Thoughts on kids sleep away camp? Did you? Your kids? What age is too young? Too old?

[DrPepper12]

[WhiteSteve]

I never went. All my Jewish friends seem to have gone though, haha. My young cousins are Jewish, but I don’t think they went. They more did day camp stuff, I think through activities with their temple’s kid’s group. They always were doing some kind of outing. They even got to go to a thing where one of the kids got to shave Rob Gronkowski’s head for some charity thing, and they all got to hang out inside Gronk’s “party bus”, I assume PG-rated, haha.

But yeah, no sleepaway camp for them. I wonder if that’s just a thing that’s kind of fading out in modern times. My buddy is part of a family trust that owns a lake house up at Lake Squam in New Hampshire, and there’s a camp right when you turn onto the dirt road that’s the final leg of the trip there. I think it’s been closed the last few years.

Last year there was some kind of construction going on, but you can’t see from the street, the company just a sign up, and “no trespassing” and all that. So it might just be changing ownership. We fish by their swimming docks, that was all still there. I’ll hopefully be back up there Memorial Day Weekend, we’ll see what it’s looking like then. But my point is, I wonder if the summer camp industry is struggling, or if rich folks still like to dump their kids off for the summer😝

I had some friends who worked in the summers for a service called “Camp Trucking”, and the whole job was driving a big truck to Metro NYC, picking up bags and trunks, loading them into the truck, and then driving them to Northern New England or Upstate New York to sleep-away camps. Basically schlepping rich kids’ shit from Long Island or North Jersey and driving it to Maine or something, and then doing the reverse at the end of the summer. But again, that was 20+ years ago.

Actually just reminded myself of the movie Wet Hot American Summer, that takes place at a summer camp in the early 80s. Janeane Garofalo is supposed to be reading off a list of kids who needed to report to somewhere for something, but it seems like she’s just making it up on the spot, for reasons I’m unsure of, and she’s “Amanda Klein…Jessica Azaria…. Ira…Stevenberg…uh…Saul…Zimmer-…-stein…” and then finishes with “uhhh…. David…. Ben-…. Gurion.” 😂😂😂 Underappreciated gag, but that’s classic David Wain writing, random as hell, but still on point, lmao.

There’s also a talent show, and one bunk puts on this professional-grade (by summer camp standards, haha) musical number of “Day By Day”, and the whole crowd is captivated, swaying along. And then on the final note that they hold and fade out on, the room goes dim, and a neon cross lights up in the dark…. and the crowd instantly starts viciously booing😂😂😂

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wiBi0xMF9UY

Great movie, lmao.

But yeah, that just added to my stereotype that it’s something Jewish kids get to do. But it ran counter to Salute Your Shorts on Nickelodeon, that I think had a few probably-Jewish kids, but not everyone. And then all-time Oscar snub Ernest Goes To Camp, that seemed like a gentile thing, but I think it was also supposed to be in the south or Midwest, so maybe it was just a regional demographic thing. My one WASP friend that went, it was a fat camp, lmfao, we love to razz him about that.

All this is testimony to why you should never base your assumptions off TV and movies😅😅😅😂😂😂 I guess if you did that, you’d also think you get murdered by psychos in old school goalie masks at camp, lmfao.

But yeah, it seems kind of fun, I think I wouldn’t have minded it. Kind of an old school, wholesome experience. Especially nowadays, get these kids off their phones and iPads for a while and go weave a basket or paddle around in a canoe, haha. I feel like maybe 11-14 is probably the sweet spot. Old enough to not freak out about leaving their parents (probably even WANTING TO, haha), young enough that you’re not missing out on wild teenage times we all have to experience too (or rightfully being protected from it, should they have access that early), but probably still get to get into their share of ultimately-harmless shenanigans behind the counselors’ backs (all part of the fun, haha). But I feel like once I was fifteen or so, I wasn’t looking to volunteer myself into any supervised situations. Once I got a car when I was sixteen…. FUHGETTABOUTIT. Out like a thief in the night, you can direct any questions for me to this cloud of dust💨💨💨

[DrPepper12]

Oh it's DEFINITELY a Jewish thing. Almost required and there's legacy preferences too!! My HS kids would tell me stories if what went on among the teen counselors. It's everything you fear but MUCH MUCH WORSE!!

[WhiteSteve]

The J’s just out here consistently having more fun than everyone else, minus Yom Kippur, lmao

I’m actually wondering now about this Patriots reporter Mike Reiss. Just guessing he could be Jewish based off of his surname, but he also was the voice of an ad the last couple years advertising for a summer camp he went to as a kid🤔 It’s all coming together now😝

The counselors are probably more debaucherous than the campers, haha, I can only imagine!

[Jersey2]

I was 11 when I went to camp for about 3 months in a tent with a wood floor. I went again at 13 for half a season so half of that. There were kids there 7 or 8 years old up to 16 or 17. I consider it a great experience that helped mold me. Lots of basketball, boating, swimming, football, archery, volleyball, tennis, horseback riding, bonfires, dances with the girls camp, hikes in the mountains and tons of other things. 7-8 seems a bit young for that type of camp but most actually did fine, some didn’t. Some guys thought 16 was too old.

[Gwendoline]

Maybe 15. The way I look at it is that child predators look for jobs where they can have access to their prey children. So a situation where a potential child predator can have 24 hour access to targeted children without the knowledge of their parents is a big no for me.

It's the same in the school system, kids sports organisations, orphanages, children's hospitals, boy scouts, youth clubs, daycare etc. Police checks do very little.

[Nikki1989]

I went away for a week on a music camp. It was a great experience musically speaking, but I barely got any sleep while I was there. The partying was quite intense.

[NathanDavis]

I guess it depends on the kids...

and the adult supervision as well

I was one to wonder and wander since very early age, lmao...

[exitseven]

my father used to threaten to send e away to camp if I did not stop raising hell around the neighborhood. Looking back I should have known he was bluffing.

[Crimsyjo]

I never been camping.

My kids been away on school trips where they sleep in shed like dorms. They've always seemed to enjoy it.

[FunkyMonkee]

Never did but, went for a camping trip with a local preacher and 2 other kids. We went to Slippery Rock. The next afternoon, I slipped on the rock.

[jahaims]

Too many pedo at camps and the like. I take my own kids camping with their friends and cousins.

[Gwendoline]

Also my thought. What better place for a child sex predator than camp where they can have full unsupervised access to children away from the protection of their parents.