CAMP DON BOSCO

In the distant, I hear a bugle blowing, calling me up north into the foot hills of Snoqualmie.

Camp Don Bosco march along do dah, do dah,

The month of May reminds me of summer camp. I have been reminiscing and pondering about my camp experiences. It really was the best times of my life. If only I could go back in time and re-live it over and over again.

I remember sitting on one of those hard, metal, cold fold up chairs with my skinny butt hanging off the edge of the seat. Paying close attention to the camp recruiters- not wanting to miss a single word. Every May They would come to St Franses Cabrini and enomor the student body with their fancy slide show presentation. Slides of kids, swimming in a pool, horseback riding, hiking, camping, making artsy stuff.

during my adolescent years, my mother sacreficed much to allow me to attend summer camp. I really don’t know how she juggled the cost of camp for all my sisters who attended. She really put herself second to allow for us kids and for this I’m very thankful.

I attended Camp Don Bosco an all girl CYO camp (Catholic Youth Organization) which is located in Carnation, Washington. I remember my parents dropping me off in Seattle to catch one of the 20 camp buses. The elation of leaving home and jumping on the bus and getting away from all my sisters, all my responsibilites, the anticipation of all the adventures I would have for the next two weeks had build up into a frenzy of excitement for me. My chance to poke my head out of my hard shell of insecurity.

bring your packs and come along

On the bus we learned all the silly camp songs, “The bear in Red Tennis shoes”,”Little Skunk”, “Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Cannoe” “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt” –just a few of the many songs we learned to sing through out the day–I’m pushing 40 now and still sing these songs to my patients.

I attended Camp Don Bosco every summer and I have so many wonderful memories. Hiking along the numerous trials in search of bigfoot-I really did catch a glimpsse of bigfoot you know. I remember camping overnight under the stars- in the wilds of Snoqualmie, I really did have 92 mosquitoe bites! (hint: applying toothpaste to bites doensn’t make the itching stop) Horeback riding lessons in the morning. I would always ride horses with the gentler names such as buttercup, daisy, but too intimadated to ride Midnight, Lightening and Thunderbolt–save these horses for the experienced riders. Swimming in the big olympic size pool, I had aspirations to be in the shark group but every summer I was a jelly fish! The excitement of Making friends, getting care packages from home, playing British bull dog with 100 other girls, campfire cry fest! The scariest thing that ever happen to me happened at camp. I slept walked in the middle of the night and left my “Tonga Cabin” went outside, walked about 500 ft into another cabin. I awoke in the morning with a pair of feet in my face. I was sleeping in another girls bed in the Pillchuck Cabin–too wired. I rembemer running back to my cabin and praying there wasn’t a bigfoot outside and jumping into my camp counselers bed. I was absolutely terrified.

hear the bugle blow

In highschool, I became a camp counseler for six graders for the districts outdoor education program For one week I was responsibile for 12 girls!!! I had a blast!! My cabin won the golden broom award everyday–I kept a clean cabin. I also made sure to ransack the boy’s cabin with TP and silly string. The next day my underwear was hanging up on the flag pole (ahem) I was also a counselor for a Native American horse camp. I wanted this job so bad that I lied on my application I told them I knew how to ride horses. Thank God all the horses had gentle names (:

time to rise and go

30 years later–last weekend, BB took me back to Camp Don Bosco. I really regret I went back. Sometimes it is nice to just leave your memories alone in your heart. The camp was a ghost camp, empty of 100 girls giggling and playing, cabins in disrepair, chipped paint, broken windows, overgrown trails. I was shocked to see the olympic size pool full of leaves and green water, Ben, the bear, in the mess hall was gone–wondering what happened to the mascot? The monumental wooden amphitheater where we sat and had our campfires was even ready to cave in due to rotten wood. The woods surrounding the camp are now new cookie cutter homes. So damn sad! I did take a few pictures though, since most of my camp pictures from yester year are now long gone. The pictures really don’t do much justice though.

CAMP DON BASCO MARCH ALONG DO DAH DO DAH