By , JTA World News Service
Cheryl Jacobs,
Columbus, Ohio
Camper at Camp Kinder Ring in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., in the mid-’70s
My two grandmothers were summer residents of a bungalow colony euphemistically named “The Forest Lake Country Club.” A country club it wasn’t! My grandmothers walked along the shores of Sylvan Lake every other day for the entire eight weeks my brother and I were at camp. Their major goal? To see how much food they could smuggle in. The most unusual was pushing an entire roast chicken through the holes in a chain-link fence. The two of them stood there breaking the chicken into small pieces so I could catch it and then share with my little brother.
They gave me a rendezvous time, and I had to make it my business to be there or there would be a price to pay. How many campers can say they had their own food arsenal made up of two little old Jewish ladies?
Scott Braswell
Assistant director at URJ Greene Family Camp in Bruceville, Texas
Strangest thing sent in a care package: We had a dad who liked to send random objects to his camper. He wouldn’t even use a box or an envelope but would just send the item with the postage right on the item. The two most unusual things sent by the dad were a giant traffic cone and a plastic bumper of a car.
Betsy Aldredge,
Larchmont, N.Y.
Camper at Camp Menorah, a day camp in Essex, Mass., in the early ’80s
My first day at Camp Menorah, when I was 7 or 8, I went with my mom to the corner to wait for the bus. A bus arrived on the opposite corner. I insisted it was my bus and was too grown up to let my mom ask if it was going to my camp. Instead, I got on the bus like a big girl. When I arrived at the camp, there was a big cross on the lawn. I had gotten on the bus for the YMCA camp by mistake. I turned to the nearest adult and pointed at the cross and said, “Um, I don’t think this is Camp Menorah.” They were very nice and called my mom to come and get me and drive me to my actual camp.
Yoni and Vivian Stadlin
Directors of Eden Village Camp in Putnam Valley, N.Y., since 2010
Craziest thing confiscated: A mom who knew that we don’t allow candy at camp wanted to give her kids a special treat, so she packed some Snickers bars in a tampon box! While we applaud the creativity, it didn’t change our “no candy at camp” rule.
Most extreme example of helicopter parenting: We had a parent who actually flew over in a helicopter! (He was a pilot, but still! He took an amazing aerial photo of camp.)
Most amusing crisis weathered: The freezer broke on the hottest day of the summer, and the campers were forced to eat all of our homemade ice cream.
Rob Kagan, Boston
Camper at Camp Naomi in Raymond, Maine, in the late ’70s and early ’80s
I was a member of the CNLO: the Camp Naomi Liberation Organization. We did everything from break into the dining hall for Manischewitz wine, 30 pounds of raisins, and pop tarts to kidnapping all the other campers at 3 a.m. and taking them on a hike, so when the executive staff woke up, the entire camp was gone. We took all the sailboats from the waterfront and set them up in the dining hall. We took everyone’s left shoes in the middle of the night, which was a nightmare to untangle when the prank was over. And those were only the pranks I was involved in! Camp in the ’70s was a different animal than it is today. We went out after curfew to meet up with girls, and when we were caught had to run in our underwear doing laps with honey on our bodies or scrub the dining hall with a toothbrush.
Visit OneHappyCamper.org to find a Jewish camp and see if your child qualifies for a $1,000 grant.