Connor Goes To Camp
I can't believe he's off to Camp Olympia today for the 5th grade camping trip! The last time we sent him to camp, he was 5 years old and he was really excited about going, but he returned vowing to never go to camp again. He went to Camp Pine Tree and the first night there, he became ill and threw up. He didn't just throw up; he vomited an ungodly amount of first night mess hall dinner from the top bunk into the bottom bunk, where he awakened his bunk mate Jersey Bill (so dubbed because of his thick accent), by puking into his bed and into both his and Jersey Bill's suitcases. He also filled a good portion of his own bed. The volume of vomit was staggering.
I was notified of his illness, not by the camp counselors the night he binge puked his guts out, but by Jersey Bill, who met me in the parking lot when I came to pick Connor up five days after Con's voluminous regurgitation. Jersey Bill was still fuming when he strode up to me and said, "Are you here for Connor?" I was thinking, "Wow, Con must be one popular kid if this kid knows him by name and wants to meet me." I replied beaming with pride, "Yes, I am here for Connor." My bubble burst when JB sourly (and with an unbelievably thick Yankee accent replied), "He threw up all over my bed and my suitcase the first night." He spoke with such vehemence that I was certain that he was hoping that Connor would be severely punished for his egregious breech of camp etiquette. I asked Jersey Bill what happened and if Connor was all right. He replied, “Yeah, he’s fine, he just ate some bad sausage.”
I found Connor at the pool and asked him to climb on out and come to the cabin with me to pack up his stuff. Jersey Bill followed us to the cabin, so he could personally point out all of the places that Connor puked. I didn’t really need JB to figure it out because after five days, the evidence was still present. The camp counselors apparently were not paid enough to clean up the mess. Connor’s and Jersey’s suitcases were still covered in vomit, as was Con’s bed (he folded his sheet over it and slept at the other end). Bill was smarter and he pulled the sheets completely off his bed and slept on the plastic covered mattress.
After we cleaned off the suitcase and packed all of his disgusting belongs in his disgusting bag, we headed home. For the hour and a half we drove home he told me how awful his stay at Camp Pine Tree was and how he would NEVER go to camp again. He told me how he hated the cabin, the counselors, the kids, and the food (especially the sausage). I asked him if there was anything he liked about camp and he told me emphatically, “NO!!” I’m guessing that the only kid there who had a worse time than Connor - was Jersey Bill.
1 comment:
My name is Jason and during the summers I am a counselor at Camp Olympia. I have been for the past three years and had been a camper there for seven years before that. I work with the "J-Boys" or the youngest group able to attend camp at around 8-11 years old. I love every aspect of my job there and it is what has helped me figure out that I want to be a youth minister after college.
I know you didnt say this, but I just want to assure that not all camps are like the one you described above. As a matter of fact I had my first experience with a camper getting sick in the middle of the night for the first time last summer and stayed up for several hours cleaning it while a co-counselor took him to the nurse's station. He also threw up from the top bunk but it was the other counselors stuff that took the blunt of blast haha!
What I'm trying to get at is that I hate it when a kid has a bad first experience at a camp. I know it happens but camp is an amazing place for kids to grow. I also think that one of the reasons that your son had a bad time was the amount of time he spent there. 5 or 6 days is long enough to learn peoples names, and thats about it. At Camp Olympia, there are two and three week terms, and everyone complains about how the two week terms are too short and how they just got to know everyone. There was also probably some poor counseloring going on too. I'm appaled that the mess was still there when you picked him up. That honestly makes me mad, that just shouldnt happen.
So what all this is supposed to say is that if you can talk him in to it, try to see if you can get him to try again. I hate to make this hole thing sound like an advertisment, but I hate to see kids miss out on camp because of something like that.
Post a Comment