My experience with summer camps is somewhat minimal. My parents would never send me to one, not even the Day Camp in town. I remember so badly wanting to go with my neighbor friend because he'd always come home in the afternoon with stories about the movie theater, theme parks, or museums.
Looking back, I'm glad I got to stay home every summer instead of going with him every day. Rather than be bossed around by camp counselors, I have so many fond memories of doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
My only experience going away for a camp is during middle school and high school, where I'd spend one week at a hockey training camp up in Boston right at the end of summer. I have several fun memories from there, but it wasn't all fun and games as we did 2 a-days on the ice and several long, long runs and other training exercises.
For the summers of 2001 and 2002, I worked as a counselor at the town Day Camp. I have some excellent memories working there, but most of them are pretty lousy. My good friend Chris, who later would get me my job at the airline, worked with me the first summer and hated it so much he refused to come back the second year. It probably didn't help things that through some government employee loophole, I was making less than minimum wage due to the fact I got into all of these attractions for free. My Mom, unbeknownst to me, called my bosses one day and complained about my wages. So, yeah... that didn't make it easy for me at all.
I was always fascinated with sleepaway summer camps, and our annual summer vacation in Maine drew my interest every year. Directly across from the cabins our family rented every year, just on the other side of the lake, was a sleep-away camp that, from our boat, always looked so exciting. Shows like Bug Juice on the Disney Channel made places like that seem so much fun, and as I got older, it seemed like a great place to meet girls.
But no show better personified my view of fun times during summer camp than Salute Your Shorts. Please enjoy this look back at one of my favorite articles, A Salute To Salute Your Shorts!
The original was first posted on The Retro Network and even gained the attention of one of the original cast members on Instagram!
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