The “what to bring to day camp” list includes:
Sack lunch
Bathing suit
Towel
Tennis shoes
Shoe or Cigar Box with the following:
Craft sticks, crayons, glue, string and scissors
And most importantly: A Great Big Brownie Smile
While at camp:
Croon camp songs.
Climb banyan trees.
Canoe and clown around.
Eat crunchy peanut butter sandwiches.
Make Seminole Indian Chickee with craft sticks and glue.
Better yet, glue craft sticks to each other.
Time to go home:
Put the leaning craft stick Chickee in the lunch sack.
Fill the shoe box with creepy crawly fiddler crabs, un-noticed.
Leave with A Great Big Brownie Smile.
At home:
Proudly place the leaning Seminole Indian Chickee on the TV stand.
Tuck the un-noticed shoe box under my bed.
Bed time:
Check on my creepy crawly crustaceans.
Fall asleep with my Great Big Brownie Smile.
6:00 AM:
All is not well.
Dad is yelling.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Creepy crustaceans are crawling everywhere.
No longer in the shoe box.
No Big Brownie Smile today.
* I was one of those children who loved, lizards, snakes, frogs, etc. Going home with a box of fiddler crabs should not have surprised my parents, if they knew. I guess truth and honesty didn’t register with me on that camp day. Because I grew up in Miami, studying South Florida History was part of our earning “patches”. Therefore, we made Seminole Indian Chickees (huts) for part of our badge/patch.
** Many of us readily recall our days at summer camp, or in this case, day camp. Whenever all the family is together, we easily fall into that “remember when” phase where we not only reminisce about our experiences, but also hear our grown children reveal something about each other that happened 15-25 years ago.
What fun and oh what stories. I look forward to the next generation (my grandchildren) recall their camp experiences and actually be brave enough to share them.
Who knows what really happened.
Right?
I don’t have 20-30 years to wait to hear the truth revealed.
On the Go with Lynne 
Oh this is lovely Lynne! I love you sense of humour, your delight, your sharing! Those fiddler crabs! Btw I wondered recently whether you had migrated to Florida or have always lived there… You have answered my question:)
Thanks for your comments. Actually, we lived out of state for over 40 years and moved back when we retired.
I am picturing the expression on your dad’s face 🙂 Oh, it will be marvelous to swap stories with your grandchildren!
I can still see Dad’s face.Your grandsons look about my fellow’s ages. ( 8 and 10)
As grandmother’s we both have a lot of stories to look forward to. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
How delihtful! I loved this Lynne, especially the format. My brother used to collect things like this and the first thing the family knew of them was when the odour of rot and decay became unbearable!
Thanks, Elaine. I had shared this bit of memoir year’s ago to my writer’s circle and they didn’t like the format. Am glad I stuck with it, anyway.