"Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter from Camp)"

(by Allan Sherman)



I've decided to start a new series:

As you'd probably guess, this series will involve random memories from the past. I'm sure I won't post one every Friday, but I have a couple of stories in progress. This could be incredibly lame, but my hope is that these posts will be better than the one about June bugs... My sweet boy has been at church camp this week, so I've been thinking about the church camp I attended throughout my childhood. I remember camp counselors, swimming, devos around a bonfire, sneaking into the boys' room (to paint their nails while they were sleeping), and the adorable itty bitty frogs! One of my favorite weeks was when my childhood pastor was the camp pastor, and his daughter Sara was my dorm mom. I recently came across a letter that I sent to my mom while I was at camp that week. I thought I'd share it with you, because it's sorta funny:

Hi Mom,

This is just Sunday. I'm having fun. Sara's a dorm mom, and I'm on her team. We're the "Rocky Roads". I'm writing to Ivar.

[continued later in the week...]

I lost a tooth Monday.

Love,
Amy

Also in the envelope was the following note:

My bike lock is 5323. Remember: don't ride after dark. I probably won't see you again til after camp. Remember to write.

Love ya,
Amy

There are a few things that strike me as funny &/or odd:

1. I didn't use exclamation points! You'd think I would've at least used one after the word fun or the part about losing a tooth! Seriously, it's hard for me to write sentences without them!! I'm not real sure when I became an exclamation point kind of girl, but apparently it was after the age of ten!
2. I told her my team name but didn't explain anything. As a current overexplainer, I don't understand why I didn't tell her that we picked our teams based on cereal names and that our cheer was "I Love Rocky Road" (Weird Al's parody of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll")! I seriously left out so many details!!
3. "I'm writing to Ivar"?? For the record, we didn't really get along at that point in time. And he couldn't read yet. I'm not real sure why I was writing to him & not Kerry. Maybe Kerry was there?! And if he was, why don't I remember that??
4. I was ten years old & telling my mom not to ride the bike after dark!
5. The fact that I stated the obvious: "I probably won't see you again til after camp." Really?!

Alrighty, thank you for joining me in this little trip down memory lane! Did you ever go to camp as a kid? If so, I'd love to hear some of your memories!