I am on vacation until Aug. 29
(Note: To fill the vacation void, we are dipping into the Buzzblog archives for some lighter fare and more personal items that I enjoyed writing for one reason or another.)
This was originally published on July 21, 2006:
Off topic: Summer camp memories
Here’s an amusing take on summer camp from Slate.
Me? I have only one memory of summer camp, and, as you might expect, it is not a good one.
They called me The Suitcase Kid … because I brought a suitcase to camp.
But didn’t lots of kids bring suitcases to camp, you ask; why stick me with the nickname?
Not to day camp they didn’t.
Why the suitcase? Short answer: Mom. Longer answer: I was a sickly child (no surprise to anyone who knows the sickly grownup) with asthma being my primary malady. Mom, who would certainly have never considered overnight camp for any of her five children, nevertheless summoned the courage to allow us to be day trippers — provided, in my case, that I carried a suitcase (I’m talking honest-to-goodness SUITCASE here) full of emergency supplies, medicines and extra clothes of all stripes.
It was one of those old-fashioned red leather jobs that people like my grandparents brought from the old country. I lugged one to camp on a school bus filled with heartless tormenters … every … blessed … day. That’s my camp story. Signed, The Suitcase Kid.
Kids today have no idea how lucky they are to have backpacks.
