Every summer, many of my Gen X cohorts and I, were carted off to sleepaway camps across the country. We packed our trunks, made sure we had as many flip up collar polo style shirts as possible and headed off for 2-8wks of re-wording pop songs, crushing on counselors with British accents, and dressing up as Madonna and Michael Jackson . This summer I’m going to back to camp, with my kids.
Let me restate that so that you can process it… My kids are going to Camp Lenox in Massachusetts and I’m freakin’ following them — because something is so very wrong with me… and so I can write about the camp experience from a mom’s POV (while I slowly go insane).
Sooo, while thinking about how I’ll survive camp the 2nd time around (as an adult who likes morning lattes and pillow top beds with box springs… and roads), I started to reminisce about what it was like the first time around.
Here it is: Hey Gen Xer, you were probably a camper if…
1. If you can finish most of these songs: Shave and a haircut… Everywhere we go-oh people wanna know-oh… John Jacob Jingle… Hello Muddah hello…
2. If you understand the utter and complete joy of receiving a care package. I mean, equal to winning the lottery kinda joy. And hoped for booty like: Easy Cheese, Pop Rocks, Ring Pops, Dweebs (Nerd’s cousins), Whistle Pops, Wax Bottles, Dots… and the motherload – dry packets of Kool Aid, Jello or Fun Dip.
3. If you went to bed freaked out by some guy named Cropsy or whoever haunted cabin 13 or something that lives in the lake and steals little kids … which a grown up told you about around a campfire (with the sole purpose of scaring the crap out of you).
4. If you understand that having Canteen Credit is the equivalent of having cigarettes in prison.
5. If you know the other meaning of canteen and you had an actual one. Not some BPA free suction release Camelback, I mean a hard rounded metal container with a cap and a strap.
6. If shaving your legs was a group activity. I’m talkin’ on the steps or porch of your bunk with a bucket of cold water (it didn’t stay hot long) a can of shaving cream and 4 or 5 other girls you shared said bucket with *gags* (maybe this is also true for women’s prison – haven’t been there yet, so I can’t say).
7. If most of your summer jewelry was made of gimp or lanyard.
8. If you blew out fuses every Saturday night before socials drying your hair with your Conair Yellow Bird, your trusty diffuser for your perm or using your awesome Windmere crimping iron that only singed your hair a tiny bit, so it was worth it.
9. If you can’t recall the smell of the singed hair but would recognize the aroma of your go to hair spray (feather finisher, perm scruncher or bang freezer) ie. Aussie Sprunch Spray, Paul Mitchell Freeze & Shine or Sebastian Spritz Forte’ or good ol’ Aqua-Net.
10. If dizzy izzies, suck and blow, the Pepsi challenge, jacks tournaments, an obstacle course, and a rope burn, were a given every summer.
11. If you have a clear understanding of the 4 food groups: cereal, Popsicles, bug juice, and S’mores.
12. If you ever watched underwear run up a flagpole and prayed they weren’t yours.
13. If you know the tune and words to Reveille and Taps, yet you were never in the service.
14. If to this day the song, Leaving On a Jet Plane makes you cry.
15. If you were initiated into some cult like group around a fire with chanting and maybe Indian terms or fake names … and you were not at Waco.
16. If people asked what you wanted to be when you grew up and you didn’t say President, you said, “color war captain.”
17. If your mom had tons of those tiny woven pot holders that were too small (and frankly to holey) to ever actually hold a pot.
18. If you tried to never touch the bottom of the lake because you were pretty certain there were things down there that could eat you. The bonfire stories and your recent Jaws viewing did not help.
19. If you traveled with a hard-sided trunk that could fit a body. And you knew this because you had to see if you could fit in it before you let your mom pack your stuff.
20. If said stuff you packed included: flip up collar Izods/polo shirts, pleated shorts, striped rugbys, overalls, denim skirts/shorts that were acid washed, stone washed, or shredded and jeans that had to be pegged and tapered to sit atop your scrunchie EG socks and awesome velcro high-tops.
21. If picking out stationary to take to camp was an actual event. I’m lookin’ at you Snoopy, Hello Kitty, and Precious Moments …
22. If all your letters on said awesome stationary ended with K.I.T and they were S.W.A.K. and didn’t involve a single lol, ttyl, or lmao.
23. If you mastered the 2 minute cold shower with your Kaboodles caddy in tow.
24. If your camp mixes trumped any ‘Best Of’ album and they had at least one from these artists: The Bangles, Depeche Mode, Madonna, Micheal Jackson, Foreigner, James Taylor …
25. If you felt your rendition of Like a Virgin and Madonna’s were identical except for the lion. Also, your version was titled Like a Bass Weejun, worn for the very first time and you were flat chested with braces, but they were close.
26. Finally, if you cried for days upon reentry to society as if you could not function without someone addressing you each morning at a flagpole.
How many of those made you nostalgic? What do you remember most?
Please Share with all your camp friends and read the note below!
I think I may have to back out of this summer gig. I jump when I see a spider… I’m screwed. However, you’re not… you can follow the Mom Goes to Camp Experiment on FACEBOOK
(Also, I need a hashtag like #WhatTheFuckWasIThinkingPleaseRescueMe - wait, that’s too long – how about #JennyFromTheBunk ?)
Here’s hoping I don’t break a wedge heel … or get eaten by a bear.
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- Things Gen Xers Did Growing Up That Our Children Wouldn’t Understand
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The post Gen Xers – You Probably Went to Camp If … appeared first on The Suburban Jungle .
