No memorable presents, either given or received -- but memorable birthdays for sure, especially my 10th and 11th, when I was spending the summers at camp in North Carolina. Camp was a month or two of outdoor simplicity, a respite from the world outside. Birthdays were no more elaborate than anything else -- the high point was the watermelon that your parents could provide for a cabin party in the evening. Since our cabins had no amenities, the watermelons were kept cool in the mountain streams that ran through camp.
It would be hard for most electronically-hardened kids today to imagine that the highlight of a tenth birthday would be traipsing over a little bridge several times during the day as you trotted back and forth to your activities, and looking down to see your birthday watermelon lodged among some rocks so that the icy water could tumble over it.
That camp still exists -- a haven from computer camps, gifted-children camps, specialty sports camps, competitive music camps, and all the other lures of summer in our fast-paced world. My 16-year-old daughter will be working there this summer, and the smile that broke across her face when she received her job offer told the whole story. There is still a need for places where young people can hike and paint and play in waterfalls and make coiled clay pots and sing around nightly campfires. And share birthday watermelons with friends from around the world.
Walked: 4 miles.
Walked this past week: 15 miles
3 comments:
What great memories. My youngest goes to Girl Scout camp in the summer but usually only for a week. There are about 8 to choose from around here. My 12 y/o stopped going when she was in the 6th grade and I really wish she would have kept it up. I saw watermelon at the store a couple of days ago, I may have to go buy one now.
The camp you describe sounds like a wonderful respite for today's overscheduled kids. How nice your daughter will get to work there this summer.
What a wonderful memory! Just picturing you walking over the bridge, and the watermelon reminds me of teh all simple good times I had a kid. Thanks!
Lisa
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