When I was twelve for my first year of girls camp we went to some medivial camp and the guy in charge was super weird and creepy he had us sing some weird songs one of them was about some beautiful girl that had flowers growing from her breasts and he sang it in a very loud nasally pitched voice. He gave us this demonstration of how they used to punish people in the medivial times and he had one girl come up and he was like "Jamie here snick a peek at the boys bathing in the river and in those days they would burn her eye out!" And she started giggling and he was like "its not funny!" Then he gave a demonstration with a sword like he thought he looked so cool and he did nit he just looked like an idiot. And one of the sassier girls in our group got into an arguement with him over his her husband needed to be hot and he was like your husband does NOT need to be hot you are so SHALLOW I'm like really? You as a grown man are going to argue with a twelve year old girl on thus subject? Oh man. Apperently he said something really perverted about one of the older girls the leaders told us later. He made us call him "Lord William" the whole time I'm pretty sure that wasn't his real name. Although some of the firms called him lord pervert or lord voldamort LOL He was pretty creepy honestly ive met some pretty strange people in my life but I don't think I have ever met anyone QUITE...like him!

Also he would fart in front of us girls and it didn't seem like it was just an accident either he did it quite a bit he would fart with like every step he took like a freakin horse or somethin! I'm like geez do you think you could at least TRY to hold it in mister?! Gosh! He made us wear these big old dresses and it was SUCH a hot summer and he lectured us on how they had to wear them in the medival times so we shouldn't be complaning. The tents there didn't have a floor to them and they stunk so bad Ive never smelled anything like that before. I can actually STILL imagine the smell after all these years it was that....memorable. the food was super super disgusting and I'm surprised it didn't kill us lol we had nasty meat made of who knows what then leftover meat in some leftovers soup. Then for one meal we had like a big long bumpy green weiner like thing like not a hot dog but not a sasauge either I don't know what the hell it was but it was awful! It was sorta pink sorta greenish I really shouldn't have eaten it come to think of it. Then he told us off for complaining about the food satin "my wife worked SO hard to make this food?! Really?! I could have found something better to eat growing in the freaking canal!

Thank goodness my mom packed me a bunch of snacks! That's what I pretty much survived on there! We actually had to pay like eighty bucks each to go to this camp and he made us pull his weeds I'm like so we get to pay you to pull your weeds?! Great.

Then we had a faith walk and he placed all of us girls in different areas of a big field and told us that the leaders would come back and find us we just needed to have "faith" it was getting dark so it was fairly late well he placed me by myself in the field near a road and the leaders forgot about me guess I didn't have enough "faith" haha and I was left there for like at least two hours or so it was dark and this car kept kind of driving slowly past me it sorta freaked me out. That was actually the summer Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped and they had no clue who took her yet. It would have been unlikely it was the same guy but still just the thought made me feel a little freaked out. Plus there's creeps out there everywhere so it was sort of creepy but honestly I would have been more scared now days then back then I was still somewhat naive thinking I'm a little nervous but I'm sure im being protected since this is a church activity after all geez not too smart of me to think like that haha

Well anyways so the leaders finally figured out I was missing and came and got me then everyone cried at testimony meeting saying how scary that freaking faith walk was and his they knew Joseph Smith was a true phrophet lotty dotty doo!

Well the next year at girls camp at our testimony meeting everyone cried and said how grateful they were we weren't at the medivial camp and how horrible that place was nothing about Joe that time lol

Some of the GIRLS not some of the firms and SAYIN my wife not SATIN my wife. Satin would probably not make the best wife in the world I don't think.

How old are you?

Lots of things that did and could have gone wrong, or worse. Pink/Green (mystery meat) sausage? Probably undercooked because of its size. A German politician (Count Otto von Bismark), once said, "People should never know what we put in their laws or sausages."

Of all the problems you describe, what strikes me as the big one is that a man ran the entire thing. (Doubly so, since hw as a jerk.) Girls camps and similar activities should be planned and run by older women, for all sorts of reasons, especially understanding girls' issues and to establish female rapport and bonding. Men should stay in the background, help with the logistics, and perhaps be available for security--such as checking out a suspicious vehicle or hiker in the area.

I'm 27 we went to that girls camp in the year 2002 it was my very first girls camp so I would have been twelve at the time. LOL oh man that remark about sausages makes me a little scared to eat sausages now!! Lol

And YA I thought it was a little weird it was ran by a man too! Especially a man like him! He was a big creep! It sounds like from some of the things the leaders told my parents that I found out later that he was a much bigger creep than I had originally thought he said some very innoproriate things to the leaders about the one of the girls even if I had heard it I probably wouldn't have understood cause I was VERY sheltered and thought that babies came from a kiss and prayers from heaven at that point in my life....good greif lol plus I was only twelve so he didn't pay too much attention to me "oh darn" more to the older girls

and OH ya He was VERY controlling the ONE fun thing we did the whole time was go to a waterpark and he was like "ok you girls have an hour and a half and then you need to be back here! Like REALLY we only get to stay at the waterpark for aboht an hour?! And he seemed to LOVE power over us and he really seemed to love telling us off for some reason. Ugh it really was just VERY strange the whole experience. I think some of the girls were a bit traumatised by it actually
I really wish the leaders would have just packed us all up and left. Oh well at least it was...memorable right?

I've never heard of a medieval themed girls camp or a girls camp where you could water slide. Did you attend LDS girls camp? Where was it? Sounds very odd...

The girls camp I went to was more like "mean girls" camp. I was 13 years old and a new convert, and the girls from the very wealthy families were not nice to me. I was ridiculed because I was still wearing an undershirt and not a bra like the other girls. It was torture and although I remained TBM for many years I never returned to girl's camp. Once was enough.

I had the mean girls experience as well. My parents made me go every year, though, until I turned 15 and got a summer job. I hated girls camp.

I loved girls camp for the most part (except when we had to do crafts. Who does crafts in the woods? Lol) One year at stake girls camp, a few girls in my ward stole everyone's underwear and strung it up from the flag pole. Our leaders were so pissed and so was everyone who got their underwear stolen.I thought it was semi-funny, but lame. It was quite uncomfortable the rat of the week.

Crafting was the best! Boondoggle, popsicle sticks and yarn. Camp was great fun back in the dark ages (75-81). Once, we did a 10 miles in and 10 miles out hike in the Uinta Mountains. I'll never forget green chicken a la king. It was from a pouch and it tasted as good as it looked--yuck. The leaders started the food fight. We did have the obligatory testimony meeting with lots of sobbing and gooiness. Other than that meeting, we blessed the food, end of story.

My daughters were badgered with spiri"chall" stuff and poor treatment from clique-y snobby girls. They only went once each.

The crazy part of the 20 miler was that someone packed in a full Gorilla suit. I'm pretty sure it was a leader. The young women leaders are usually spectacular women, even if they are deluded.

The dude that ran "girl's" camp? What the hell? That story gives me the heebie jeebies.

Aww dang I'm sorry guys :( I had mean girls in my group too they made me ride in the front seat and not in the back with them so they could sit by there "stuff" heartbroken I'm so sorry that's so mean of them to ridicule you for that how dumb! Ya scout camp sounded much more fun and I wasn't a fan of crafts either

My girls' camp experience was fun for the most part. We had a theme for our cabins and planned our PJs and other things around the theme. It was cowboy/rodeo. One of the sisters was a good artist so she drew life-sized cowboys that decorated the ends of the bunks. We all brought cowboy hats and dressed up.

My favorite was our PJs - we bought red and white striped gowns so they looked like prison-wear. We wore our cowboy hats and even had licorice for cigarettes! Looking back I am shocked they let us pretend licorice was cigarettes! I wouldn't believe it, but I have a picture from that night! 1970s - early 80s was much more relaxed!

I remember learning survival skills - making tea out of pine needles and one girl got caught using matches to start her fire!!

We also had a night where some women came in and gave you your 'colors' - the color schemes that would look good with your skin and hair! I still tend to buy those colors to this day!

I do remember my TBM friend telling me how 'special' the testimony meeting would be - I was a never-mo so I had never been to one...I just remember a lot of crying! :)

Good memories - now I have to find those pictures!!

who was a snooty little witch, and our daughter had a miserable time. During the day, the two ignored each other, but had to share that tent at night. Dtr refused to go to camp again.

Younger daughter only agreed to go if she had a one-person tent. I had one from my single days, when I used to go camping with women friends from work. There was some resistance from the church leaders, who said that the girls were NOT to sleep in their own tents, alone. I remember telling them, "Well, it's her decision. Either she sleeps in her own tent, or she doesn't go."

DD slept in her own tent and had a great time. Other girls told her they were jealous.

Carrie - I remember the "colors!" I felt so validated that my color choices of blue and colors that went well with it were the "right" ones! To this day, I avoid yellow, orange, or rust colors. I never liked them anyway.

Creepy is a good description of Mormon girls camps. I sent my daughter to camp, "because it's a good way to raise children." The second year, she balked a bit, but her peers pressured her to go. She told me about the testimony meetings, during which the girls were forced to bear their testimonies, and weren't allowed to stop until they cried. My daughter cried after the first word, because they forced her to tell about how her father abandoned all of us, and how her grandparents died. They called her "The Crier." Is this a "testimony?" Not about God or religion, really. It was forced emotional vulnerability, to break the girls down, so they would "bond," and feel close to the cult members, around the campfire. My daughter said, years later, that she had felt "stripped naked" and "emotionally abused."

It should have been a red flag, that parents were not allowed--not even to visit. The bishop came to one of the campfire ceremonies, each year, and spoke to the girls about morals.

While my daughter was at camp, her other grandmother died, and we wanted her to fly to California with us, for the funeral. There was no phone contact with the camp. I had to go get her at camp that afternoon, but I needed exact directions how to get there. First of all, it took many inquiries, and a few hours, to finally get directions. Nobody seemed to know even where it was. A few of the people I asked, refused to tell me, saying that children were not allowed to go home from camp. Finally, I found out that our neighbor's daughter had recently come home, because she had fallen off a log, and had broken her arm. I found her parents in the waiting room at the ER, and her father gave me detailed instructions on how to get to the camp. By then, it was dark. It was a 3-hour drive, and the last 1 1/2 hours was on dirt roads, unlighted, in the very black night. I was the only car on the road. When I got there, everyone was sitting around a giant bonfire. Two women hurried out to the car to "greet" me, asking who I was. I told them who I was, and that we were having a family emergency, and they said that It was against the rules for me to see my daughter, and that parents weren't allowed, and for me to turn around and go home! I got out of the car, and started walking towards the campfire. Two more women, and a man tried to stop me. (I had no idea Mormons were so belligerent--otherwise, I would not have gone by myself.) A few of the adults were the neighborhood leaders, and I thought they were my friends. I started calling out my daughter's name, and some of the girls went to get her. When she saw me, there were tears in her eyes, and she was very upset, and she said that she was going to get in all kinds of trouble, because I was there. Somehow, I managed to get her back to the car. I told her that Grandma had died, and that we had flight reservations out the next day, but it was up to her, if she wanted to go to the funeral. She said she definitely wanted to go, but she was still afraid to leave. I had her wait in the car, and I went back to the camp (I was frightened), and I told them that by my authority as her mother, I was ordering my daughter to leave with me to go to a family funeral. I asked where her clothes were, and the women would not let me go get her clothes. I told one of her friends (who came over to our house to play all the time) to please go get her clothes, and bring them to me.

I didn't make any big verbal issue of it, because my daughter was sad about Grandma. After a half hour of silence, on that dark bumpy road, she said, "I'm glad you came to get me." I said, "I wanted you to at least have the choice of going to the funeral, if you wanted to. She said, "Even without the funeral, I'm glad you came to get me. I was praying for someone to come and rescue me from camp!"

That's how bad it was!

I told her that I wouldn't force her to go to Mormon activities, anymore. It was her choice. I didn't tell her, but I was beginning to realize that we were in a CULT!

As a convert, I don't think I ever developed the visceral-level fear of "leaders" that many BIC members have. And since childhood, I have been resistant to "authority."

So, even when I was most TBM, I tended to call BS when I saw it, and most people learned not to give me any grief.

Dorothy oh those sound like fun crafts! We just did some weird medivial crap I mean crafts! And ya!!! I don't know what was wrong with the dude! He was seriously the creepiest guy! It gives me the chills just thinking about him! He was pretty unforgettable that's for sure and mother who knows holy FREAK are you serious!! That is super creepy! Your poor daughter! That's crazy! And them telling you to leave after you drove that far and you couldn't see your daughter after you told them you had a family emergency that's just messed up! Oh man I'm sorry! That really is creepy!

Uhhhhhhh

how about the LDS girl's camp story where the ditzy MORmONS allowed a teen girl camper to get so dehydrated that she died on a hike !!!!

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/utah-girl-dies-after-hiking-at-church-camp-in-heber/article_449a950c-83c0-11df-a880-001cc4c03286.html


Was that whacky enough for you ???? If not, can you top it ???

Sometime around 1960 my other was a YW leader. The girls at camp decided to go swimming in the lake. They had not brought swimwear, so they did it it in their underwear. My mother took home movies. And showed them to us kids.

How times have changed.

Well, there was this one time at Band Camp...

I enjoyed my girls camps so much years ago. The reason I enjoyed them was every year I would start to have asthma attacks Friday afternoons and by Friday night or Saturday morning I would have to be taken home. No stupid testimony meeting for me.
I was always the camp trouble maker. One year my best friend and I took the little packaged brownies they brought for snacks. Unwrapped them and rolled them between our palms and then placed these nice little nuggets on the toilet seats of the camp we were at. Sure did get a group lecture on proper behavior that I stifled laughing through. No one ever found out we did it.

I didn't have to just hang out with the girls in my class. I had friends in the neighborhood who were older and younger than I was, so I got to hang out with them at camp. One of my camp leaders became a lifelong friend. She just died at 91 this past summer. I even went 2 years longer than required and I was one of the "leaders."

We got to go to a boy's camp up in Idaho for a few years and they had a lake and we got to canoe and swim, etc.

The "funny" thing that happened every year we went to Camp Bartlett (that's the name--it just came to me) was there was one girl who pretended she was drowning every year. It never failed. We all just learned to expect it.

When I went, it was girls and sister leaders--no guys. A couple of the girls decided to wear their bib overalls without a shirt. They were sent home. It seemed a bit of an overreaction to me.

The only crazy story I have (I'm male, never went) was from my 13 year old daughter this year who told me the following:

They went to some condo/lakehouse/home--I don't know the location, but it was basically a large place--that had indoor plumbing. The girls were told they couldn't use the shower, because it would give them a better sense of "roughing it."

Even she thought this was a joke. All the other amenities, but can't use the shower.

I told her that it was a matter of control over them. And agreed that this was stupid.