Summers Camp USA

Intermediate

Posted on: 28 Jul, 2008 05:46 AM

I’ve spent a fair amount of time lately taking stock and taking note. I’m searching for the parts of my California, USA culture that I am grateful for and proud of. The things I can tell my children to be grateful for and proud of. The things I just plain like about my country.

Summer is rife with American traditions. July and August are the months we Americans let loose and celebrate each other. It is the time we come together and spend low-key time together. If we’re going to do the simple things – family picnics, barbecues, camping weekends – this is the time. The warm weather and easier schedule (usually no school, often less work) lightens us up and we do things like invite neighbors over for dinner. We find parks and swimming holes where we play in the evenings or weekends. We drive or fly to spend time with family

"American as Apple Pie." I’m suspect of so many of the symbols and sayings that represent America, but I must admit a soft-spot for summer fruit pies, watermelon, grilled food and any kind of multi-generational competitive game. Softball, bocce, soccer, horseshoes…it all works for me. I think we’re pretty okay in the summer. And that’s all of us, no matter the religion, economic class, ethnicity. We’re unified on this summer stuff. For one season we seem to have our priorities right.

This year our family dove into an age-old USA tradition that I had never experienced before: The Family Camp. In the early 1900’s these camps sprung up across the US. Some had religious foundations, others were simply about getting city folks back to nature. The main purpose of a family camp is to allow families to spend time playing together in a relaxing place. I’d seen movies like Dirty Dancing with scenes from these family camps, so I knew enough to know that I would be asked to act sillier than I am normally comfortable with. I was resistant, but after some persuasion from a dear friend, agreed that four days with the whole family near Yosemite couldn’t be that bad.

We arrived at the Berkeley Tuolumne camp at lunch time, exhausted by the long morning of packing and driving, and were immediately ushered into our tables at the cafeteria by a wave of impossibly young and impossibly energetic camp staff. Then the singing began. Surely my stubborn skeptic’s stance was not so helpful, but the overwhelming Good Attitude of the 150 other people in the cafeteria of this rustic riverside spot did me in. It was probably less than five minutes and I was up on my feet alongside my family and the dozens of other families, singing, clapping and cheering the various announcements of various adventurous, playful or downright silly activities offered that afternoon. It was a done deal. We participated in activities alongside all sorts of strangers. Nothing in common, no religious or geographic or ethnic ties. The only thing we shared was a particular brand of American culture, a wholesome, old-fashioned sensibility that says it is a good thing be together without much of anything but ourselves, enjoying nature and playing...even if it does get silly.

Here are a few photos from family camp. You’ll find more in my library. I'd love to hear about summer traditions in other parts of the world.

Everyone makes Tie-Dye