Ditz

Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: Outside the Bubble

Media Credit: Sasha Becerra

I've been going to the same summer camp for the past thirteen years of my life. (I know, you can say it, I'm pretty lame). I thought it was so exciting to go through all the stages of camp - as a camper for eight years and then seeing it from the other side as a counselor for the past five. I would think to myself, "Oh god! Look at them! I used to think I was so cool when I was a little thirteen-year-old, flirting with the boys." But then I started noticing things that I didn't remember from my days as a camper. I began hearing my 12, 13 and 14-year-old campers talking about hand jobs, blow jobs, and eating disorders. This made me feel really old. For the first time I felt like saying, "In my day, things were definitely different!"

First, there were the eating disorders. My camp started making up these crazy rules that we never had when I was a camper. For example, we had to start monitoring their eating at meals. I would have to sit there and plead with 12-year-old girls at every meal to "just have one piece of bread, please!" Twelve? I didn't even know I had a vagina at 12, let alone did I concern myself with watching my figure. Actually, it was quite the opposite, especially at camp. We would spend long, hot summer days running around so excited to be out of a classroom that by the time meals came around, everyone was stuffing their faces uncontrollably. I wondered if I was remembering incorrectly so I asked another counselor, Lisa, who had been going to camp since she was eight. She totally agreed. "I was the most awkward camper ever, but the best part of camp was that nobody cared - well, at least until I was started high-school. But even then I wouldn't have ever considered starving myself. I just would've put on my ugly brown lipliner with my white lipstick and my stupid baby-tee!"

Lisa brought up a good point. One, that us 80s kids had pretty bad fashion, but also that one of the main things I loved about my camp was that it was such a non-superficial place. We lived in nasty bunks, played in the dirt all day, and had to take ice-cold showers. But nowadays girls would be begging me to end our activities early so that they could take a shower or go doll themselves up just to go to the cafeteria.

Then I started over-hearing some of my campers' conversations at night. "Danielle gave Justin a blow-job" "Monica was caught having sex in the lodge?" I couldn't believe my ears! Back in the day, camp was definitely a place for forming crushes and sharing first kisses; they even had activities at night to facilitate it. Once you turned 13, you were put on Teenside and got to have open curfew with the boys. It consisted of free time for all the girls and boys age 13-15 from 9:30-10:30pm to roam around Teenside - with the counselors making sure everyone was behaving, of course. It generally involved lots of flirting and trying to find a dark area to make-out. Then, when 10:30pm rolled around, the 13-year-olds had to go back to their bunks, and the 14 and 15-year-olds got to go to crossroads. Crossroads was basically extended open curfew with the older kids in a more secluded area. When I was a camper, there was lots of flirting, kissing, sometimes just hanging out with friends, and every so often you would hear a story of some boob action or (even more rarely) a hand-job. But no one was having sex.

Continued...

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