Summer Camp friday Five

Mother Laura at RevGalBlogPals writes: We're settling into our new new apartment, and after a lifetime at Montessori Katie is having a fantastic summer at YMCA day camp. Meanwhile, Nicholas is packing up for a week at Camp Julian, shared by the Episcopal dioceses of Los Angeles and San Diego. His lists of supplies and rules--except for the ropes course available to the teenagers and the ban on IPODs and cell phones--bring back memories of my own happy times weeks at Y camp Ta Ta Pochon, funded by selling countless cases of butter toffee peanuts. So, in celebration of summer, please share your own memories and preferences about camp.

1. Did you go to sleep away camp, or day camp, as a child? Wish you could? Or sometimes wish you hadn't?
Starting at age 9, I went away to camp in the Blue Ridge Mtns, just down the road from Presby Mecca, at a place called Merri-Mac. It was for a whole month, and I didn't even write to my mom once the entire time I was there. One summer I did Girl Scout camp (Kateri) instead, but I liked Merri-Mac better. At that point Merri-Mac was all girl with the boys at a brother camp across town. According to the website, it's now a boys' and a girls' camp on the same site.

2. How about camping out? Dream vacation, nightmare, or somewhere in between?
nice for a few days, as long as either a) it doesn't rain or b) the tent is actually still waterproof.

3. Have you ever worked as a camp counselor, or been to a camp for your denomination for either work or pleasure?
I went to a Presby camp when I was 6 -- as a Jr counselor. OK. Mom was a counselor and I was a tag-along. I did do canoe camp as a camper and a counselor. It was based out of the local church.

4. Most dramatic memory of camp, or camping out?
Creation Fest 1989. I went as a counselor with a youth group. I'm not sure whether Ground level or the water table won the race. I gave up on shoes, because the knee-deep mud kept sucking them off. We put 9 bales of straw on our campsite and the water oozed up through, but at least it kept you out of the mud. Many of the girls slept on the bus, tent pegs wouldn't stick in the ground. When we got back to the church the sexton looked at the bus and then just hosed it out. (this was before they added the back area, the front loop was the only camping area). I believe it was Steven Curtis Chapman that made the crack about creation -- or primordial ooze?
Most dramatic, however, was, during yet another afternoon downpour, watching a small dome tent go floating down the road.

5. What is your favorite camp song or songs? Bonus points if you link to a recording or video.
In chapel at MerriMac I learned a version of Psalm 121 that I still sing. We did a lot of singing. as a matter of fact, I think I still have a song book from the camp (that I purchased, thank you very much).