If I Were Going to Summer Camp Today, Here’s What I’d Pack
Full disclosure: I’m one of those people. The ones who start every other sentence with “when I was at camp…” From the time I was eight years old until I was 18, I left my hometown of New York City, boarded a bus, and spent eight glorious weeks hanging out with my girls (and boys, ahem) at sleep-away camp in upstate New York.
Folks who’ve never been usually stare at me wide-eyed, asking what hellish thing I did to deserve being shipped away from my home for two whole months, and find it incomprehensible when I tell them I asked—nay, begged—to go. They pretty much pass out when they hear I kept a calendar next to my bed on which I counted down the days until I packed my steamer trunk (two duffles in the later years—so much easier) and got the hell out of dodge.
I’m not going to try to sell you on the idea—it’s not for everyone, although for me and my camp friends, as trite as it sounds, it absolutely helped shape us into the people we are. There’s something very powerful about spending your formative years around kids you didn’t go to school with all year, getting to do things like play sports (or try to weasel out of them, like the #citykid I was), put on plays, learn waterfront skills, dance and sing, and just kind of be in an environment like nothing you’ll ever experience again.
Which is why I’m beyond excited for the debut of “Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp,” Netflix‘s eight-episode prequel to the 2001 movie of the same name, which launches today. Like the movie, the series is literally packed with stars, including Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, John Slattery, Janeane Garofalo, and Josh Charles.
In honor of the already-acclaimed series—and the fact that I’m stuck in the real world right now (ugh) instead of making up a dances with my bunkmates for tonight’s talent show—here’s a look at what I’d pack if I were shipping off to summer camp today.
