When Your Highland Goat Eats All Your Shorts Right Off The Line

An instructor teaches archery to a camper in the summer camp "Wooden Acres"

Montreal, Quebec

1942

Camp Names:

So you’re spending the Summer at Camp, and your Camp uses “camp names”… Whether you’re a new CIT or a counselor, using a camp name can be hard to adjust to (even if you’ve been waiting for this moment for years)!

You need to learn to respond to a new name, write it on papers, and introduce yourself as such. The secret to (quickly) learning to identify with and respond to a new camp name?

Refer to yourself in the 3rd person!

Yep, it’s weird! And yes, it’s awkward! But it truly works like a charm. Narrate what you’re doing, answer questions in the 3rd person- use your name in 3rd person references liberally and then some.

“Sunshine is feeling great about high ropes!”

“Casper is going to go to clean up in here and then Casper will head to lunch.”

“Snappy is headed to the lodge!”

Help your new coworkers to get comfortable with their names: use their camp names liberally as well! Even if they are a returning staff member, using their name can help them get back into their camp persona (more on this later).

“Rhythm is good! How is Acorn today?”

“Meadow is going to the lake with Sketch, does Atlas want to join?”

“Has Comet seen Ponyo yet?”

This helps everyone to get into the flow of camp, and can speed up the adjustment process- don’t let camp culture shock get the best of you, embrace the weird new culture around you! But of course, speak up when you feel the new (or return!) counselor scaries set in. Whether it’s your first summer or seventh, the start of summer anxiety can get to you- talk to your fellow counselors and admin staff, and know you will do amazing things this Summer!

vintage Girl Scouts and Velma my beloveds !!

In one episode of the Scooby Doo Show, Velma mentioned that she knew Morse code beacuse she was in girl scouts.... when I tell you I SCREAMED because I was ALSO in girl scouts (though I never learned morse code :/ ) and because two of my special interests are scooby doo and vintage fashion, but one of my, like, sub categories of special interests lol under vintage fashion is the history of girl scouts and vintage gs uniforms!! They were sososososoo cute and they changed with the fashion of the times <33 I own a 1939 junior uniform too! ANYWAYS this had to be created. The gang's ages aren't really specified and obviously they haven't aged over the years but since SD started 1969/1970, lets suppose Velma was a girl scout in the early to mid 60s. I put her in a senior uniform and tried to be as accurate as possible. yeah that's it!!!!

Source details and larger version.

900 favorite vintage postcards, mostly weird.

the audible gasp I let out upon reading the update- this is so terribly “Girl Scout camp core” that it’s not even funny lol

I also don’t think our HR lady is real, evidence: I have never once met her and she definitely has not stepped in when very clearly needed in the past… if she was long-ago fired, but we didn’t know, I wouldn’t be too shocked actually

"my camp conspiracy theory is that [our hr person] doesn't exist" "oh i actually met her last year! it was weird" "see i don't think you met her, i think you met an actress who was pretending to be her. i think [our hr person] is just a shared email account that everyone at council sometimes checks"

(conversation that was had with the lovely @girl-scout-camp)

There were some young kids playing at the park today. One of them said “Liar liar pants on fire!” The other one replied “I don’t even care about that. I don’t even believe in that.”

(Good) Camp Directors are active supporters of staff’s pure chaos and it really does set the bar quite high for future management… like what do you mean a 9 to 5 won’t support me standing on the table singing a song suspiciously close to Rattlin’ Bog at 8 am on a Monday?

I need someone to match my freak the way my Camp Directors do holy shit

things i learned working at a summer camp:

-you're gonna be ugly and not everyone's going to like you and that doesn't mean you aren't good and loveable and important.

-protective parents are the scariest and most dangerous creatures on this planet

-your beliefs will be questioned a lot in life and that doesn't necessarily mean they're wrong, but you have to be open to it. you cannot follow your beliefs without accepting that you're a human in a subjective world. sometimes you're going to be wrong and that doesn't make you a bad person.

-so many things can be solved with a hot meal and a full night's sleep

-friendships are going to be inconvenient. that is the nature of friendship. but you are going to do things for your friends because you love them, not because it's convenient, and vice versa. and it won't be a burden because you and others choose to carry that.

-literally just give yourself two minutes to breathe and think about a problem without outside influence. step into a broom closet and block your ears. sometimes you're panicking because you're overwhelmed by outside stimuli added to a situation, not because the situation is too overwhelming to handle.

-sometimes you've gotta be alone with yourself. you're feeling overwhelmed and stressed and like you're going to snap at anything that breathes? take a solo trip to the grocery store and buy a mango and eat it with your hands alone in your car. think about your favorite tv show. plan your future apartment on pinterest. just only talk to yourself for an hour or two.

-sometimes self care is a face mask but a lot of times it's washing your water bottle and your favorite pair of pants and filling your gas tank. i feel a whole lot better after washing my water bottle than i do a bubble bath.

-i'm so sorry to tell you this but exercise and vegetables will legitimately make you feel better if you've been depressed a while. i still get mad about it but it works.

go forth and be sane friends

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Mary Schmich (1997 essay)

I think about this a lot. A lot of things scare me, but some things are worth being scared about and doing them anyway.

Finding which ones they are will be a lifelong pursuit.

To all the girls I met at camp and never saw again ❤️ perhaps we'll meet again in another life