Take Me Back Tuesday, Summer of the Rejects

The Summer Solstice is this week, I love summertime!  Summer always reminds me of summer camp. I have so many fun memories of good old "L-Bar-C Camp" to share.  I would spend up to six weeks each summer of my high school years at camp--one week as a "camper," all the rest as volunteer "teen-staff."  The best memories are from the teen staff days.

Sandra and I with the camp director

One of my most memorable camp moments was the time my best friend, Sandra,  and I got kicked out!  The two of us were (and maybe still are)  trouble!!  Haha, not really, more like unlucky.  It was the Sunday night before the beginning of the last week of summer camp in 1997.  The "cool" teen-staffers would arrive on Sunday nights, so naturally Sandra and I did.  Every Sunday night, all summer long, a group of kids would go swimming in the lake... this was totally against the rules, but Sunday nights there was a lack of supervision and an exess of  teen-cockiness. Each Sunday night that summer I was invited to join in the swimming, but I always said no.  I was a goody goody that never broke rules.  That particular night, with my BFF by my side, I was a little braver and since it was the last week of camp I finally agreed to take the splash.


Everyone ran into their cabins to get their swimwear on.Sandra and I were the first two ready to go, we ran straight out of our cabin over the gravel walk way and jumped right into the lake.  We were splashing around and giggling, invigorated by our rebellious rule breaking when we see an adult staff member, Erin, walking down the hill in our direction.  We froze in the water, and tried to be as quiet as possible, hoping she had not noticed us.  Just as she hit the gravel walk way near the lake, the other's came out of the cabin, yelling, "Here we Come!!"   Erin shouted, "No YOUR NOT," and the next think I knew she was standing there on the dock peering down at Sandra and I, she announced curtly, "Busted!"
We were sent to our rooms for our minds to race all night long over what would happen to us the next day.   I cried, and cried, but Sandra was confident. "Don't worry, I will handle it, We will NOT get sent home," she reassured me.   The next morning we were sent to the camp director's office, to discuss the incident.  I was planning on letting Sandra do all the talking, she was so confident, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she started crying.  We were sent home,  kicked out, rejected.

Unfortunately,our parents could not come pick us up until the late afternoon, so we had to hang out around camp all day as outcasts.  People looked at us, like we were aliens  when we went to the cafeteria for lunch, they would all stop to talk about us when we weren't looking.   We were depressed so we headed back to the cabin to lament over our poor circumstance.  We listened to music, depressing music;  The Verve Pipe's "Freshman," and DC Talk's "The Hardway," on repeat, the most depressing music we had on hand.

It's funny now, but at the time it was quite sad.  I still think they could have thought up a better punishment than just kicking us out.  They had to make an example, I guess.

The annual "Dress like a Hippie" Teen Staff Picture