SUMMER CAMP

Summer Camp! Let me start off by letting you know that my first year going to summer camp was not planned in advance. I was literally put on a big yellow school bus along with about 60 other girls from different sections of the town, driving across two bridges into South Kingston, to a place called Camp Ramley. I was scared and nervous; I did not know what was going to take place on this week long journey. The only reassurance of any kind I had was the fact I was going to share this encounter in the great outdoors with at least four other girls I was close too, They all lived on the same street with me, so we were with each other a lot. Two of them were sisters that were; Cindy and Pauline, Donna, and Neva were just two girls that lived across the street.

I will never forget that hot and humid mid July day when my mother had interrupted the daily kickball game. Not only was the game stopped, I was up to kick next. I had very strong thigh muscles, not incredible hulk muscles, but they were strong for an eleven year-old girl, so I could kick the ball far. I was told to hurry up home so we could pack, because I was going to camp for a week and the bus was leaving in a half an hour. So, I helped my mom gather some of my belongings, I thought about how this place would look. By age eleven I had been sneaking and watching horror flicks like Friday the thirteenth with out my parents knowing, so that is what I thought the great outdoors would be like. I was right it was Friday the thirteenth in real life. The only exception is that, there was no one being slashed by a killer on the loose.

We had to drive pass a lonely big white farm house with black shutters, to a dirt winding road to get to the camp grounds. Maybe about 100 feet away from this house all you could see what looked like hundreds of cows just hanging around behind closed wooded fences. At the end of these fences was a big white gate. The bus had to stop so some one could open it up. We had traveled another two miles and came to another big white gate that needed to be opened. The more we drove it seemed the more enclosed we would be from the outside world. It seemed in some spots in the distance that, there was nothing but darkness, even though it was a bright sunny day. There were big pine trees everywhere, all over the ground were pin needles and pine cones. There were no street lights, no noise from passing cars. If you stood still and listened all you would hear were birds chirping in the distance, and saw and felt bugs all around us, e3ven the air was different. I was used to the smell of the occasional sewer plant, or the sea breeze, out in the woods the air felt and smelled much fresher. Back home you would come across the average skunk, but in the deep woods I saw possums, raccoons and a deer or two. We were entering a whole new world in the woods, with no parents. All I had was my friends and some other people I have never met before, I was a little scare.

When we finally reach our destination, we all piled out of the bus with sleeping bags and suitcases in toe. We were all lined up in front of fourteen camp counselors 8 men and 6 women. There we stood waiting to her our names called to see what cabin we were assigned too. My friends and I got lucky because we were all except for Cindy was assigned to the first cabin, which was a plus because it was the closest to the male counselors cabins just incase something went wrong we were the first to be rescued, along with the vehicles none of us were old enough to drive yet, but it was nice to know they were close along with the phone, and food. Cindy was in the cabin that was hidden by some trees, and you could hear the water from the lake hitting the bank. I know she was scared, she was not alone in the cabin, but she did not have us. Our cabin was big and dusty with about 15 beds in it most were bunk beds, there were two to three single beds. There were 6 huge windows with just screens covering them. You had to walk around the cabin to close the windows, which were big square pieces of wood.

When we had got settled in our cabin we had decided to walk around to become familiar with our surroundings. Right next store to our cabin was another cabin separated by a bunch of trees, it was visible but it was little more pushed back into the wood, which was cabin two. If we walked down a short winding path, there was the third cabin that Cindy was staying in. On the other side of our cabin in the distance was another smaller cabin that housed the head counselors. At an angle to the head counselors cabin was the long big red cabin, this was the mess hall, this was where we ate and the food was kept. On the far side of the mess hall was another cabin that housed the remaining male counselors.

If you stood between the mess hall and the male cabin you could see this huge clear lake called Crazy Kate Lake. There was a steep hill to go down in order to get to the lake. The legend was that women went mad and started stealing and killing the cows on the farm. She was also known to terrorize anyone who stays on the camp grounds. This story was told to us around a roaring fire in the pitch dark, and let me tell you the only light came from the fire. It was amazing how pretty the flames looked with all of the different reds, oranges, and yellows; even though it looked pretty it was scary at the same time. To add to the legend, there were cow bones scattered all around the camp and even in the water. On the lake there was a long wooden dock and out on the water there was a wooden raft, that we all would swim out to hangout on, and we loved to jump off of it and just layout on. When we weren’t swimming we competed against other cabins to earn points. The cabin with the most points at the end of the week was giving a prize of going to the Newport Creamery to receive Awful Awfuls. This is a really creamy milk shake. Our cabin was not successful the first year, but the following several years after, we were not only cabin one we were number one.

At the time I was really upset that my mom sent me away, but in the end I truly had a great time. I made new friends, developed my first crush, Harry was his name; he was one of the head counselors. We all became closer to each other. It is nice to run into those same girls and reminisce about our days at camp. Our parents would be horrified at some of the things we have done, but hey we had no real supervising and we were a bunch of city kids having fun in the woods. One thing we never did was sleep at night. If we fell asleep who would keep watch over the camp, so that Crazy Kate could not just sneak up on us. We were no dummies we were always prepared for anything.