Stories from Camp

Dear Mom and Dad – Having fun at camp.  Cut my finger with a knife while whittling.  Will be home soon.  Love, Caron

That was the gist of my short letter home from church camp when I was a kid.  My Mom said it worried her a little that I didn’t include whether the finger was still attached to my hand …

A while back, WGN radio host John Williams had as his guest, the author of the book shown here.  They talked about some pretty funny letters written home by kids at camp.  Kids who wrote home every day begging for their parents to come and get them.  Letters from kids who were having a great time.  All interesting, funny and sometimes insightful letters written in the kid’s own handwriting.

I went to church camp once, with my best friend, at the Stronghold camp in Oregon, IL.  Of course, we were told some scary story the first day and the girls in my “hogan” decided to set up our suitcases in random fashion, so that if any one broke in during the night, they would be tripped up by our little maze.  One afternoon, as we were getting ready to walk to the swimming pool, realizing I had forgotten something, I ran back into the hogan – straight into our little trap – knocking all the cases down and hurting myself.  I don’t really remember anything “religious” from that week, but I do remember having a good time.  (And I thought my memory lapses just began when I turned forty – seems like I was that way early on! 🙂

The other day on the radio, they were talking about how many camps are available to kids nowadays.  CSI camp, Sports Camp, Adventure Camp, Computer Camp, and on and on.

Did you ever go to camp?  Do you have any great stories to tell?

(And as a reminder … Plymouth Church’s Vacation Bible School begins next week … and it’s a camping theme!  If you’d like to register your kids to attend, visit our website:  plymouthcongregational.org )
And if you would like to learn more about the book, click here: 
P. S., I Hate it Here