“Camp Arter”


“Where are the horseshoes?!?” Chris Arter asked peering his head out of a shed. “We don’t even really need to play them, it just always looks better if horse shoes are out. It looks like something is going on!”.

Well if your biggest problem is lack of horseshoes then you must be at Camp Arter in Somerdale. I spend a night there recently after deciding to send my resume to a mortgage company. If I get the job I will sit in an dingy office on the phone all day and talk about mortgages, if I don’t I will remain in my dingy low paying current retail job. If that sounds lame, it is unlike some summer fun out in the Arter’s backyard.

Chris the fun organizer made sure candles were lit and everyone was happy. He was nice enough to fry up some hotdogs wrapped in bacon. He got too caught up playing a complicated baseball came with war veteran Chris Bishop and huge flames shot up out of the grill, but all was good and we happily clogged our arteries. At Camp Arter no one questions why jazz music plays all night long. Unusual for a bunch of people under 25 to be listening to it with out question but par for the course at Camp Arter. Not that I am complaining.

Chris spends a lot of the time on the phone, likely with other potential campers. One potential was his friend Ryan he told him he would attend Camp Arter for sure. Chris could not wait to see him. He kept calling him and got now response.

I played some wiffile-ball and later some badminton. The badminton got increasingly more intense when darkness fell and we decided to start playing with 3 birdies. Anarchy ensued and it could have passed for a deleted scene from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

Then it was off to waters sports. We played a game of volleyball with a beach ball, but the ball bounced out on almost every volley. So we decided to play some water basketball. You try to get the beach ball in an inter tube. This can get quite rough at times. A few minor injuries occurred and apparently, the opposing team was utterly confused by the rules. They also never caught on that my team had a player open standing by the net for every offensive play that we made. We than made a huge whirlpool that almost rip out the sides of his pool. We all laughed.

I didn’t really no anyone that played with me, because very few people were introduced(at least not at first). I think that’s Chris’s way of making the campers bond together and make new friends. When I left I thanked Chris, because I left a happy camper. I had some greasy food, a little exercise and memories that will last a lifetime.

Camper Ryan never did report to camp. I wonder if it’s too soon for Christmas in July lights to be up in Philadelphia.