Camp of Dreams

I want to go back to camp.

Okay, I admit that my camping days as a youth do not number among my favorite memories. Camp is one of those great places where you are supposed to go to grow "character." Mostly what I grew at camp was mosquito bites, but that didn't stop my parents from sending me there.

So no, I don't want to go back to Girl Scout camp on Lake Gitchegomme and have to run around the dinner table because I broke the no-elbows-on-the-table rule (to this day I do not see the need for such a rule). Where I want to go is to "Victorian Dreams: A Living History Camp."

This is an actual summer camp right in our little historic town. It's held in the ruins of an old girls' school (or "female institute," according to the brochure, which makes it sound somewhat like a place for the feeble-minded). But here's the neat part: For a whole week, you get to pretend you're living in the 1850s. You get to make authentic crafts and play games and sports from that time period (girls had sports back then?), learn Victorian dances (unfortunately, you have to dance with other females), enjoy morning tea, AND -- here's the best part -- dress up in pinafores! True, it says the pinafores are "camp adapted," but still. How neat would that be to dress up in old-fashioned clothes and run around in a cool old architectural ruin?!

I always thought it would have been way cool to be born in the olden days and get to dress up in fancy clothes, chase buffalo, cut off the chickens' heads (okay, maybe not everything would have been fun). But THIS is much cooler. You only have to PRETEND to have all those struggles. After a week, you get to go home to all your conveniences.

There's just one catch. This way-cool experience is for girls in Grade 4-6 or 6-9. I do not think I would pass for Grades 6-9, and certainly not for Grades 4-6 (although if I had to prove my age by my shoe size, I would probably qualify).

Too bad I was born too late to experience the real thing, and too soon to go to the camp.