10 Signs You Went Jewish Summer Camp
- You built up an impressive collection of stationary to write to friends and family. (And Jewish stationary!)
- You were both excited and scared when you heard the words "COLOR WAR".
- You pretended to enjoy sports but really wanted more arts and crafts (This pencil case would have been way cooler).
- You had to iron your name into all your clothes- even socks! (Like these Nice Jewish Boy Socks).
- You know every Debbie Friedman song by heart.
- You had a HUGE crush on an Israeli counselor. (Check out our Israeli-made items).
- You hear "Hatikvah" and it brings back chilly mornings lined up around the flag pole.
- You brought out your finest Abercrombie and spent hours planning your outfit for social with the boys camp.
- You asked your parents to sneakily mail you Airheads in magazines.
- Your camp friends are still the BEST friends!
What's on your list?? Comment below!
4 comments
1. The scariest day was when laundry came back and you were missing clothes and had someone else’s. Time to check the name tag and bring to who they belonged to.
2. Color war split families, sometimes forever based on your “color”.
3. If you slept over in the infirmary you were both relieved on someone doting on you yet couldn’t wait to get out of there.
4. The camp owners were Uncle and Aunt somebody….
5. There was always one food that took on an aura that it was inedible and kids got parents to say they were allergic. Ours was pineapple fritters which I would probably love now.
6. Friday night services was something you talked down yet secretly loved.
7. Postcards to home sometimes only had one sentence, but at least you wrote.
8. Some kids got great care packages from home, others had stuff like band-aids and books…oy.
9. “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” had a non fictional ring to it at camp.
10. Almost every story told about camp was almost myth like.
HOW DID YOU KNOW?
great one!
For those of us who went to Jewish overnight camp in the 1960s:
1. One girl in your bunk made a fortune creating and selling baby bracelets to every other girl in the whole camp.
2. You were awakened in the morning over the PA system by Aunt Ethel.
3. On Friday nights you wore a white shirt, white shorts, white socks and white sneakers for Shabbos (not Shabbat!) dinner in the dining hall.
4. Each meal was preceded by two-part harmony singing of “Hamotzi lechem meen ha’aretz, we give thanks to G-d for bread….”
5. You spent all your free time planning raids on the boys’ camp…none of which ever came even close to fruition.
6. The red-haired girl in your bunk came back from the canoe weekend with the worst case of sunburn you’d ever seen (no SPF anything back then!)
7. Your senior counselor followed Aunt Ethel’s wake-up call by playing a selection from new singing sensation Barbara Streisand’s record every single morning…on the stereo she bought with her expected earnings as your counselor.
8. Your brother at the camp across the lake sent letters to your parents that presaged Allen Sherman’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” by a couple of years.
9. Your crazy curly, wavy, frizzy hair got to do its own thing for 8 weeks.
10.You couldn’t wait ’til next summer to try out for the lead in the camp show.
Older than the campers above:
1. The words"bug juice" have zero to do with insects
2. Friday nights meantnIsraelimfolkmdancing.
3. Mom taped chewing gum to,her letters.
4. Color War gives you a thrill.
5. Thursday morning meant fresh blueberry muffins at breakfast.
6. We were all Once in Love with Aunt Lsie!"
7. Wake up meant hearing every good morning song or commercial ever written.
8. Swimming in the lake means COLD!
9. Saturday nights were boy/girl socials-with a theme.
10. Crepe paper can be used for decorations and costumes.