Summer Camp Nightmare

The guests on “Live at 9” after us were from the YMCA. They were on to talk about the YMCA Summer Camp Programs they have — which sound great, by the way!!! Anyway, the discussion included Wayne and Peggy reminiscing about their childhood experiences with summer camp and how much they enjoyed it. Listening to them all talk about this topic brought to mind MY summer camp experience — which wasn’t as wonderful as theirs all were!!!

I was sooooooooo looking forward to going to camp – it was 2 weeks at Silver Lake in NY – an absolutely beautiful area! The first couple of days were fun, but it was the first time I had ever been away from home for so long and it was starting to wear on me! I forget how old I was – 9 or 10, maybe???? Anyway, on about the 3rd day or so, I fell and hit my elbow on a big rock. My arm bruised up and it was really painful to bend and straighten my arm! I wanted to call my Mom — they wouldn’t let me!!! It was a rule – no contact outside the camp until the weekend that connected the two weeks when parents were invited to come see what we had learned! Well, I couldn’t understand why being hurt wasn’t an exception! Apparently, they didn’t think I was hurt bad enough to warrant telling my Mom!!! So – I cried myself to sleep and couldn’t participate in some of the activities for the next couple of days because my arm was badly bruised!

My Mom came for the weekend visit and I begged her to let me come home — although she was not at all happy that they didn’t call to tell her what happened, she felt it would be best for me to stay and continue with the camp experience! So, she left after encouraging me to try and have a good time and I started out the second week!

The second week was actually much better — my Mom and the camp counselors were right — my arm wasn’t as sore — I learned to shoot a bow and arrow (and did pretty good) — I won a prize for my marksmanship with a BB gun (I had used one many times before camp) — I swam in the beautiful Silver Lake — I made several things in the arts & crafts sessions — and I met some really nice girls! So – it wasn’t ALL bad — but I will never look back on the experience with fond memories……..and I never attempted to go to summer camp again – that was my one and ONLY experience of that kind!!!! If that makes me a cry baby, so be it!!! ha-ha-ha

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.