Summer Camp
In just a few days' time I will be setting off across this great state to take my sons to camp. In my very first blog post, Easter Shopping, I shared that I only purchased one shirt in our Easter shopping excursion, and even that was more of a pity purchase than a real desire on the part of Younger Son. Ah well, I surmised, my boys don't like clothes shopping, more cha-ching for me.
Do not be deceived, Gentle Readers, as I was. Easter clothes mean nothing. Camp clothes, on the other hand, mean EVERYTHING.
I didn't go to camp as a kid. One miserable week of Girl Scout camp, one good week at a church camp before a schism broke out at the church and my family left, and that was it. My parents bought a pass for the neighborhood pool, and that was summer. I don't know if it was the city I grew up in, or the particular area of that city, but no one I knew went to camp either. I've since verified with this childhood friends, and we are all in agreement - no camp.
But now I live in Houston, and this is for sure a campin' town - sports camp, Christian camp, Start-Networking-and-Establishing-Contacts-Now camp, How-to-be-a-little-Lady camp, legacy camps where your mom and grandma (who's definitely called Gigi, or Marmi or Honee) went, camps where you were signed up as soon as your gender was identified (if I'm lyin', I'm dyin' - that is absolutely the truth), hunting-and-survival camp, and then there's the regular Boy Scout and church camps. No wonder we can't have year-round school; camp is a major industry!
My boys love camp. LOVE IT! Can I confess to you that while I never wanted them to have a miserable time, I wouldn't have minded one bit if they had proclaimed the whole experience "meh"? Because, oh my gosh, camp is expensive. Besides the registration, there's the stuff. Theme nights have totally motivated my guys to shop, shop, shop. This year they needed Celtic clothes and Formal wear. As well as new camoflage gear for Mission Impossible Night. In the past we have celebrated Under the Sea, Video Games, Cops and Robbers, Animation Domination, and Escape to Africa. It's a Christian camp - maybe next year they all have to come dressed as Jesus. And every year is a new theme and a new T-shirt to go with it. If the boys go to Baylor, a quilt made of these theme T-shirts would probably not be amiss...
Do I sound too cranky? I don't mean to; I'm just shopped out.
Have a fantastic week, boys!
