{"id":1073,"date":"2010-06-02T13:33:34","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T20:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2025-11-03T10:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T17:05:00","slug":"me-and-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1073","title":{"rendered":"Me and Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

As summer nears and the thought of unloading my kids at a summer camp.\u00a0 I’m reminded of my experience.\u00a0 When I was 9, my grandparents paid for me to attend a summer camp for the whole summer, where my Aunt was working as a counselor.\u00a0 So my parents put me on a Greyhound, alone, and shipped me to Dallas, Texas where I was to meet with my Aunt.\u00a0 (Hey!\u00a0 It was the early 70’s!\u00a0 We trusted more.\u00a0 Remember, our cars didn’t have seat belts!)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Was I terrified?\u00a0 Perhaps.\u00a0 But I had my trusty Children’s Bible (best thing about it was the red cover!\u00a0 Guys… you know me and the color RED!)\u00a0 and my mother coerced the elderly couple I was sitting near to “look after me.”\u00a0\u00a0 They must have done a great job as I barely remember the trip!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I do remember the religious revival in Dallas.\u00a0 It was in a huge football stadium and everyone was on large blankets, singing and stuff.\u00a0 I wandered about, just soaking it all in.\u00a0 Again, alone.\u00a0 And somewhere in all that I did lose my red Children’s Bible.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But this blog is about Canada.\u00a0 Because after the revival my Aunt and her boyfriend (soon to be husband) drove me to Canada where they were both working as counselors at Camp Bil-o-Wood<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The highlight of the long drive was the spin-out on a wet highway on-ramp.\u00a0 Felt just like you’d imagine in the movies.\u00a0 During that trip, was also the occasion I always remember as the earliest recollection I masturbated.\u00a0 Since it was on that trip I shared a bed with my Aunt and realized I Couldn’<\/em>t do it<\/em>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So I arrive at this camp and I’m the youngest person there and I don’t know anyone.\u00a0 But I did manage to have fun.\u00a0 It was one of those pivotal experiences.\u00a0 I experienced the interesting phenomenon of desire over body pain as I pushed really hard at the end of a sprint race and got 3rd place. (Still very proud of that.. never happened again.) Got a bee sting for the one and only time in my life.\u00a0 Experienced homesickness AND having it pointed out to the entire camp via announcement that everyone’s parents were coming for Parents day EXCEPT mine… thank you.\u00a0 Ran crying to my cabin.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Had my first crush on a boy named Jim Crites.. so in love.\u00a0 (and I remember his name because at 9 I was convinced I’d be marrying him so I spend A LOT of time writing our names together.)\u00a0\u00a0 Had my first LUST on a camp counselor.. Oh my, was HE hot!\u00a0 And he took me fishing, just the two of us (and you know how I hate fishing) … so little Jim Crites was quickly forgotten!\u00a0 (Funny.. I think most of the guys I lust after take a little after that counselor… long, dark, wavy hair… flannel shirt over muscular frame and not too lean… yummy!)\u00a0 I swear he looked like something off the cover of a romance novel.. but I was NINE… who know what he really looked like.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I went skinny dipping for the first time at camp.\u00a0 GODDESS,\u00a0 it was glorious.. people should really do it more often.\u00a0 It feels completely different in cold water than in a hot tub.\u00a0 Hot tub makes you want to relax and sleep.. cold water just caresses your body.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was at Camp Bil-O-Wood that I got to take care of a horse.\u00a0 I learned tack and brushing and feeding and rode my little pony.\u00a0 I adored him.\u00a0 And learned more about riding than anyone else because while their horses walked, my little pony had to trot.\u00a0 And when their horses trotted, mine had to gallop.\u00a0 And while their horses stepped over something my little pony jumped!\u00a0 Thrilling!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And I picked wild blueberries.. enough to bring a bucket back for the cook to make us a pie.\u00a0 Of course, we were so full of blueberry already!\u00a0 Did you know they practically grow on rocks.\u00a0 I was astounded.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Little city girl that I was.. Camp Bil-O-Wood was a combination of torture and paradise.\u00a0 I experienced almost everything every camp movie talked about without all the drama.\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, and without the axe murdering.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll never know if THAT shaped my love of experiencing new things or just brought it out.\u00a0 (Although it did nothing for my un-enthusiasm for nature.)\u00a0 But half the time when I’m doing something there’s this little voice in my head taking notes, observing.\u00a0 Wondering a bit about what’s going to happen next.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Because Life is like Camp.\u00a0 Its a daily grind of routine (up with the bugle, make the bed, take a shower, get dressed, head to breakfast, listen to the announcements of what you’ll do for the day… etc.)\u00a0 broken up with unusual surprises meant to give you “new experiences”.\u00a0 Today, Cabin 12 will do canoeing and macrame.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gee.. goodie.\u00a0\u00a0 Um… Let’s go skinny dipping again!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As summer nears and the thought of unloading my kids at a summer camp.\u00a0 I’m reminded of my experience.\u00a0 When I was 9, my grandparents paid for me to attend a summer camp for the whole summer, where my Aunt … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1733,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions\/1733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}