I, too, grew up in California — in the 1950s-1960s.
My impression of summer camp (as portrayed in movies) was that it was an East Coast thing — or a New York metropolitan area thing. My guess (and it's purely a guess) is that the general summer camps slowly died out due to:
• Spiraling decreased attendance and increased prices.
• Increased prices to keep pace with increased costs.
• Increased costs for more qualified — and better screened — staff.
• Increased costs for liability insurance in an increasingly litigious society.
— and last, but not least —
• The increasing popularity of specialized camps for music, sports, chess, computers, outer space, etc.
I have no clue what it cost to send a child to camp for two months, either in the 50s or in the 80s. I imagine it wasn't cheap.
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"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things,"
Of atoms, stars and nebulæ, of entropy and genes.
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ispamforfood
14 years ago
I went to Boy Scout camps... and maybe one day camp when i was <10 yrs old... so, like, late 80s and a lot of the 90s.
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kingg-2
12 years ago
Camps started as a way to get city kids out of town and into the woods, for fresh air, swimming, all of that stuff. There are tons of camps still around, but they all seem to have a specialization. Back in the 80s and before, all the camps were pretty similar. I went one summer, when I was 12, for two weeks to one up in New York, and it was ok. Films like this one and Meatballs get it pretty accurately, to be honest. A lot of kids with minimal supervision, with the counselors kids themselves. There might have been five actual adults - over the age of 21 - in a camp with hundreds of kids and dozens of counselors.
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