End of Year Lookback Part Two

After the launching years I spoke of yesterday came the developing years when you were just starting to become who you would be, maybe as part of a team or a troop. Me, I was part of a camp, a little kid in falling-down socks and an odd sort of woolly green bathing suit that bagged at the seat and stood away from my little-kid thighs.These were the years for teams and troops and summer programs at the  playground where you did what you did without parental interference. Moms and dads mostly didn’t go to their kids’ games back then and you did the Scouting thing alone too much of the time, sometimes even walking to your troop meetings. And as for camp, well, the whole point of summer camp was to get you away from your house and teach you how to win and lose with an equal grace.I went to camp for ten years and the kids I was there with became two things on account of the experience, (1) competent athletes and (2) people who could sing. We sang morning noon and night: funny songs, schmaltzy songs, rousing songs, songs written by Steven Foster, George M. Cohan, Carl Perkins -  everything from 'Swanee' to 'Over There' to  ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ in other words. In the camp dining hall other kids would call on you to sing and you got up and did it, simple as that. Talent didn't matter as much as heart.I guess that's what those late-childhood years on teams and in troops and at camp are all for: the growing of heart. Think now: what did YOU do back then to go about growing yours?

(pretty sure I'm the little dumpy kid with the dark hair at the end of the table)