Camp

Little Guy and I are speed-reading through Ron Roy's A-Z Mysteries.  We have read through N, and reached the end of the e-books available for download from our library.  (A nearby library for which we have a reciprocal card is opening up for curbside service soon, and I have reserved O-Z!) In the meantime we are reading some of the super mysteries (those and the calendar mysteries and the capital mysteries are available to download as e-books from our libary). 

The book "Detective Camp" introduced LG to summer camp - the campground, schedule, orientation, chores, teams, activities, campfire, fun, cabins, bunkbeds, counselors, etc.  As I read page after page of life at summer camp, so many memories came flooding back!

Summer Bible camp, of course, where I spent weeks and months of my growing up years. Nature class, archery, snack shop, cabin cleanup competition, the songs around the tables in the dining room, songs at vespers, nightly Bible quiz, the rolls (aaah!), campfire, ETC!!  And then memories of being on junior staff ... sweeping floors, mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms & bath houses, trying to beat our record for washing dishes. Oh, the FUN!!!

But also:

• Sunday school camp in Japan - I only attended one summer at a seaside town. My main memory is of S'mores on the beach made with saltine crackers, and a comment that it must be so nostalgic for me as an American to get to have S'mores (a bit salty for my taste...).

• my cousins' church camp in Japan - I only attended once for a 2-3 day camp.  Ironically enough, I think it was the same year as the above camp, and at both I was "camp nurse." Thankfully no nursing was needed. Whew!

• my uncle's camp in Georgia - I worked there one summer in college, mostly as kitchen staff (baking bread for 100 diners daily), and one week as a counselor during teen week.  I remember the HOT summer, eating lunch with the kitchen staff (after everyone else) out on the porch, Saturday morning granola bar and banana breakfast on the campfire deck, and how well I slept. :)

• Horn Creek - I counseled there one week one summer in college. It was my first introduction to Colorado and to the Rockies. 

• presbytery family camp in Japan - great memories of attending several summers (once at "mushroom" hotel, once at a hotel near some famous iris gardens, once at the seminary, once closer to Mt. Fuji).  As with all the camps in Japan, this was only 2-3 days.

• InterVarsity chapter camp - I think I only went two years. The setting was my favorite North Carolina mountains with cool mornings and mist hanging below the trees.  Chapter prayer meeting, hands-on Bible study, and mingling with students from other colleges were all great, but singing praises with 100s of college students was powerful.  

I can't wait til LG can begin making his own memories of summer camp!

What memories do you have of camp?