Camping

Communing with nature is not something I do by choice. I'm not good at it and I don't enjoy it. I went to Girl Scout camp for a week the summer between 5th and 6th grade. I had BEGGED to go there for a year and a half and was finally permitted to go! It was going to be a wonderful week!

Then I saw the long, windy path to the area I was assigned to. The path that went through the thick woods. I saw the tents. Where were the cabins?? I saw the latrines. OH MAN, THEY WERE NASTY.

Why on earth would my parents force me to stay in this horrendous place for an entire WEEK?!?!

They got us up at the crack of dawn every morning. They made one of us serve our table at each meal. The food was lousy. We only got to take a shower twice during our entire week there. They made us trample through the woods to go to various activities. We had to get in a rowboat on a pond that had FISH and other stuff in it. The counselors forced us to shoot at targets using a bow and arrow. We had to sit in a little ampitheater every evening and sing songs. We got bitten up by mosquitoes. One night a raccoon came through the tent that I shared with 3 other girls. Fortunately it wasn't a skunk. We had to take our own "bathroom tissue" to the 2 seated latrine each time we went...and boy, oh boy, did it ever STINK in there!

They did let us go swimming in a big pool a couple of times. That part was nice.

Of course then there was the "last night" that I spent at Girl Scout camp. It began to rain. And rain. And rain. Then the thunder and lightning started. The counselors woke us up in the middle of the night and made us walk to a cabin that was about 15 minutes away. Hmmm...on retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea to have us walk through the woods while it was thundering and lightning, but I suppose it was better than having our tent wash away down the hill. We didn't have time to gather anything together and just had the clothes on our back. I remember getting to the cabin and lying on a mat, but freezing. We all had on shorts and there were no blankets. Fortunately they had "bathroom tissue" in their latrine. The next morning they took us back to our tents and there was water EVERYWHERE. We had to not only clean things up at our campsite, but also pack up because we were all going home. THANK GOODNESS!!!

It turned out that there were nasty floods from all the rain we experienced and people still talk about that 4th of July weekend and all the rain. And instead of being safe at home in my own bed, I was in the middle of a FOREST, heading off to who knows where, while it was storming all around. Ah yes...camping.

Since that wonderful experience, I've chosen not to participate in that activity again.

Nowadays, my idea of camping is sleeping with the window open. Period.