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I went to (boy) scout camp, one or two weeks at a time, for four or five summers. I think there was more actual substance to the "educational" aspect of the camp, since the goal was to earn outdoors-oriented merit badges you couldn't get back in the city. My experiences there were mixed (mostly positive), but I was a picky camper. The camp I went to was pretty run-down, and (probably due to some variation of "liability"), scout troops didn't cook their own food - it was instead delivered in hot packs before every meal to the campsite, and consisted of the same mass-produced, tasteless crap you can find in most school cafeterias. They also got rid of hot water in the bathrooms after the first couple years I went because people complained that a scout could get burned while taking a shower, which to this day I still think was loving stupid. We slept in old-school canvas tents (provided by the camp) with wooden floorboards, which did little to keep insects/animals out. Also, if you were a first year camper, you were required to join a specific group of first year campers (for the first week, out of two) where they'd go to the pool one day, go to the rifle range the next, etc. I had no interest in shooting sports but wanted to do other stuff so I thought this weeklong orientation was a waste of time, but I imagine they do it this way as a CYA move so that if some kid walks off into the woods and dies of exposure, they can say they received directions beforehand and it's not the camp's fault. What was fun about it? When we did cook our own food (usually dessert), it was fantastic. Anything involving the campfire of course, and going canoeing out on the lake. (I probably would have liked swimming too, except they had a pool for that which was always arctic cold, even in July.) The camp itself (and surround areas) had a fair amount of man-made history in them, and it was neat to go on a hike and see ruins of an old oil well or something. Of course now that I'm older, I've pulled the place up on Google Earth and discovered that the camp itself, while substantial in size, is literally surrounded by suburban sprawl.
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Apr 15, 2015 22:53
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:46 |
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Geoj posted:Same. For me it was kind of like an extra week of school, at least during the day when you had to do merit badge classes. Wasn't something I really looked forward to but I didn't hate it enough to not go. I don't think I ever looked at scout camp as being like an extra week of school, but yeah, there was some things about it that I didn't care for. The camp I usually went to would send out a representative to troops within the scout council (which owned the camp) and they'd show an ACTION-PACKED VIDEO of the scouts blasting poo poo with rifles, climbing towers made out of logs, and screaming across a lake on a hovercraft. Then you'd get there and find out that 99% of the time at the rifle range was spend BEING SAFE and 1% was actually shooting stuff (not a bad thing, but disappointing when you're 12), you can't climb on any of the towers built out of logs and rope because the staff are paranoid you'll fall, and the hovercraft is derelict with a broken propeller and has been for some time. I never went to Philmont but kind of wish I had. Supposedly one of the troops I was in had gotten the necessary "slots" for some senior scouts as soon as they went up for grabs one year, but for reasons which were unexplained the trip never materialized. Some stories I'm remembering: Bears One year, rather than going to the usual run-down camp all Chicago-area scouts usually attend (Owassipe, in western Michigan) my troop elected to go to a camp in upstate New York. I had just joined this troop (transferred from another) and while I liked the people, the scouts were generally not as outdoorsy as they could have been. Had no idea how to light a gas lantern, that sort of thing. Lessons can be learned the hard way, though. At this camp in NY, some of the troop intended on going on one of these Philmont-type wilderness treks during the week we were there, and I was one of them, until we got there and the majority of those wanting to go decided to make it a day longer than we originally planned. For reasons I can't remember clearly, my dad and I both thought this was a bad idea and backed out of the trek. Which was a good idea, it turned out. The day after that group left for their wilderness trek, I was walking around the camp somewhere and saw a couple of the scouts who were supposed to be gone. They adamantly refused to talk about why they had returned; later on it was revealed that in one day, they'd managed to swamp a canoe, a scout was injured, and lost most of their food to a bear. The one scout's injuries weren't severe but that wasn't the last we'd hear of bears during that trip, though. (these in particular were black bears) Before we left for this trip, one of the scout leaders had some connection with an outdoor equipment manufacturer, and most of the troop was able to get these fairly nice hiking backpacks for cheap. Including one of the less outdoorsy scouts - let's call him London, because that was his name. London had two defining traits: 1), he always had junk food on him, and 2), he never listened to anything the leaders him. While London was being London, the bears inhabiting the scout camp were being, well, bears, which like to find stuff to eat and have good noses to accomplish this task. Since London 1), always had junk food, and 2), never heeded anyone's advice on getting rid of it or sealing it in a plastic bag, bears regularly visited his tent over the course of the week. By the end of the week, bears had torn his brand-new backpack to shreds. Bears also managed to ruin a soccer ball and damaged a rental car during the course of that week. I saw the soccer ball incident and it was hilarious. Some of the scouts were kicking it around in a clearing, and at one point it rolled into the woods ... where a bear was waiting. The bear grabbed the ball, studied it for a minute, then let it go. It hadn't been punctured but the ball but the leather covering was torn up, and the super-hyper kid who brought it was pissed. Didn't see the bear try to break into the rental car, but we woke up one morning and there were claw marks in a seal around one of the windows. Makes sense since we were storing food in there (easier than stringing up a bear bag) and I think they returned the car without the rental place noticing the damage. The Smelly Kid One year there was a newish kid in the troop who absolutely hated the outdoors. He said that since his mom was a police officer, he didn't have anything to worry about because she'd save him if he was drowning, etc. Let's call him A. A was there for two weeks, and refused to shower. While refusing to shower, he also wore the same clothes every day! After maybe ten days, his smell became bad enough that he was told in no uncertain terms that he WOULD shower and was dragged to the campsite's bathroom/shower building; an adult leader waited outside to ensure the task was completed. I don't believe he stayed in the troop for very much longer. Crazy Dave The camp my troop usually visited had an infamous staff member named Dave. He worked at the camp's ecology / conservation area, where scouts would go to fulfill the requirements of nature-related merit badges, and I thought he was an rear end in a top hat. He was the guy to go to when you did the (mandatory) Environmental Science merit badge, which was time consuming enough (you had to go there for at least a half-day for five days in a row to get all the requirements done) when the staff member wanted to help you out, which Dave clearly didn't, or at least not without insulting the scouts, telling them they were stupid, etc. (He'd also go tearing around the camp's dirt roads in a battered BMW - almost hit me once) I think it took me two weeks to get that stupid badge, and I later heard from one of my troop's adult leaders that Dave would sit in staff meetings and mock the scouts, saying none of them were going to get his stupid merit badge. Apparently some higher-up at the camp took notice of this, as the next year he was reassigned to working on the back of one of the camp's garbage trucks. I didn't believe it until I saw him on it one day; he didn't look too happy. Which reminds me, some of the people who work at scout camps (and maybe regular summer camps too, I dunno) are just loving weird. Not necessarily creepy-weird, but just plain old weird. Although the last time I was at a scout camp was 10+ years ago and the weirdness I'm thinking of might have just been "super religious and conservative and wanting to inflict these views upon boys age 12-18 for poo poo pay all summer." I remember that while multiple church services were offered at the camp's chapel (Catholic, Jewish, etc) it was more or less required that you had to go to at least one of them.
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Apr 30, 2015 07:50
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