Everything Changes . . . Camp Stays the Same

It's funny for me to eavesdrop on my kids' conversations when they talk with their camp friends. Although for me it's close to forty years since I've been a camper, listening to my boys' conversations brings me back. And I realize the stuff they're talking and laughing about is the same stuff we were talking about back then. The inter-camp games, the overnights and canoe trips, the nighttime raids that ended with spin the bottle. Color war and food fights in the dining hall. Staying up late into the night long after lights out and talking with your buddies. Laughing so hard that you nearly pee in your pants.

Summers come and go, styles change, and kids grow up into adults, but summer camp — sleep-away camp — stays with you forever. It's the collective memories of a time when a few weeks or two months away in the Adirondacks or the Poconos or some tucked away lake in Maine or North Carolina was your whole world. And that time seemed to last a lifetime. And certainly left you with a lifetime of memories. To my kids, summer vacation means going to camp, seeing their camp friends, and making secret plans and inside jokes. And to me, forty years later, it's the same. The memories of those summers still wash over me like they happened yesterday. When I talk on the phone or get together with an old camp friend, I am instantly ten-years-old again swimming out to the floating dock on Lake Garfield. And although my hair is a whole lot grayer, my forehead more wrinkled, and my stomach not quite as ripped and lean as it used to be — inside, I'm still that kid . . . that same camper.

So, I let my kids talk and have their fun. I let them think that their childhood will never end — that they'll never get old or grow up. Because I know that inside, camp will always keep them young. The years will grow upon them fast enough. I want them to preserve their youth, their childhoods for as long as possible. My boys are already eagerly awaiting the end of the school year when those big silver buses carry them away to their special place far from the rest of the world — to their little parallel universe where everything is about fun and games, sports and friends, laughing and just plain being anything you want to be — to camp.

I listen to my kids talking about camp — summers past and this summer to come. They wonder what bunk they will be in, who they will be bunking with, who their counselors will be. I remember thinking all those same thoughts — worry mixed with excitement all rolled up into this incredible feeling of escape and freedom — escape from parents, teachers, and authority, and freedom to be anything and anyone you want to be. Children know when you go to camp you can leave your old persona at home and redefine who you are. I know I did. I liked who I was at camp so much more than the quiet kid at home during the school year.

Sleep-away camp is packed with possibilities. It has unlimited potential and an endless road filled with adventure, good times, laughs, and the most amazing friends you'll ever have — friends that are true, innocent, and honest; friends on whom you can rely and who will be part of the rest of your life.

I can close my eyes and transport myself back to those days so many years ago. I can see our camp tucked away up in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. I can almost smell that amazing country air and feel that thick green grass under my feet. Those summers were a magical time that seemed to stretch out forever — past August, past the school year, and way past my own childhood. That special time in my youth remains forever inside me . . . and inside anyone who was ever a kid in sleep-away camp.

Ofer Aronskind lives in the suburbs of New Jersey with his three sons and Sammy, their dog. Ofer is an attorney, a real estate investor, and enjoys writing in his spare time. He has written several books for young adults about summer camp and other childhood adventures: Summer Sleep-Away, That Same Summer, and Escape From Sunday School. Aronskind's books are available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com as well as www.sleepawaysummercamp.com.