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Summer Camp Food Stories: From Camp Corn to Cooking on a Stick, S'mores, and more! · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:01
  Hey Sylvia, you're already for Summer Camp
• 0:04
  Yeah.
• 0:05
  You know, I actually got some interesting intel for my
• 0:07
  grandchildren that surprised me.
• 0:09
  They're seven and nine and I asked them, I said, what about camp food?
• 0:14
  'cause they go to all kinds of camps and they said they loved it.
• 0:17
  Is that wild?
• 0:18
  Because there are all sorts of memories of camp food.
• 0:21
  I went to a couple of great camps as a kid, including like day camps
• 0:25
  and then eventually the sleepaway camps and the food was always good.
• 0:30
  Really,
• 0:31
  I guess I have, I have kind of a stereotype of thinking,
• 0:34
  getting home to home cooking.
• 0:36
  But the only thing I knew and I didn't go that many camps, but s'mores, yes.
• 0:39
  You know, s'mores are popular through the ages, right?
• 0:42
  And so that's kind of what's obvious.
• 0:44
  But anyway, I was just kind of surprised
• 0:45
  A 7-year-old was describing cookies with cream stuff inside of 'em and
• 0:49
  how unusual she thought that was.
• 0:52
  I guess she didn't get that at home, but
• 0:53
  Everything's in a number 10.
• 0:55
  Can they're giant
• 0:56
  Yeah.
• 0:57
  girl scout can Food wasn't so good 'cause we had to cook it ourselves.
• 1:00
  Well, we did some of the cooking ourselves, but The teenage counselors
• 1:03
  that were doing most of the cooking and we were the kids and, but
• 1:06
  sleepaway camp in Vermont was pretty, like, they had baby cape coupons,
• 1:11
  at the very last, grand finale at the end where everybody goes away.
• 1:15
  Hey, Nancy.
• 1:15
  You were raised in New England, right?
• 1:17
  Connecticut?
• 1:18
  Well, New York,
• 1:19
  Well, it's New England is where camps started.
• 1:22
  didn't know that.
• 1:23
  that's actually Gunny Camp.
• 1:25
  Who is Frederick Gunn in Connecticut.
• 1:28
  he was the first recorded, camp, and it was all about physical
• 1:31
  activity, as many of them were a character building in nature.
• 1:35
  kind of fitting with the Victorian beliefs in nature's moral and physical
• 1:39
  benefits were a driving force.
• 1:41
  the
• 1:42
  original
• 1:42
  out in the.
• 1:43
  Outdoors my dad went to camp not too far from where
• 1:46
  my husband and I were living in Connecticut and trying to find it.
• 1:50
  It was still around, so that's kind of interesting that a camp from, oh, I'd say
• 1:55
  probably back, well, he was born in 1920, so the thirties or so was still around
• 2:02
  in Bantam Lake, Bantam Lake, Connecticut.
• 2:05
  why don't we talk about food first I'm gonna do a
• 2:07
  for, absolutely.
• 2:08
  Okay.
• 2:09
  Because that's what we're really here about.
• 2:11
  and the tradition of food at summer camp and, you know, originally summer
• 2:15
  camps were about overnight camps.
• 2:17
  Day camps have sort of evolved over the years, probably in part because parents
• 2:21
  now have to find camps for their kids.
• 2:23
  Like my son and daughter-in-law, they have their kids entirely camped.
• 2:27
  For the entire summer.
• 2:28
  And they're expensive too.
• 2:29
  Like what do you do with your kids when you gotta
• 2:31
  work?
• 2:31
  Well, yeah.
• 2:32
  Poor grandma,
• 2:33
  right.
• 2:33
  Okay.
• 2:33
  so I love them.
• 2:34
  I love them.
• 2:35
  But the, you know, the best thing about grandkids is you do give them back Anyway,
• 2:39
  let's on to food..
• 2:40
  I bet you don't make camp food like they do at camp.
• 2:42
  So, but camp foods of the, let's say the sixties and the seventies
• 2:46
  and even the eighties, apparently it's changed a lot today, hasn't it?
• 2:49
  Well, they say it used to be more important than it is today.
• 2:52
  Now guess what got invented?
• 2:54
  Camp stoves and coolers.
• 2:56
  So now you have a lot more fresh foods, like fresh vegetables and stuff like that.
• 3:01
  Now, I don't know, obviously you and I are beyond camp age, right?
• 3:05
  Unless you wanna count adult retreats as
• 3:07
  Well, the Spa
• 3:08
  Why not, right?
• 3:10
  Why not?
• 3:10
  but we're talking about mostly like the traditions of camps, and You
• 3:15
  had to have shelf stable, right?
• 3:16
  Because you didn't have ways to, keep stuff.
• 3:19
  And so I found this really fascinating video about the Camp Foods of
• 3:23
  the seventies and eighties, and it described them as long gone.
• 3:26
  I kind of disagree with some of it, but yeah.
• 3:29
  I know you've been to a lot of camps.
• 3:30
  Can I run some of these by you?
• 3:32
  Yeah,
• 3:32
  corn beef hash with an egg on top.
• 3:34
  Ugh.
• 3:35
  There you go.
• 3:35
  Thing things are hardy that, prepare you for those great outdoors, right?
• 3:40
  spam.
• 3:41
  Now this, I think has gone outta style and, you know, 'cause
• 3:44
  it was shelf stable though.
• 3:45
  And I love this one.
• 3:46
  Viena sausages.
• 3:48
  My dad called them vini sausages,
• 3:51
  That not Vienna.
• 3:53
  He says, I want my vi vais.
• 3:56
  and they actually kind of tasted good,
• 3:57
  Those were like for, adult drinks.
• 3:59
  instant oatmeal, I think that's probably still pretty
• 4:03
  that's, I think that's still around.
• 4:05
  We used to have, I'm not sure if it was instant or not, maybe it
• 4:07
  was, but the big family style oatmeal bowls would be on the table.
• 4:12
  especially in a cold morning when you're up in Vermont.
• 4:14
  It was great.
• 4:15
  Yeah.
• 4:16
  if you go and stay overnight in these hotels now that provide breakfast,
• 4:19
  they always have a big pot of oatmeal.
• 4:21
  I go right to it
• 4:23
  and there's nothing better than a great, the bowl of oatmeal.
• 4:27
  and a little maple syrup drizzled on top
• 4:29
  I mean it can be so good
• 4:31
  And it's good for you.
• 4:32
  it is.
• 4:33
  Sticks to the ribs as my mama would say.
• 4:35
  Uh, freeze dried chili
• 4:37
  I've never heard
• 4:37
  of that one.
• 4:38
  and lots of other kinds of things were freeze dried.
• 4:40
  Now see if you remember this one canned fruit cocktail.
• 4:43
  Oh, I do remember that.
• 4:44
  I remember that as a dessert.
• 4:46
  And it always had a little dollop of whipped cream
• 4:48
  Mm. Mm-hmm.
• 4:49
  Well, you don't see a lot of that around anymore.
• 4:51
  I mean, it's still on the shelves, but you know, they didn't have fresh fruit,
• 4:55
  It's hard to find, actually.
• 4:56
  It's not as easy to find in many grocery stores.
• 4:58
  You're gonna love this one.
• 5:00
  Tang.
• 5:00
  astronauts and
• 5:01
  Tang.
• 5:02
  Yes,
• 5:02
  have Tang.
• 5:03
  We had what we called bug juice.
• 5:05
  What's That
• 5:05
  Bug juices is kind of like Kool-Aid, and I guess because it was sugary
• 5:09
  sweet that it would attract bugs in the open air, so that's probably
• 5:12
  why they called it bug juice.
• 5:14
  But there was every color of the rainbow that you would get on bug
• 5:17
  juice, depending upon, you just didn't have it for breakfast.
• 5:20
  It was usually lunch or dinner that you would have it for.
• 5:22
  Yeah.
• 5:23
  Well, you could barely find Tang now.
• 5:24
  I hadn't even thought about it in
• 5:26
  I never even looked at that.
• 5:27
  But it's a jar of stuff.
• 5:28
  You put water in it and it's the food of astronauts is how they, talked about it.
• 5:32
  Cheese spread and cans.
• 5:35
  Is cheese spread at camp?
• 5:36
  in cans, because you could put it easily on crackers and stuff.
• 5:39
  It was easy.
• 5:40
  You're looking for easy stuff.
• 5:42
  and you'll, when we talk later, we'll talk about cooking camps, anything but easy.
• 5:47
  'cause it's teaching kids to cook really kind of
• 5:50
  Well, and learn to fend for themselves.
• 5:52
  I think that's a good idea.
• 5:53
  Right?
• 5:53
  we learned to cook on an open fire as kids in camp too.
• 5:56
  We'll see if you remember this one, Jiffy Pop Popcorn.
• 6:00
  That's those metal, you know those aluminum pans with the thing and
• 6:04
  then they pop and they get, if you
• 6:06
  remember those.
• 6:07
  Jiffy Pop.
• 6:08
  Jiffy Pop as much fun to make as it is to eat,
• 6:11
  I know, and of course the ever popular, I think even today is
• 6:17
  roasting meat over an open fire.
• 6:19
  Everything from weenies.
• 6:20
  Yeah.
• 6:20
  Weenies to, bigger items.
• 6:23
  Right.
• 6:24
  Yep.
• 6:24
  Yep.
• 6:24
  So, there you go.
• 6:26
  That's the fresh food and produce have kind of taken over now because kids, you
• 6:31
  know, you can look in the cooler, you see grapes, you see all those things.
• 6:34
  Of course, you know, still, I think a lot of these other things are
• 6:38
  still part of the fair part of what
• 6:41
  they
• 6:41
  tuna fish in the cans and Girl scout camp.
• 6:44
  I remember 'cause that was the first camp that I went to be on the day camp,
• 6:47
  the first overnight camp, they had.
• 6:49
  I'll call them ditches.
• 6:50
  They were ice coolers that were in the ground.
• 6:52
  They were dug into the ground with bales of hay and big blocks of ice,
• 6:56
  and so that's how they kept things.
• 6:58
  there was a lid on it that you had to go down and get everything out.
• 7:01
  it was a bit of an experience for a kid to say, that's the refrigerator,
• 7:05
  I think that is a neat experience.
• 7:07
  it kind of teaches them more of the fundamentals how you kept things cold
• 7:11
  in the early part of the 20th century, probably in the latter part of the 19th.
• 7:16
  Well, one more thing that's probably not around in camp anymore is Bob was
• 7:21
  explaining to me some of the things that they had as kids at camp, and he
• 7:25
  went up to the camp in upstate New York.
• 7:27
  Both he and his brother and his sisters went, you know, there's a girls camp
• 7:30
  and the boys camp and they said at night they would give the kids stewed prunes
• 7:34
  and they're in the little plastic bowls that sort of, those melamine kind of
• 7:38
  plastic bowls right of the fifties or sixties or seventies or whatever it was.
• 7:42
  And and there were two stewed prunes in juice.
• 7:45
  And he said they were always hairy.
• 7:47
  And I said, hairy.
• 7:48
  He said, yeah, they look kind of hairy.
• 7:50
  And so.
• 7:50
  The kids from the Bronx they were boys referred to these as buffalo balls.
• 7:58
  Now they probably gave them to the kids to make sure they didn't get
• 8:01
  constipated, but that's besides the point.
• 8:03
  Oh,
• 8:03
  they had buffalo balls and they would all laugh.
• 8:06
  know.
• 8:06
  I'll never eat prunes ever.
• 8:08
  Well, now you're never right.
• 8:10
  on them.
• 8:11
  Buffalo
• 8:11
  Buffalo balls.
• 8:12
  know, it's interesting you talk about your camp experiences and the foods
• 8:16
  and all that kinda stuff, and then it just suddenly pops in my head.
• 8:20
  kids that go to Catholic schools always have stories of the foods
• 8:24
  and all of that kind of stuff, and it somewhere like camping, it made
• 8:27
  such an impression on young people.
• 8:30
  That they carry the stories with them forever.
• 8:32
  Uh, you and I kind of miss that.
• 8:34
  you know, you mentioned Girl Scout Camp.
• 8:36
  Well, we owe the Girl Scouts a lot.
• 8:38
  They are the ones that really pioneered girls camps.
• 8:41
  Julia Gordon Lowe sold a string of pearls in order to get the uniforms
• 8:46
  for the first Girl Scouts to be able to join a troop and then go
• 8:49
  Yeah.
• 8:50
  and this is an interesting fact.
• 8:51
  It was usually for elite boys in the very beginnings of New England
• 8:55
  where it started, uh, to Rescue them from over civilization, but it gets
• 9:00
  better and feminized households.
• 9:03
  Don't you love that?
• 9:04
  Well, I guess they were real boys.
• 9:06
  I don't know.
• 9:07
  they hadn't gone woke yet.
• 9:08
  feminized households, I love it.
• 9:10
  but they were taught self-reliance, independence, and resourcefulness.
• 9:14
  But they said that the camps really varied and some of the kids
• 9:18
  had to, they went to rough it.
• 9:20
  and others were served their meals on China.
• 9:23
  Oh my good on
• 9:24
  if yeah, at camp.
• 9:27
  if you were in England or something and your royalty, I
• 9:29
  guess you got served on China,
• 9:31
  you didn't rough it and you were still wearing your lace Pantaloons
• 9:36
  right.
• 9:36
  Take your China to camp, right?
• 9:38
  That is funny.
• 9:39
  yeah.
• 9:40
  the oldest camp right now, uh, is in Westport, New York, on
• 9:43
  the shore of Lake Champlain.
• 9:45
  Have you been there?
• 9:45
  well, yes,
• 9:46
  not too far away from where I went to camp, but yeah, we were, we
• 9:51
  were up in, mallets Bay, actually in Vermont, brown Ledge camp.
• 9:54
  for Girl Scouts.
• 9:55
  no, no.
• 9:56
  Girl Scouts was out on Long Island and, the sleep away well, girl
• 10:00
  Scout was two weeks sleep away.
• 10:01
  And then I graduated to month and two month and that was
• 10:03
  Brown Ledge camp in Vermont.
• 10:05
  And I loved my horses, so, I learned to really not be afraid
• 10:10
  of them as a kid.
• 10:10
  That
• 10:11
  was, that was, like third and fourth grade,
• 10:13
  so I learned
• 10:14
  taught skill is horseback
• 10:15
  They
• 10:16
  we had overnight camping, so we had to cook on our own with counselors and
• 10:20
  all sorts of canoes and, you know, how do you schlep your stuff, your food?
• 10:24
  they actually packed us up with everything so that we could
• 10:27
  then cook it When we got there.
• 10:29
  it was a great experience.
• 10:30
  are these the Girl Scout camps
• 10:32
  No, the Girl Scout camps were a lot more wussy.
• 10:34
  Well, at first, girls Camps were teaching feminine kinds of endeavors.
• 10:39
  That makes sense.
• 10:40
  Yeah.
• 10:40
  This was an all girls camp up in Vermont, Brown Ledge, As I look back,
• 10:44
  it was really pretty swishy camp.
• 10:45
  It's still in existence, right now, which I'm really glad to hear.
• 10:48
  we learned a lot about togetherness and supporting one another, not just
• 10:52
  from the dinner table, but all the way to the waterfront and, team sports.
• 10:57
  It was really a great thing
• 10:58
  yeah, go ahead.
• 10:59
  But, the dining room was also a big activity center where we ate and we
• 11:04
  supported one another and camaraderie.
• 11:06
  So I think camaraderie happens a lot around camp dining
• 11:09
  tables and that's important.
• 11:10
  Well, did you ever participate in a very common prank?
• 11:14
  You want me to tell you about it?
• 11:15
  Yea, tell me about it.
• 11:16
  Sneak in in the middle of the night, steal all the tables.
• 11:20
  No.
• 11:21
  Ah, and take them and put them somewhere.
• 11:24
  Then have a ransom note.
• 11:26
  Oh, that's funny.
• 11:27
  Don't you love that?
• 11:28
  Oh, you love it.
• 11:29
  Hey, I got a, I kind of get an interesting kick out of this.
• 11:32
  Now.
• 11:33
  When the girls first started going to camps, they were taught and really,
• 11:37
  I didn't see a whole lot about this, but girly kind of things, right?
• 11:41
  And I'm assuming that means Learning how to cook for the family and stuff.
• 11:45
  Well, moving fast forward, I see in the world I'm in, 'cause I own a restaurant,
• 11:50
  so I'm around restaurateurs all the time.
• 11:52
  All the men are chefs.
• 11:53
  and there are women that are rising up.
• 11:55
  But I'm kind of like, let's, fascinating to me how we, at one time, Nancy.
• 12:00
  I won't speak for you.
• 12:01
  But I was a career bound girl.
• 12:05
  I mean, I wanted to be a business woman.
• 12:07
  I wanted to be all those things, but I kind of think I
• 12:10
  missed out on something too.
• 12:11
  And now boys are cooking and girls are cooking like old home EC
• 12:16
  classes and stuff, and boys took shop and the girls took home-ec.
• 12:21
  Those are, those are great skills, actually.
• 12:23
  great life skills.
• 12:24
  But before we talk about more life skills and camp, let's take a quick
• 12:27
  little break so we'll be right back.
• 12:30
  So, Sylvia, life skills and camping, I think the two go together really, really
• 12:36
  well because you have to know how to pick yourself up off the dirt literally in
• 12:41
  some cases and take care of yourself and feed yourself and feed others and make
• 12:46
  sure like nobody stars out in the wild, but or even in a less rough kind of camp.
• 12:51
  But even still camping and camping food and food experience is so interesting.
• 12:56
  To hear a little bit about what's going on, but can I share one little story from,
• 13:00
  from a, a friend I asked around for like camp experiences with food and
• 13:05
  I got this one comment from Dave Jackson, who's very well known in
• 13:09
  the world of podcasting, He said For me, I always ate frozen corn at home.
• 13:14
  My cousin was the same and when he said when they went
• 13:17
  to camp, they ate canned corn.
• 13:20
  Well, it wasn't bad.
• 13:22
  He said they all referred to canned corn as camp corn 'cause it wasn't
• 13:26
  the same thing as mom's frozen corn and then also sloppy joe's.
• 13:30
  Joe's were big at camp too.
• 13:32
  But he wasn't sure they used the same kind of stuff because the camp stuff really
• 13:37
  was more the man witch kind of stuff.
• 13:39
  But when I heard about the frozen corn, I have to say it didn't quite
• 13:42
  translate for they ate frozen corn.
• 13:44
  Isn't that kind of crunchy It?
• 13:46
  Then I realized like, no mom probably cooked the corn before
• 13:48
  It's like slow brain camp.
• 13:50
  Yeah.
• 13:51
  And that was ca Camp Kawana Ana, I think it was, that.
• 13:54
  How
• 13:54
  you all camps had Indian names, right?
• 13:57
  You might have been thinking popcorn too.
• 13:58
  I mean, you know, sort of like that's the kind of corn that crunchy.
• 14:01
  another friend of ours, Leo, talks about having snuck in cookies and
• 14:06
  put 'em in the camp, like where you put things to save them.
• 14:09
  And they were gone the next day and the camp counselor said that something got
• 14:12
  in and inate them and he to this day, suspects that camp counselor did it.
• 14:19
  Well, and then I've got a camp story on, care packages.
• 14:22
  at our big long sleepaway camp, which was either a month or two months
• 14:25
  up in Vermont camp, Brown Ledge.
• 14:27
  Some campers got care packages from their parents and I was in a cabin
• 14:32
  once with a bunch of la-di-dah girls from New York City and I was
• 14:35
  just the country bumpkin out in Long Island, which was the country at the
• 14:39
  time, and one of the campers got.
• 14:42
  It was a gourmet food package.
• 14:43
  It was this huge package with baby, baby corn.
• 14:47
  It was baby pickle corn and caviar and olives and crackers.
• 14:52
  I had Never seen anything like that in my life and say, oh this,
• 14:55
  this baby coin is pretty good.
• 14:57
  And then I sent a note home from mom saying, oh, they got care packages.
• 15:01
  Mom sends me.
• 15:02
  Two boxes.
• 15:03
  The long boxes, like flat boxes with the skinny little Tootsie rolls in them.
• 15:07
  They're, I don't know, like a hundred Tootsie rolls in each one.
• 15:10
  Well, they had never seen Tootsie Rolls.
• 15:13
  am choosing
• 15:14
  I had to hide those Tootsie rolls under my bed, but they found them, and so my
• 15:18
  Tootsie Rolls
• 15:19
  gone.
• 15:20
  Oh man, you're making me want them.
• 15:23
  I might have to go buy me a can.
• 15:26
  This is bringing you back memories.
• 15:27
  I love it.
• 15:28
  I love it.
• 15:29
  So over the years, just to quickly, say this, you just started out, it's
• 15:33
  like, boys camps, girls camps.
• 15:35
  And then the other thing that evolved were day camps.
• 15:38
  And I think that's probably as much a result uh, parents working and
• 15:41
  needing to find places for their kids to be every day.
• 15:44
  So our kids are getting more and more exposed to different kinds
• 15:47
  of one camps and two, the food that the various kinds of camps serve.
• 15:51
  And one of the specialty camps, ' cause they've got specialties and everything.
• 15:54
  My kids go to basketball, uh, baseball science, all that.
• 15:59
  But cooking classes,
• 16:01
  I think that's really interesting that there's, a cooking camp for kids,
• 16:06
  Yeah, and think about it for a minute.
• 16:08
  Where else can a child learn?
• 16:11
  And they have camps for kids as young as two to four years old now, usually
• 16:14
  it's accompanied by a parent, right?
• 16:16
  Who wants to be around little kids at two and four, you know, doing
• 16:19
  whatever you do, especially knives.
• 16:21
  You wanna keep 'em away from those.
• 16:22
  But lemme say this about knives.
• 16:24
  Start early.
• 16:25
  It's sort of like if you own a swimming pool, be sure and teach your kids.
• 16:29
  Send them the lessons about how to save themselves.
• 16:32
  But I know my chef Jeremy, when his kids were very little, he taught them to use
• 16:36
  a knife because of course he's a chef.
• 16:38
  So knives, were always around, but imagine how a child can hurt themselves.
• 16:42
  Even hurt themselves on a hot stove.
• 16:44
  Right.
• 16:44
  Yeah.
• 16:45
  so that's what these camps are all about.
• 16:46
  But where can you learn math, science, social studies,
• 16:49
  entrepreneurship, innovation, and all of those things in a camp?
• 16:53
  ' cause food is science, right?
• 16:55
  Science, food is math, food is social, food is
• 17:00
  It's crafting, you have to make it look
• 17:02
  good, otherwise who wants to eat it?
• 17:05
  And you actually have to know how to read really well.
• 17:08
  So I even remember, like my mom, when I was a kid and learning to read, my
• 17:12
  mom would have me read the back of the ingredients, boxes and recipes.
• 17:16
  So I learned to.
• 17:17
  Cook brownie as well.
• 17:19
  I think it was chocolate chip cookies as I was also learning to read at
• 17:23
  the same time, and we would practice
• 17:25
  mean, it's amazing, which is why it is so good for kids to do these things.
• 17:29
  like I said, from two to four, it's usually with a parent
• 17:32
  there, but they explore sensory.
• 17:34
  of things.
• 17:35
  I remember going to one of his summer camps and he was teaching kids,
• 17:38
  as you would imagine, and those of you who don't know Father Jim, his
• 17:41
  mother's Miss Marie's tomato sauce.
• 17:43
  He sells it.
• 17:45
  She was Italian cook.
• 17:46
  She did a great job.
• 17:47
  He was teaching them how to make lasagna.
• 17:50
  he had them put vegetables.
• 17:52
  In the lasagna, the mix so that they would have vegetables at the
• 17:56
  same time they were eating lasagna.
• 17:57
  can have your pasta and greens at the same time.
• 18:00
  Right?
• 18:00
  Yeah, yeah.
• 18:01
  yeah.
• 18:01
  And hide it.
• 18:02
  You might hide it.
• 18:03
  Uh, so seven to four to seven, four to eight years old, they start learning
• 18:07
  knives, stirring, measuring, exploring.
• 18:10
  I mean, kids love that.
• 18:11
  Isn't that what they love?
• 18:13
  and then now we have cooking contests.
• 18:15
  You have a Young Chef's Academy.
• 18:18
  and it'll be interesting as we see these kids grow up, we'll,
• 18:21
  more of them be eating and, uh, preparing really gourmet meals.
• 18:25
  At home, and doing more of that maybe, or refined food, you know, really going
• 18:30
  out and understanding and exploring different cultures all of that
• 18:34
  Or just learning to be creative, like who cooks on a stick anymore,
• 18:37
  that would be kind of fun.
• 18:39
  Well, yeah,
• 18:39
  besides, s'mores, right?
• 18:41
  well, when you think about campfires.
• 18:43
  I don't know if a camp that doesn't have a campfire at the end, if it's an overnight
• 18:46
  camp, right.
• 18:47
  At least a grand finale.
• 18:49
  And well, you do, you do weenies, you do, uh, all kinds of things on that open fire.
• 18:54
  Now,
• 18:54
  Po Poe boys, they call 'em, where you take the dough and you wrap the dough around
• 18:59
  Now,
• 18:59
  the bread on there,
• 19:00
  now I didn't go to camps very much and neither did my husband, but.
• 19:04
  We did go to Tetons when we were newly married and we camped, we actually put
• 19:08
  up a tent and at one time our camps were military-like, and for boys particularly,
• 19:13
  and you to put up tents and all that.
• 19:14
  We put up a tent and we tried to cook bacon.
• 19:17
  it was four hours later and the bacon was still raw.
• 19:21
  Never tried it again.
• 19:23
  I wouldn't have been, I, I should have gone to camp.
• 19:25
  Sylvia tip number one, you have to build a fire,
• 19:28
  I needed you there with me just like I have you with me now.
• 19:31
  Keep me out of trouble.
• 19:33
  So, Bob also told me one other thing that they did at camp, and it's a boys
• 19:37
  thing because I don't know about you, but I never liked to get dirty while I was
• 19:41
  eating as a kid, I was the clean girl.
• 19:43
  I didn't, I don't like messy sticky fingers and things, but they had, oranges
• 19:47
  that were cut in half and they would eat the oranges out this, so that the half of
• 19:51
  the orange was still like a cup and they were told to crack an egg inside the cup.
• 19:56
  Then they had a stick that had a fork on it.
• 19:58
  So it was like a stick with a V in it, you know, like the corner edge of
• 20:01
  the branch is how they come together and they stick the orange cup that was
• 20:04
  there, or half the orange in there, and then they would put that over the fire.
• 20:08
  And so they'd have, I guess, cooked eggs in an orange cup.
• 20:12
  That's creativity.
• 20:13
  forks needed
• 20:14
  Don't try this at home.
• 20:16
  A fire
• 20:16
  outside, right?
• 20:17
  everything tastes better on an open fire.
• 20:19
  It really
• 20:20
  does.
• 20:20
  does.
• 20:21
  And then just as kitchens are, what we're all about and the stories
• 20:24
  that grow from food ghost stories.
• 20:27
  I mean, you're sitting there in the chill of the night, you got that
• 20:30
  roaring fire, and then people start telling stories around the fire.
• 20:35
  And The smell of the
• 20:36
  foods on an open fire if you're in that kind of camp.
• 20:39
  But even still little memories like Girl Scout camp, we'd have to hike down to
• 20:43
  the beginning of the front of the camp with baskets on our back to pick up.
• 20:47
  pints of milk, so everybody took turns getting the milk.
• 20:50
  I've heard of other people doing that with different camps and how the milk was
• 20:54
  delivered because kids ate milk back then,
• 20:56
  Well, I mech it, Sylvia, there's some
• 20:58
  wisdom there, right?
• 20:59
  That's, Hey, we're over 50 50, over 50.
• 21:03
  We won an award for being old, didn't
• 21:04
  I know I have to admit in public, I guess I'm over 50.
• 21:07
  Well, I kind of look like it, I guess so I don't look like 27
• 21:10
  now I'm kinda like, Hey, you know, I'm gonna wear it proudly.
• 21:14
  Why not?
• 21:15
  The whole camp idea will grow and evolve more technology is coming and
• 21:20
  I think that's kind of interesting talking about virtual camps,
• 21:23
  Not the same.
• 21:24
  Not the same, but self-reliance, ability to survive.
• 21:28
  The whole idea of prepping is somewhat related to camping ' cause that's
• 21:34
  a huge movement and something we'll talk about on a different show.
• 21:37
  But camp teaches a lot to kids and I think it teaches a lot to adults.
• 21:41
  One to be.
• 21:42
  Able to to go back to life without your kids in your house.
• 21:45
  And to appreciate them when they come back.
• 21:48
  And for
• 21:48
  the kids, it teaches them how to relate to other kids from different
• 21:52
  communities around the country and even around the world that they might never
• 21:56
  have the opportunity to connect with
• 21:57
  And when their parents aren't looking.
• 21:59
  Yeah.
• 21:59
  How they get along with people and you said a key word, preparation.
• 22:03
  I think that may be one of the some things.
• 22:05
  It's not like a survival thing where you're out there and you have to do
• 22:08
  things to survive, but it is teaching you survival techniques, things that you have
• 22:13
  to do for yourself in order to thrive,
• 22:15
  When the lights go out and there's a storm, you can do it.
• 22:19
  And of course, camp songs
• 22:21
  Oh
• 22:21
  I'll have to find a camp song and put this at the end of the show.
• 22:24
  But there are lots of those.
• 22:26
  the only thing that comes to mind is a hundred bottles of beer on the wall, and
• 22:29
  I don't think that that is a camp song.
• 22:31
  No, no, no.
• 22:34
  (singing) Do your ears hang low?
• 22:35
  Do they wobble to and frow anytime
• 22:37
  and
• 22:37
  not tie the bow?
• 22:39
  Can you throw 'em over your shoulder like a continental soldier?
• 22:41
  Do your ears hang low?
• 22:43
  And then the other other table would, yes, yes, my ears hang low
• 22:46
  I
• 22:47
  it got louder and louder and louder.
• 22:48
  Went from really soft and then went down to.
• 22:50
  Anything.
• 22:51
  Nancy.
• 22:52
  Oh, got lots of camp
• 22:53
  summer camp.
• 22:54
  all.
• 22:54
  I wanna go back to camp.
• 22:55
  You'll come to Camp Florida.
• 22:56
  Okay.
• 22:57
  Yeah.
• 22:57
  let's see.
• 22:58
  Your olive trees.
• 22:59
  Yes, absolutely.
• 23:00
  Well, on that note, I think it's time to put this one to bed and
• 23:04
  maybe we'll build a fire have a
• 23:06
  little extra, some more.
• 23:07
  And as this adult camp, have a glass of wine around the fire.
• 23:10
  There you go.
• 23:11
  If you like the show and you have some camp memories and songs you
• 23:14
  wanna share, please let us know.
• 23:16
  It can send us a message in.
• 23:17
  podcast.family tree food and stories.com, or just find us on Facebook.
• 23:22
  We'll put a link in the show notes.
• 23:24
  So take care, be well.
• 23:27
  and every meal has a story.
• 23:29
  And every story is a feast Bye-bye.