Summer Camp Survivor

[NinjaPoodle]

Are you one? Any stories?

[sageofages]

My children are camp survivors as I pack them off every year ...

My oldest daughter would get a nasty reaction (burn like blisters) to mosquito bites when we still lived in Ohio, but when we moved in Indiana, the reactions stopped (different breed of mosquito). THEN when she was in 5th grade that all changed and we didn't know until she went to Girl Scout summer camp just outside of Bloomington, IN. We went to a special little play the day before camp ended and there was my poor baby in her swimming suit. She had 147 bites on her legs alone!!! She was bathed in Afterbite to stop the itching....AND she had been using an insect repellent .

Needless to say, she wouldn't go to camp the next year at all!

[Glitter650]

I am a summer camp COUNSELOR survivor. I was the assistant theatre director at a HUGE camp in New York for three years. This camp is rather exclusive and attracts children from families with money, so it's not like surviving the summer in the wilderness or anything, but there's still good stories. I tell you they could film bug juice at this camp.
Which story do you want ? There's the one about counselors hooking up with campers... (the oldest 16 year old campers with the youngest 18 year old Junior Counselors, still against the rules) The time I had to play a "mom" to two of my girls who turned into women while at camp. Let's see what else was there... OH YEAH they thought I had lyme disease one year. There's also the story about how one of the counselors literally had a nervous/mental breakdown and had to quietly be sent home. I had to tell a camper that her parents were coming up to get her because her grandmother had passed away. I also have plenty of stories about counselor nights off at the local dive bar in town about 20 minutes away from camp, OR the story about the final night at camp with no campers and ALL the counselors getting INCREDIBLY inebriated by about 7pm, and the hookups and drunk night swimming that ensued, it's your choice

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I went to a Catholic summer camp in the Catskills in upstate NY. The best part was becoming a better swimmer. I really didn't like it and never returned. I think that it is closed now, but I am not sure.

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally posted by Glitter650
I am a summer camp COUNSELOR survivor. I was the assistant theatre director at a HUGE camp in New York for three years. This camp is rather exclusive and attracts children from families with money, so it's not like surviving the summer in the wilderness or anything, but there's still good stories. I tell you they could film bug juice at this camp.
Which story do you want ? There's the one about counselors hooking up with campers... (the oldest 16 year old campers with the youngest 18 year old Junior Counselors, still against the rules) The time I had to play a "mom" to two of my girls who turned into women while at camp. Let's see what else was there... OH YEAH they thought I had lyme disease one year. There's also the story about how one of the counselors literally had a nervous/mental breakdown and had to quietly be sent home. I had to tell a camper that her parents were coming up to get her because her grandmother had passed away. I also have plenty of stories about counselor nights off at the local dive bar in town about 20 minutes away from camp, OR the story about the final night at camp with no campers and ALL the counselors getting INCREDIBLY inebriated by about 7pm, and the hookups and drunk night swimming that ensued, it's your choice

[Glitter650]

Originally posted by NinjaPoodle

Good times, good times...

[AGDLynn]

I survived GS camp which was at the same location as the Kristy McNichols/Tatum ONeal movie, Little Darlings...of course they didn't have the huge spiders we had!

I was also a camp counselor while in college...decades later, I find out that the director now owns a medical supply biz in town. Fortunately, I'm too healthy..knock on wood, that I don't need her products...now.

[honeychile]

I went to camp most of my school years. The first year, I absolutely hated it - I caught poison ivy the second day, and wasn't allowed to go swimming, ride, or do much more than sit on the porch. blech.

Then I changed camps, and LOVED IT!! We still refer to it around my house as "Camp Get Rid of the Kid", but it was wonderful!

Did anyone else go to Saranac? This was my usual dorm:


I just found out that they have Adult Weekends!!

[jess_pom]

I loved going to summer camp so much as a child I decided to become a counselor. There's a lot of crazy crap that goes on behind the scenes!

My favorite stories: we had kids that were sponsored by the local outreach organization, kids from underpriveliged homes, and this one set of siblings had severe headlice. So they quarantined the girl, who was in my cabin, for a couple of hours and treated the headlice and asked her not to tell the other campers, and not to share stuff like brushes, etc. Well, the first afternoon we're getting ready for swimming and she goes to share her brush or something and I say, "Hey, Susie, please don't share your brush with the other campers." And she replied, "Why not?" I was like, remember Miss Abby talked to you and you're not supposed to share. Then the other campers wondered why Miss Abby talked to her so she responded, I kid you not, "I got bugs, I ain't ashamed!"

Then there was the girl, a returning camper, who decided she wasn't getting enough attention so one night at campfire she started crying because her grandmother was sick. We get back to the cabin to get ready for bed and I'm talking to the counselor next door when all of a sudden there's a commotion in my cabin. Sarah found a letter in her suitcase from her "mom" telling her that her grandmother died on Saturday but they didn't tell her because they still wanted her to have a good time at camp. Well this triggered a domino effect and soon all the other girls were crying about any parent, grandparent, sibling, pet or fly that they knew that ever died. The best part is they were crying about a fake grandmother that died in a letter SARAH WROTE HERSELF!

Then there was the camper that told everyone her name was Lucifer and asked if anyone wanted to play Russian Roulette. She was in 6th grade.

I could go on.

[JupiterTC]

I'm band camp survivor...enough said

[TxAPhi]

Originally posted by JupiterTC
I'm band camp survivor...enough said

haha! me too! sam houston state summer band camps....