Self-Review – Camp

Let’s Go Back to Camp for a Review

I attended summer camp for several years when I was a tween and then a teenager. This was at three separate camps in the 1970s and 1960s. These were fun and formative experiences. And, for the most part, they all took place during more or less the same time this story is set in.

This is also the time frame for stories like Handle and The Ides of the Secretarial Pool.

I wrote this short story during the second quarter of 2021.

Background

The most conventional of the three camps I attended was actually owned by my great-uncle. And so, a lot of what happens (such as the activities, and even the films), I lifted straight from Camp Ben-Ann in the 1960s and 1970s.

Because this would not have worked with the horseback riding or wilderness camps I also attended as a teenager in the 1970s. So, I drew on my years and experiences from when I was a kid of eight to ten or so years old.

I also worked as a counselor for a more conventional place. But that was a day camp.

The prompt was the word: harmony.

Plot

Junior counselor Harmony is in charge of fourth grade girls, and is none too impressed. It’s the summer of 1978. She’s about 16 or 17, which means she was probably born in 1961 or 1962. Therefore, this makes her a member of the Generation Jones cohort.

Every bunk has to put on a skit for a talent show during Parents’ Weekend. With no real plan, Harmony ends up getting the girls to sing and dance to Night Fever from the hottest movie of the summer, Saturday Night Fever.

Just as she despairs of having any sort of a good time, she spots a cute guy in the audience. He turns out to be the older brother of Didi, the camper she dislikes the most.

Characters

The characters are Harmony, Didi, and Didi’s big brother Mickey. There are other people like the other girls in the bunk, Mickey and Didi’s parents, the director, and senior counselors. But I don’t give them any lines. This is all Harmony’s show.

Memorable Quotes from Camp

I sat down on the grass with an ice cream cone—that was our big prize—and I was wearing my H shirt. I made it myself in Art. It’s all tie-dyed and stuff. One of a kind.

Voice behind me, some guy reading the back of my shirt which, just like the front, only has a big H on it.

He starts cycling through H names. I’ve heard this God knows how many times before.

Heather. Heidi. Holly. Hannah. Helene. Helen. Honey. Hope.

That he digs into the old, weird, and ugly H names for girls.

Henrietta. Hildegard. Harriet. Hortense. Hester. Hattie. Hedwig.

Then I guess he gave up, ‘cause I of course hadn’t turned around once.

Rating for Camp

The story has a K rating. There are only a few naughty words in there, but if you blink, you’ll miss them.

Takeaways

One of the things that really makes this story work for me is the fact that I remember someone had graffitied a bunk with the lyrics to the Elton John song, Harmony.

So, I guess Harmony and me are pretty good company, eh? Er, sorry, Elton and Bernie.

Oh, and are these the same kids as in the story Never? I don’t know. What do you think?

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Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?

If this story resonates with you, then check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

Short Stories

Finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.