Z-Man's Blog

Great thing about Grandmother's and Mom's, they would send you these little packages of goodies. My best memory is the brief moment I was homesick. Then, they announced a swimming competition and it all turned into a super fantastic experience. Making new friends and those fun campsite stories.

I grew up in ranch country. In ranch country, kids work. You get up early, gather the eggs, milk the cow, feed and water the animals, then you eat and go to school.

I was eleven when I found out about a wonderful thing called summer camp. I never wanted anything so bad in all my life. The argument started and went on for months. At one point, as I'm riding my horse, my mother said:"You're on a horse, in the country, next to mountains. Do you know how many city kids would love to be where you're at?" My reply:"I'm working" (Also keep in mind that I'd been up since five in the morning, it was a hundred degrees, and I was driving cattle-tough work for a man, let alone a kid).

Anyway, my mother said:"Let it go and I'll do something for you and your brother next summer".

The compromise-we worked a dude ranch the next summer. It wasn't as hard as working a real ranch (It's easier at a dude ranch because you have a large staff-instead of four people working an eight thousand acre ranch, it was about fifty people working a four thousand acre ranch-get it?)

Anyway, my job at the dude ranch was to take the tourists on a trail ride every day. The 12 year old girl I shared the duty with, we had to have first aid certification and survival skills training. The hardest part of the job was putting up with the whining of tourists who had no concept of just how dangerous just a trail ride could be. We rode out armed in case we might encounter a bear, mountain lion, or snake. Several times, an adult tourist complained that "kids had guns" instead of an adult. Nevermind that Susa

I grew up in NYC so camp was not an option on my block. But summer's were awesome! When it got hot one of the big kids would always borrow a big wrench from somewhere and open up a hydrant. That was the greatest thing ever! the cars could barely get by and we would run in and out of water until the cops came and made us leave.

Sometimes there would be a black out and all the powere in the city would go off. That was kind of bad because no one had a/c and there was a lot of looting but all the kids got to hang out on the stoop all night until it was time to go to sleep. Pretty cool!

But the best day of all during the summer was when we got to take the train from Queens to Flushing Meadows to see grass. They even had trees and a lake. Extra pretty cool! I miss it sometimes.