To feel I had a horribly deprived childhood because I never went to summer camp?

[AaronPurrSir]

Lately I’ve been bingeing on “Wet, hot, American summer” on Netflix and it’s reminded me of how when I was a teen growing up in dull, rainy England, I DESPERATELY wished I was American so I could go to an American summer camp. Sleeping in log cabins around beautiful lakes and scenery, fun activities, making friends and flirting with boys. The summer holiday day scheme my mum sent me to at the local church hall just didn’t cut it

Fully expecting American MNers to come on and say it was actually awful and not that fun to shatter my illusions, much in the way my friends who went to boarding school have shattered my Mallory Towers illusions

Did anyone else share my summer camp fantasies? Or anything else from different countries/cultures you wish you could have done?

@CaurnieBred I’ve never heard of that show, but I have a snow day today so that’s perfect timing!

I think I would have enjoyed an American summer camp. I went to PGL camp in Wales when I was 13 and hated it. It was freezing cold (went in march at Easter) and nearly every activity revolved around walking up and down hills for hours on end, which might have been nice in pleasant weather but it was freezing. No consideration was given to the girl who had only had a plaster cast taken off her broken foot the week before, and she cried on every single walk with the pain.
Horrible dry sandwiches and a half brown banana to keep us going all day between breakfast and tea time. As a growing teenager I was starving all week! One day I had a full blown migraine and they confiscated my migraine tablets and gave me junior calpol instead. I was allowed only an hour to lie down before being shipped off for an afternoon of motor sports on these loud little motorbike things. Followed by a 3 hour hill walk. I asked if I could lie/sit somewhere quietly, to be told no. The camp shop ran out of sanitary products within a couple of days and no effort was made by the staff to replenish the shop or help anyone who ran out, and when I needed the ones I had brought from home on the last day, someone had helped themselves and only left me a couple. It was grim. I enjoyed some of the activities, rode my first pony, made friends, but my memories are mostly of being cold and hungry. I hate country/scenic walks now, the experience totally ruined my enjoyment of that. OP if you are in the UK, trust me, you didn't miss out on anything, if my experience is anything to go by!