I was the nerd, the pale, buck-toothed, self-conscious, freckle-faced redhead, who befriended another little red-headed camper named Lillian, whose Mom was a cook and a single Mom at a time when single Moms were uncommon. (Ann Meisel 1962-66
I was the little girl, who had a wake-up moment at camp, when the third-grade girls thought I bragged too much about my archery. While pretending to be asleep, they talked about me and my friend Heidi Dean stuck up for me, insisting I was a nice person, which cause me to love her and become humble at that moment. (Debbie Tweedie (1965-72).
I was the middle child between two brothers who felt like staying in the cabins was a wonderful experience because it was like a slumber party all the time. (Pat Purcell, fifties).
I was the camper who came back a second year, but was more homesick than the first and was saved by my counselor Mary Jane Keschman and two weeks with horses. (Judy Crissey 1954+).
We were those girls who came to camp and found friendships that allowed us to be ourselves.
“My Dad owned a Ben Franklin store, and he though if he sent me to camp with pens with the store name on it and some nasty gum drops to give to the girls, they would like me,” quipped funny Cara Prieskorn (1966-71). “GUM DROPS AND PENS??? My Dad was a worry wart and was always concerned about me being popular.”
“One year it was so cold at camp that we got extra blankets to hang from the top of our bunk bed in the cabin. Some girl asked me when we were all going to the lodge, and about another girl and if she had left and I answered ‘who cares” and the girl was underneath the blanket tent. I was set up, but it taught me a lesson about talking about other people.”
Sue Robson (1970-71) answered whether any camp experience affected her life, and although it was a negative, it was also a positive.“We were having Christmas in July (or August, can’t remember) and we drew names to be a secret Santa. I think we had several days to make gifts or come up with something and then we all met down near the lake and Beanie or somebody would call and names and we would get our gifts. One girl got two gifts! And by the end, I didn’t get any gift. There had been a mistake made and I didn’t get any. I was mortified but some friends spoke up for me and the girl who got two gifts gave me one, but also others started giving me pieces of theirs—a sheet or two of stationary, candy and so on. To this day, you have no idea how often I get overlooked or forgotten and that day comes back to me. I know nobody does it on purpose but I feel the same hurt that I know nobody understands. (And now I’m crying.)”
Diane Dudley (1957-63) felt like camp was one big family, with the older kids looking after the younger kids. “I can remember the camaraderie. There was a lot of protectiveness. One girl, who had been in trouble with the law and had been at some halfway house, came up on a scholarship. Her life was turned around up there. I think everyone was nice to her and it may have been the first time she ever felt that. There was even a “retarded’ girl at camp one summer.”
“My Dad was an alcoholic and my Mom was a psychiatric nurse and I had two siblings that were six and eight years older. I did things differently– like listening to music. I was an oddball, but at camp all the oddballs fit in. They didn’t know my history or know that I had an anti-social bent. I could sit happily by myself for hours. There were different expectations than school. I never could understand how someone could hate camp. I felt at home and my parents were pleased that I liked it and I was the only one in my family that went to summer camp, maybe because of the money.”
“I didn’t especially like getting up early, but somehow I didn’t mind at camp. I liked the routine of knowing what I was going to be doing each day. Given my own facilities, I would not have naturally structured my life like that, but I loved how the younger girls followed me around. It gave me confidence. I fit in. I liked it. In a lot of ways, it made me feel like a better person. I got along with people and it was a whole different society at camp. We had a lot more in common than we had differences and when I came back each summer, I loved that they knew me. I like making a name for myself and making new friends. There wasn’t that cliqueness of school. Camp was different, and I could leave behind some of those expectations. I didn’t like leaving my dog and my letters home reflected that, “said Diane, “but I loved it when my parents came up to visit.”
What kind of little girl were you at camp?