Camp Woodland Blog

This week’s blog post is a real treat!  Bobby B and Courtney G found a fun article about 31 Signs you were a summer camp kid. In the spirit of Camp Woodland, they tailored it to include signs you grew up at Camp Woodland!  We are so lucky Courtney and Bobby will both be at camp this sumer after a 2 year absence.  We can’t wait to see more of their creativity this summer!  Here’s the list:

1.  If you know where it begins, and the second letter in…
2. You still wear your Woodland Wear on a regular basis.
3. You could never have enough friendship bracelets, and always looked forward to #FriendshipBraceletFriday.
4. There was nothing better than receiving a cologne-soaked letter from a boy at TP, typically detailing their 6 activities and a statement of how excited they were to meet you at TP fair.
5. Your first “marriage” was to a TP boy at the annual camp fairs!
6. You crossed your fingers hoping for letters and care packages from home, ideally with treats to share with your cabin mates.
7. Receiving a letter or a package was the single most exciting thing that could happen during rest hour (and to this day you still enjoy receiving hand written letters from your best camp friends).
8. You’ve lost your voice after camp Olympics.
9.  None of your friends from school understood (and still don’t understand) the bonds you created with your camp friends.
10.  Training to be a CIT or counselor taught you skills that you still use today – like how to clean a toilet (when your roommates don’t know how to) or dealing with all different sorts of people.
11.  You continuously plan camp reunions with your friends from every corner of the world.
12.  You looked forward to getting a new crazy creek chair (It’s a campfire thing!)
13. You never went to picnic or cookout without your crazy creek, and if you did happen to forget, you always had that one friend that would unclip the sides and lay it out flat just to share with you.
14.  Hand written letters will never be outdated and you still know the camp address by heart.
15. The Jordans and all of camp have become your second family.
16.  You know all the lyrics and moves to your favorite camp songs, especially how to make the ugliest faces and hands during “Three Chartreuse Buzzards.”
17. You’re a million and one times better off than all your friends during freshman year of college when it comes to homesickness.
18.  You relate sororities and Greek life to the appreciation for crazy traditions and close connections that were instilled in you at Woodland.
19. You’ve mastered the changing technique you learned in the boat house before and after swim lessons.
20.  Canteen was the best reward after a long day filled with activities.
21.  You remember hating swimming lessons, but the minute the lifeguard whistle goes off for rec swim you were always the first one to dive in.
22.  You think every leech in Sand Lake is a lake gnome from the destroyed coffee factory.
23. You refer to happiness as warm fuzzies, and sadness as cold pricklies.
24.  Every time you see fireworks you say “ooh, ahh, wonderful!”
25.  You’ve never had better ice cream than the homemade stuff on fair days.
26.  You have all the lyrics memorized to “At the Beginning” from co-ed show, and you catch yourself singing the camp-ified lyrics to country songs instead of the real lyrics.
27.  You woke up every fourth of July to Paul Revere and his horsemen shouting, “The British are coming, the British are coming!”
28.  Your 5-year pendant is more valuable than any diamond necklace.
29. The more badges on your Woodland jacket, the better.
30. T-A-C-O Bar!  Enough said.
31. When you smell “that smell” you’re instantly transported from wherever you may be in the world and taken to Camp Woodland. Whether it’s a quick whiff of pine trees or the scent of sand lake, you recognize it instantly and appreciate Woodland for everything it has been and continues to be in your life in that moment…..And it starts to get you thinking about the upcoming summer!

I think we can all agree, this list is almost the same if you went to Camp Woodland in the  70’s, 90’s, or 2013!  We have a united bond that will always make us a Woodland Girl!

The Big Banana! Sunday Recreational Swim Tradition!