Summer Camp...

I wish I could go to summer camp again, as an adult. I'd skip the swimming lessons in the murky lake, and go overtime on archery. Hopefully the craft project choices would be a little better than "paint your own coat rack", and maybe they wouldn't run out of food one night such that seconds were Ritz crackers with PB & J. But I'd love the waterskiing, the nightly campfires, and the visit from the state trooper where he shows everyone his gun.

What, you say? You never had the trooper visit at your summer camp? Well I didn't either (although I did have the rest of that list above.) But, your dreams can come true, yes you can have that trooper visit, if you go to Rescue Heroes camp with S this week! Monday afternoon, S was introduced to the mighty powers of law enforcement - the gun, the club, and the flares. (a close fourth would be the radio that allows one to talk to people all the way in Bellevue!) I picked up S from camp Monday afternoon, and aside from the dirt covering every inch of his exposed skin, and the fact that he was barely awake, the clear highlights of the afternoon were the gun, club and flares. I decided not to ask too many questions about the gun. But the club is for "swinging around" and the flares are for "lighting on the 4th of July," according to S.

Tuesday's camp was not nearly so exciting - no visitors, but lots of instruction about when to call 911 (according to S, you call when you are lost,) and a coloring book with pages to color of "good fires" and "bad fires." Can you pass the test?

I wasn't sure about how to categorize the lighter or the forest fire. The lighter can be useful, but in the hands of a preschooler? not so good. And the forest fire? If you read The True Story of Smokey the Bear, you'll learn that forest fires "burn up trees that could have been used to make homes... they waste wood that could have gone into furniture... or even to make paper to print comic books on!" But, there are also benefits to frequent small fires - some claim they promote biodiversity, reduce the risk of larger catastrophic fires etc. If you are interested in this, google "benefits of forest fires" and you can see more thoughts on the subject. I have a pretty good guess what the forest service's "right answer" would be!

For the rest of camp, Wednesday is supposed to involve fingerprinting and ID cards, and I'm not sure what excitement Thursday and Friday will bring.