Summertime = Camp Time

I went to camp pretty much every summer when I was a kid. When I was younger Richmond and I (and then maybe even Josh at some point) went to the JCC camp. I never really liked it. It is not that it was a bad camp. In fact, as far as camps go, it was probably great. I can't really put my finger on what it was about camp that bothered me. Maybe it was something to do with the smells, the songs, the enthusiastic counselors, the wild kids...it was something, maybe a combination of those things. Or maybe it is because my mom is such an un-campy type of person that it confused me when she suggested I spend my summers at camp.

I distinctly remember sitting in our kitchen in front of the t.v. eating cereal and watching Johnny Quest. I remember wishing that my summer could be spent just like that, quiet, in my house, away from all the incessant cheering and the ear-stinging rounds of John Jacob Jingle Hymer Smith. It wasn't until I got older and started to go away during the summer for weeks at at time in North Carolina that I started enjoying camp. Even today though, I remember being homesick, I remember wondering why I HAD to go to camp, I remember thinking that one can only make so many macrame bracelets. I think maybe I can appreciate what camp had to offer me much more now than I did then - the carefree environment, the activities that were 100% kid tested, the freedom to play ALL DAY. I suppose it is too late to go back and do it all over again. Here's hoping La Luz has a greater appreciation for it while she is taking part.

La Luz, first day of summer camp, 2008: