Quote of the Day (Dave Barry, on Summer-Camp Supervisors)

“Whatever type of camp you choose, you need not worry about the quality of the supervision your child will receive, because summer camps make a determined effort to hire staff members who meet the highest possible standards of maturity and responsibility. But eventually they give up and hire college students.”— American Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry, “Summer-Camp Memories of the Rain of Frogs,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1993

Quote of the Day (Joe Queenan, on Summer Camp: ‘Like Real Life, Only Worse’)

“Summer camp used to be a place people sent their children hoping that when they came back from two weeks of hell, they’d be less whiny and more appreciative of their parents. Summer camp wasn’t supposed to be fun; it was a socially acceptable form of house arrest. It was a place you couldn’t go crying to Mommy when bullies started working you over. It was a place where you couldn’t get away from voracious mosquitoes, bad food, extremely annoying forms of communal singing and storytellers determined to share the wisdom of yore. Summer camp was supposed to be like real life, only worse.”— Joe Queenan, “When Summer Camp Was No Fun,” The Wall Street Journal, June 25-26, 2016

Song Lyric of the Day (Allan Sherman, on Summer Camp Danger)

“All the counselors hate the waiters
And the lake has alligators
And the head coach wants no sissies
So he reads to us from something called Ulysses.”—Allan Sherman, “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter From Camp),” 1963

Comedian Allan Sherman’s hilarious novelty song, performed to the tune of Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours,” reached #2 on the Billboard charts in late summer 1963. I still can’t listen to the whole thing without collapsing in laughter.

And now, for your listening (and viewing) pleasure, here is a YouTube clip of the routine on “Camp Grenada” that had America in stitches, in the golden summer before the murder of JFK…