MY CHILDHOOD CAMP BUDGET

I was ten in 1962. 

Christmas – for me during my growing-up years – was a huge time for receiving! Mom bought me school supplies, clothes, games, toys, underwear, socks; pretty much everything I would need to get me through until the next Christmas. 

Then, I got nothing in between – or at least very little. No school clothes in August. I usually did get a birthday gift in January, but it was often just given to me in a shopping bag. 

However, my Dad started me working when I was eleven. He cared for our doctor’s lawn and turned it over to me [he had done the same with my brother, Ira, years earlier]. He took two Saturdays to teach me the job and then turned me loose. I cared for that lawn until I left home in June, 1969, at seventeen years of age. I also added four more lawns to the list. So, the money I spent was usually my own. 

Before turning eleven, my Dad would give me a dime every weekday during camp meeting. I would choose very carefully how to spend it at the camp store. Popsicles were five cents, so that was usually my choice. 

But, don’t feel bad for me. In that day, you could return pop bottles for two cents! I would scavenge for pop bottles and could often double my daily budget! Fudgsicles were ten cents – I LOVED fudgsicles!!!!! 

But that wasn’t all. In the afternoon, I would go into the tabernacle and sift through the straw for pennies, nickels and dimes that fell out of people’s pockets during the offering time [the tabernacle had a dirt floor at the time, so they covered it with straw]! On a good afternoon, I could garner another ten to twenty cents! Woo Hoo! I would go to the camp store and fill my pocket with penny candy (non-existent today). Especially Tootsie Rolls! Maybe I’d splurge on an ice cream sandwich or ice cream on a stick. YUMMY! [I still wonder if some people dropped their change on purpose just to delight us kids?] 

Then, one year, something unbelievable happened! Our camp evangelist that year was Reverend A. J. West from Apollo, PA. On the last Saturday, one of his sons came to visit the camp. We were all up at the ballfield watching the big softball game; I wasn’t old enough to play yet. While standing there, this red-haired young man asked me if I would run to the store and get him an ice-cold pop. I said, “Sure!” He handed me a dollar bill and told me to buy myself one too! Oh – my – goodness! I was thrilled! I ran as fast as I could and then ran back with two cold Cokes (in glass bottles) and his change. When I went to hand him his change – BRACE YOURSELF – HE TOLD ME TO KEEP IT! 

I held in my hand sixty cents! I had hit the jackpot! I couldn’t believe it! I don’t think I’d ever had so much money of my own before! It was amazing! When he drank his bottle, I picked it up and added four more cents to my pocket! 

Doesn’t the Bible tell us to be wise as serpents? 

I wasn’t a rich kid, but with a little investment of time and some ingenuity, I did alright!