presented to me, all I saw in my minds eye was a WWII prison camp.

I was deathly afraid of the water as a child (it once took me 45 minutes to slowly get in a pool at a relatives house. Shallow end, didn't even come up to my 8 year old shoulders. I literally climbed down the ladder millimeter by millimeter.

My fathers proposed solutions to this was to:
(a) Threaten me with throwing me in the river (we lived at a marina) because that's how Teddy Roosevelt taught his kids to swim.
(b) Threaten me with taking me on a boat to "Treasure Island", which was a little spit of land about a mile up river from us, with a pretty strong current around it and leave me there so I could learn to swim by trying to get back to the shore.
(c) Threaten to send me to summer camp.

Well, the other 2 sounded so cheery, I can't imagine why I didn't jump at the chance for the third.

Whenever this kind of talk would start, I would hide from everyone for a couple of days, only showing myself for meals, or after it got dark.

As an adult, I know what would have happened if they had sent me to camp. I would NOT have learned to swim, I couldn't stand having anyone touch me in the water, and would get hysterical. I would have been that "weird kid" because besides the swimming, I didn't know how to, and more importantly, didn't want to get involved in some basket weaving, wallet making thing, or play sports I had absolutely no chance of even being "not the most terrible person playing". I'm not kidding when I say reading Garg's old post made my hands go cold, and gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Honestly? I've never Not been picked last when kids where choosing teams. I was was the one left standing there. The one side that was going to get stuck with me wouldn't even call my name, because it was obvious I was going to have to play on their side. This isn't sour grapes, because being there was honestly the last thing in the world I wanted to be doing, and would be counting the seconds until the bell rang and recess ended.

I really never understood the politics of being a child. It seems there's always that one kid you have to get in good with, or a least tolerated by, in order to at least be quasi accepted. That kid always seemed to be the one I wouldn't want to spend 5 minutes with, and had no common ground to share.

BTW, I know how to swim now, but don't care too much for it. I'm more of a side of the pool kicker.

hey, it's me again.


I realized I needed to add a post script....

Today I realize I'm the type of person that loves movement and thinking for the sheer joy of movement and thought....long walks, rowing, puzzles....

I haven't a competive drive of any kind, don't care if I win the prize for throwing a ball the farthest or scoring more points than someone else.

That said, I'd like to send out a big **** You to all the people from my far past that made the ability to do some dumb as thing like hitting a ball seem to be this huge deal, when in reality, it doesn't mean ****.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Well, I'm rapidly disappearing ...

We didn't do much in the way of organized sports at Cony Grant. Just some volleyball. Athletic stuff was more like hiking. We swam but it wasn't like in rigid lanes or the like.

PS Welcome Dobritte.

Thanks jespah! Who said I was the kahuna??? Seriously!

Of all places The Farm was not at all like the way chai2 describes or thought about camp. Yes, I did go to traditional camps before The Farm, but the Farm was a freakni' amazing experience. And if you weren't there - it is hard to explain and even harder to get your head around.

I am and was then one of the most non athletic people there are! Yeah, I would go on hikes and canoe trips, which I enjoyed, and I had to participate in the no-talent night on Saturdays - but if you didn't participate you would not eat!!

I think the most magical part of the farm was that every one was treated like an equal and any social aggression or judgement was checked at the bottom of Mahoney Hill Road! Please - I was and still am a pretty bohemian person and my boyfriend at the farm was a quarterback for his football team! That would never have happened in my other life at home! It was just that kind of place.

The farm was so important to me that I married on of the campers!

So if you are a Cony Granter - show yourself!

Me, I'm the kahuna. Well, I'm one of the kahunas (kahunae?).

Definitely a different experience. Not an indoctrination, not paramilitary, not soccer dads on steroids.

Missed it SO bad every year I had to go home.

Oh I can remember crying and crying and crying. I also can remember how the stairs in my house seemed so shallow!

I went to Cony Grant! I was there in '77 and '78. It was such an important part of my growing up. I loved that place and I wish it still existed. The year after it closed I tried to find something else similiar and went to a wilderness camp in Vermont. It was nothing like Cony Grant. Now that I have kids I wish there was some place like it I could send them to. But then, it would never be the same.......

And speaking of songs......I remember one No Talent night somebody wrote a song which a group of us sang. One of the verses I remember.....
Well,it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the rain always falls and there's nothing to do
Where you read comic books while the cook crew you dodge...
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the Lodge.

Ahh,...I'm back on that porch right now remembering.......

Hot damn! Do you remember the Chauvinettes? Counselors and camp owner with hair parted ALL the way over to the side, doing 50s girl group songs. I think they sang "Leader of the Pack" and similar type stuff.

I recall a parody of "My Boyfriend's Back", can't recall all the words.

Somewhere, in some box, I have a picture of the counselors singing with big preggo bellies. Is that what you're talking about?

Okay, now I'm getting really curious. I want to know who everyone is. I think there have been four of us CGFPers posting here. And Dobritte, who did you marry?? This is so cool. If anyone wants to e-mail me I am at [email protected]

Now I'm on a roll...
Some memories... the grotto, the windmill, Big Red, dancing to Rock Lobster (I might be the only one who remembers that )

Email duly sent.

i remember this kid jason,leader of my middle school, That kid. he got a group of kids about 15 deep one day and jumped me and stole my bike.

he jumped me and my cousin again one day and we got pissed. really pissed.

the next day i beat him with my backpack in the park right next to the school, it had hardcover books in it. my cousin held him down. ive only ever lost it on someone like that once before, and i almost killed him as well. might i add he never said a word or evern looked at us two again. i remember he broke my eggshell with the bean growing in it.. just walked by and slapped it out of my hand. when he did that , the result was inevitable. mine was the tallest in the class!

i went from being bullied to the psycho kid in 1 week. i hated school politics over everything else.

anyways this is about summer camp, i once went to camp pelosi? or something with my other cousin in boy scouts, the only way out of the city...

there was this kid who gave ut dessert, everyone was on his nuts. i was like hey man u forgot my ice cream , he was like i dont like you. you dont get any.

i still see him at insane clown posse concerts.me and my cousin laugh at him behind his back but my cousin talks to him still.

had to beat the **** out of him too.not as brutally though, didnt want to get in trouble. he pulled down my shorts in the pool, in front of all these hot mormon girls, i didnt mind but if i didnt everyone would have been like what a pussy or something.

i hate groups of kids to the highest extent possible.

might i add i dont go to icp concerts because i like them, my friends and family go to them and i tag along, dont get it wrong!

well gosh, ogi thanks for sharing that.

i know right,something im not proud of but **** him! when i read that cool kid part i was like ****, the stupid **** in middle school..

on ahappier note if my FUCKIGN INTERNET EXPLORED DOESNT FUCCKING CRASH AGAIN.

there was this triathlon, swim across the olympic sized swimming pool, bike up a gravel covered hill, and run down it.

i won the swimming part by a mile, everyone beat me ont he bike part but i rode up the entire thing, they carried their bikes , when i was going down i was like no way ima fuckin WINNER!, went balls out, i felt like the wind incarnate, i wasnt running., i was LEAPING, leap, slide , leap slide,leap slide,everyone else was pitter pattering, with really quick short steps so they didnt slide and fall, i just floated past them, like doop dee doo, leap slide leap, slide. i remember hitting the bottom, crossing the finish line and sliding to a stop.

amazing feeling, like DAM, im the ****.