Smelly socks and underwear

[Guest]

We just picked up our 9-year-old daughter from camp - she's been gone since Monday. And no, she insists she didn't get homesick.

It's church camp, and a pretty terrific one, too. (Hey - just 'cause I'm having trouble with the whole God thing doesn't mean my children need to suffer!!!) Anyway, the kids rode horses, went canoeing, learned archery, shot rifles, made a birdhouse, had lots of chapel time and swam for hours every day.

Temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 90's for most of this week. All the campers were verrry warm.

But now we're home relaxing and daughter is happily enjoying air conditioning and Cartoon Network. I took her pile of clothing and bedding materials downstairs to wash.

When I opened her bag of dirty clothes the smell positively knocked me over. Damn! I think I could actually see those little brown cartoon fume lines wafting upwards.

I didn't want to even touch it.

I thought something had died in there!



I also found a pair of socks that were so muddy you couldn't see where I'd placed her name in black marker. (I just pitched 'em.)

But now this has me thinking back to my own camp days when I was a kid. I have no memory of getting that filthy, of my clothes reeking to high heaven. I'm sure they did, and I'm certain it horrified my own mother. But I'll bet I wore those stinky clothes all day without a second thought. Without a care. Happily. Cheerfully.

Camp is fun. And getting dirty and stinky is fun, too.



Anyone have any fun camp memories to share? (They don't have to be stinky. )

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I would rather spend the day shopping with sarahhh then go camping.

 

[SnoopDog]

We just picked up our 9-year-old daughter from camp - she's been gone since Monday. And no, she insists she didn't get homesick.

It's church camp, and a pretty terrific one, too. (Hey - just 'cause I'm having trouble with the whole God thing doesn't mean my children need to suffer!!!) Anyway, the kids rode horses, went canoeing, learned archery, shot rifles, made a birdhouse, had lots of chapel time and swam for hours every day.

Temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 90's for most of this week. All the campers were verrry warm.

But now we're home relaxing and daughter is happily enjoying air conditioning and Cartoon Network. I took her pile of clothing and bedding materials downstairs to wash.

When I opened her bag of dirty clothes the smell positively knocked me over. Damn! I think I could actually see those little brown cartoon fume lines wafting upwards.

I didn't want to even touch it.

I thought something had died in there!



I also found a pair of socks that were so muddy you couldn't see where I'd placed her name in black marker. (I just pitched 'em.)

But now this has me thinking back to my own camp days when I was a kid. I have no memory of getting that filthy, of my clothes reeking to high heaven. I'm sure they did, and I'm certain it horrified my own mother. But I'll bet I wore those stinky clothes all day without a second thought. Without a care. Happily. Cheerfully.

Camp is fun. And getting dirty and stinky is fun, too.



Anyone have any fun camp memories to share? (They don't have to be stinky. )

Ah, dammit. One thing that sucks about Europe is that we're missing some really cool US traditions. I've never been to a camp in the summer.

Snoopy

 

[RavenSpirit2k4]

Shows you where my brain is at. When I first read the thread title I thought it said "cocks" not "socks".

 

[lewdandlicentious]

Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Ah, dammit. One thing that sucks about Europe is that we're missing some really cool US traditions. I've never been to a camp in the summer.

Snoopy

Should have joined Cubs and/or Scouts then!

My daughters away next week, for the whole week!

 

[SnoopDog]

Shows you where my brain is at. When I first read the thread title I thought it said "cocks" not "socks".

Lol. With a naughty mind like that I wonder why you come to a site like Lit,

But looking at your av it just occured to me....
..... the mystery is solved. Now we know who shot JFK !

Snoopy, calling the FBI right now, anyone got the number ?

 

[SnoopDog]

Re: Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Should have joined Cubs and/or Scouts then!

My daughters away next week, for the whole week!

Yeah, that was a possibilty my parents never took.

Snoopy

 

[oggbashan]

I used to go to summer camps with the Boy Scouts - nothing like the US tradition.

We would aim to bring back everything, except the clothes we were wearing to travel, absolutely clean.

But...

I went on a hike in Australia with just one other Senior Scout, not as Scouts but as two teenagers. We intended to live off the land using traps and guns.

That was too easy so we made things difficult for ourselves. He took a black powder revolver and a WWII SMLE .303 rifle.

I took an 1810 Baker muzzleloading black powder rifle and a Colt 1911 .45. I didn't use the Colt.

We trapped, shot and skinned our food. The only thing we didn't have enough of was water. When we dug in the bed of a river we found a trickle that would provide about a pint of muddy water every three hours. We needed that for drinking and cooking. There wasn't enough for washing.

We became covered in blood from the skinning.

My 'friend' shot me with his rifle. It was a partial misfire and only pierced my leg to about one inch but it bled.

When we returned to civilisation after 10 days people stood upwind of us. Our clothes stood up on their own. We each had a zoo of flies.

My parents weren't home. I soaked my clothes in a paddling pool while I showered (except the leg wound) three times.

I went to hospital when clean. They removed the bullet and stitched up the hole.

My parents never knew. My mother was so annoyed about the sludge in her washing machine that she forget to notice that I was limping.

Og

 

[lewdandlicentious]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Yeah, that was a possibilty my parents never took.

Snoopy

Did you ever ask??

 

[SnoopDog]

Wow Ogg, that's a pretty exciting story.

Now you can always go like, [VOICE=Pacino] 'Yeah, I've been shot once but I survived'[/VOICE]



Or if someone asks you about the scar you just have a grin and a short look, saying 'Vietnam'.

Snoopy

 

[lewdandlicentious]

I used to go to summer camps with the Boy Scouts - nothing like the US tradition.

We would aim to bring back everything, except the clothes we were wearing to travel, absolutely clean.

But.....................................

My parents never knew. My mother was so annoyed about the sludge in her washing machine that she forget to notice that I was limping.

Og

Good on yer Og. Nothing more "Character building" than an experience in "roughing it"!

Know that from experience!

 

[SnoopDog]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Did you ever ask??

Nah, it never really entered my mind. None of my freinds went either.

Ahhhh, all the possibilities wasted.

Snoopy, getting a bit melo-dramatic

 

[lewdandlicentious]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Nah, it never really entered my mind. None of my freinds went either.

Ahhhh, all the possibilities wasted.

Snoopy, getting a bit melo-dramatic

That would be "Nostalgic"????

 

[Guest]

I was in the Brownies and Guides and went camping on a few occassions. I managed to stay pretty clean and unharmed, though. Must've been lucky with the weather, or something.

My brother once went camping with the scouts in atrocious weather. His tent blew down and he ended up sleeping in a gorse bush. When he got home, the only dry thing in his kit was his flannel (wash cloth), my Mum was not amused.

Lou

 

[SnoopDog]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

That would be "Nostalgic"????

That'S more like it. Plus I wanted to express that I'm almost close to tears thinking about my youth.
Sometimes the english language just slaps me on my head and does whatever it wants you know.

Snoopy

 

[Guest]

I was in the Brownies and Guides and went camping on a few occassions. I managed to stay pretty clean and unharmed, though. Must've been lucky with the weather, or something.

My brother once went camping with the scouts in atrocious weather. His tent blew down and he ended up sleeping in a gorse bush. When he got home, the only dry thing in his kit was his flannel (wash cloth), my Mum was not amused.

Lou

LOL Lou
i was a brownie leader for a year.. poor kids..
we never ever went camping but had one huge blowout party at the end of the year.

they did slime races and slip and slides into vanilla pudding.. if it was messy they did it. what a hoot.

i dont think ill ever be sane again.

 

[hotchkiss]

It's not just kids you know I remember (most fondly) going off on scooter rallies in my younger hoolie days for long weekends 5 days sometimes and wearing the same clothes all the time! (I sometimes took my boots off to sleep!)

5 days of sweating farting boozing vomitting and often the other certainly hardened the soles of your socks and calcified your gusset to say the least.

Weve sat in many a "little chef" on our way home with a ring of empty tables around us! So why am I so disgusted with my kids if they try to stretch their socks over two days?



CHEEKY CHEEZ

HK

 

[CrazyyAngel]

Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Ah, dammit. One thing that sucks about Europe is that we're missing some really cool US traditions. I've never been to a camp in the summer.

Well ... depends in witch part of Germany you grew up. If I remember correctly I was in summer camp 3 times. Two times pretty close to home and the third (and last time, because the Berlin wall had come down half a year earlier) I was in Hungary. That last time wasnt actually that exciting, as I was the one the others taunted for most of the two weeks.

So in the former east germany it was quite common to send your children to summer camps for 2 to 3 weeks.

CA

 

[Remec]

Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Ah, dammit. One thing that sucks about Europe is that we're missing some really cool US traditions. I've never been to a camp in the summer.

Don't fret too much. Not all of us over here have been to a camp in the summer either. (Or any other season of the year.)

My dad was in the Navy until my freshman year of college, so my summers were mostly a series of baseball, basketball, football, and soccer games, or just playing tag and whatever else me and the kids in the neighborhood decided to do that day. This was mostly when my dad was either deployed or working a shore position that required us to stay in town during the break from school.

But when he was able to do so, he'd take several weeks of leave all at once and we'd spend most of the summer off visiting relatives in Pennsylvania, or taking a trip here or there learning about the country and all sorts of things...

Which, as fun and amusing as that could be, always seemed to pale beside the prospect of what I might've experienced at camp. I never really pushed to go, though, since we have four kids in the family and I doubt we could've afforded it anyways.

 

[RavenSpirit2k4]

But looking at your av it just occured to me....
..... the mystery is solved. Now we know who shot JFK !

Snoopy, calling the FBI right now, anyone got the number ?

Well, there's no reward or anything, so you may as well put the phone back down.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Don't fret too much. Not all of us over here have been to a camp in the summer either. (Or any other season of the year.)

We're lucky that church camp is relatively inexpensive (and our church helps out with more than half the cost). Our kids will always be able to participate.

Other types of camps are ridiculously expensive. Music camp at a major university runs more than $450 for one week of performance experience and room and board in one of the dorms. Cheerleading, dance, drill team, drum major, and every sport you can think of has a camp that costs even more.

Often camp promoters advertise the chance to work with a professional (like at a "Michael Jordan Basketball Camp"). Of course, the pro makes a token appearance, which the kids do enjoy, but it is hardly worth the high price.

It is affordable if you don't have to pay for room and board, so if you live in a university town you have better access to these types of camps.

Of course, it isn't as fun for the kids if they don't get to stay overnight. That's what develops character, and independence, and all those other things . . .

As for roughing it, my family camped quite a bit. We kids were all in scouts so we camped with those groups and our church youth group was always involved in some sort of conference or camp gathering.

Today? I'm ashamed to say I don't think I could do it. I don't think I could go grubby and camp out in the woods.

I love having clean fingernails. I don't like the smell of bug spray. I hate it when my hair is tangled. I love baths far too much, and why on earth would you want to leave a perfectly comfortable home with access to a cold beverage, internet, and a satellite dish?

Makes no sense to me.

 

[SeaCat]

Bwahahahahahahaha Summer Camp?

My father used to load us kids, (My brother and I, somehow my sister was always left out,) with packs damn near as heavy as we were and we would end up treking through the woods, mountains, or swamps.These packs would contain ammunition, weapons, and two meals. We also carried water purifications systems, a poncho liner, and maybe a couple of spare pairs of socks. We lived off what we could catch and cook. I can't remember any of these trips being less than a week long, many longer. We did these anytime he could get time off, no matter the weather or season. Amazingly something from these trips seemed to stick.

My brother recently retired from the army as a major. I have one degree and am working on my second. Neither my brother or I tend to get flustered when things don't go our way, we just dig in and keep going. On the other hand my sister is a Welfare Queen, (lives on the Dole for you Brits,) and is upset when things aren't just given to her.

Smelly socks and underwear? Just be happy they didn't try to escape when you opened her kit.

Cat

 

[Guest]

Smelly socks and underwear? Just be happy they didn't try to escape when you opened her kit.

Cat

 

[cloudy]

There's a trail ride here in the Spring, that covers 168 miles in 8 days. It doesn't sound long, but believe me, those are some looonnnnggg days on horseback. My husband and I have done it three times (actually got married on it). We have a horse trailer that has a very tiny living space in the front - actually room to change, and a bed over the trailer hitch. We got up at 4, fed the horses and ourselves, and were leaving camp by 8 at the latest, only to arrive in the next night's camp somewhere between 4 pm and 8 pm.

Your ass hurts, your legs hurt, your back hurts, and there's no bath or shower to be found. We did, however, have a water tank on top of the trailer that we ran a house down so we could climb into the relative privacy of the back of the trailer, and hose off.

The last day of the ride, we rode into the Montogomery Livestock Fair, and that was the opening ceremony for the rodeo, etc. Way fun. (horses didn't like it much...really loud). We stayed in a hotel that night, and my husband and I fought over who got the shower first.

I wouldn't trade those memories for the world.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Smelly socks and underwear

Today? I'm ashamed to say I don't think I could do it. I don't think I could go grubby and camp out in the woods.

I love having clean fingernails. I don't like the smell of bug spray. I hate it when my hair is tangled. I love baths far too much, and why on earth would you want to leave a perfectly comfortable home with access to a cold beverage, internet, and a satellite dish?

Makes no sense to me.

If that's your idea of camping, you're not doing it right.

All depends on your equipment (take that as you will) and your tent buddy.



I love camping. Care to experience it the 'Lucky' way?



~lucky