The one memory from my camp days that I will never forget happened when I was 14 years old. Our entire unit had to go on an overnight across the lake. I was not too fond of overnights to begin with - I did not enjoy sleeping outside with all the insects flying around my head, and waking up with bites all over my face. And I always felt so dirty in the morning.Anyhow, we arrived at the overnight site, and everything was fine. We collected wood for the fire, and proceeded to make dinner (hot dogs). The entire time, we were eyeing the dark clouds that were in the sky, heading towards us. The campers all thought that it was going to rain, and we wanted to go back to camp. The staff assured us that it would not rain. They even got the okay from the camp director, safe in her warm cottage, to keep us there overnight.
After the sun went down, and we were huddled in our sleeping bags around the warm fire, sure enough, the rain began. It was too dark and too late for anyone to come in the motor boats to save us, we had to stay there until morning. The only safe shelter was an old tiny abandoned ski cabin. Over 100 of us crammed into that cabin. It was so squished and damp, and we hardly slept all night. We sat there listening to the rain. The next morning, we did not even make breakfast. Still damp, we were picked up first thing in the morning in the motor boats to be taken back to camp.
My friend and I were so overtired, and so mad that we had to go through that experience, we decided to go into the boys camp to wake them all up. Why should we have had to suffer?! So we went yelling through boys camp, telling them to all get up. Then, we went straight back to our cabin, and crashed until the afternoon. That experience reinforced my dislike for overnights. But, I still liked camp.
Erin Toole
Internet Contributor
