My 5th grade camp in the 90s

@sissy15 (12498)
United States
March 31, 2026 10:36pm CST
I often think about my 90s childhood. It was very different from the way kids today are being raised. I remember the 5th-grade camp I went to with a fondness that stays with me to this day. I do have to say there was one part of camp that wouldn't fly today. I live in Ohio, so the Underground Railroad was something we had deep ties to. Camp was no different here. We actually did an Underground Railroad reenactment as part of camp. I never realized how crazy it was until I was older. I went to a camp near Cincinnati. I remember in the weeks leading up to it, in music class, we learned all kinds of hymns to sing for this reenactment. During the reenactment we were warned that if anyone got scared to stand by the teacher and they wouldn't be singled out. I remember we were told we were slaves and that we were trying to escape to freedom. We were told to tell the people we met along the underground railroad that we were a choir and had our master's permission and had papers stating as much. There were houses set up along the way where we would knock on the door and say we were a "friend of a friend" and some of the people along the way would hide us, and some would try to capture us. At one house, we hid in an attic, and we were found and I remember there being a lot of noise and I heard something smash and the lady yelled "Run!" and we all ran down the stairs and out to the trails. We eventually came across two men (both of them were 6th grade teachers) and they stopped us and we showed them our papers, and the one (the guy who was later my 6th grade teacher) tore up the papers and grabbed a kid and "whipped" him. He took him behind a shed and told the kid to yell as he just made the sounds with the whip. We eventually escaped that and were caught by a "blind" guy who asked me what color my master's horse was, and I said black. He then went to another kid and asked the same question and they said white and he said "A black and white horse ey?" (he was British, and I remember having a crush on him, he also had dyed blue hair, which, for a reenactment, amused me) At this point, I'm thinking they exist, buddy, but figured I should probably stay silent. He captured us and made us get down on the ground and crawl, and mind you, this is the same trail they used for horses, so I knew there was going to be horse poop, so I was like, "Why are we crawling? This guy is supposed to be blind" I stood up, and soon a lot of other kids were too, and we escaped to freedom. Later that night, there was a slave auction. I just think to myself, wow, that experience was messed up, eye-opening, but messed up. There is no way they'd get away with that today. I learned a lot from it, but it was something that wouldn't be politically correct today, and it's something that would outrage parents. I also remember at camp we told ghost stories. They told one about the cement man, and how this man was murdered and buried in the wall of the bridge. I remember they took us there and told us we had to be quiet so as not to wake the camp owners because they weren't supposed to tell us this story, which even back then I knew was bogus. There's no way our teachers would be going along with us if they actually thought we weren't supposed to be doing this. The story scared a lot of kids, and when we got back to our cabin, a lot of the girls were freaking out, claiming the cement man was there. I was just trying to get some sleep. We told scarier stories at my house than the cement man story, so I wasn't too bothered by it. Camp was such a fun experience, but it definitely wasn't one that could be repeated today. I learned a lot there, some things they still learn at the current camp they go to, it's no longer the same camp, but there are a lot of things they keep out. I'm not even sure if they do horseback riding anymore. I know they do a survival class like I did at camp, but I'm not sure what else they do.
2 people like this
3 responses
@TheHorse (236148)
• Walnut Creek, California
11h
Sounds pretty "intense."
2 people like this
@sissy15 (12498)
• United States
5h
Haha, it was. Most people I tell that story to stare at me in disbelief if they didn't also have that experience. A lot of the newer teachers I work with are shocked when I tell them that story.
@JudyEv (376128)
• Rockingham, Australia
8h
To have such strong memories means the camp really made an impression on you. It sounds like it was a lot of fun.
1 person likes this
@sissy15 (12498)
• United States
5h
It did make an impression, that said it was a bit on the crazy side. Everyone I tell that story to thinks it's insane, I currently work in the same district I went to school in so a lot of the newer teachers can't get their heads around it, while some of the older teachers that also went to school in the district also remember it and remember it fondly.
1 person likes this
@sissy15 (12498)
• United States
Just now
@JudyEv I think it's the idea that we were treated as slaves. In this day and age at least in the US people find it to be in poor taste and think it would be traumatizing to children, but it was absolutely eye opening to me. I remember thinking wow those poor people, if this is even an ounce of what they had to go through to get freedom, I can't imagine how much worse it had to have been for them. I think everyone is extremely sensitive over things like that now worrying who it would offend or how it could mentally hurt children that they lose sight of what it could teach them.
@JudyEv (376128)
• Rockingham, Australia
1h
@sissy15 I don't really see what's so wrong with it.
@jstory07 (148025)
• Roseburg, Oregon
10h
That sure was different than the camp that I went to.
1 person likes this
@sissy15 (12498)
• United States
5h
Different camps do different things, Ohio has big ties to the underground railroad especially near where I was so they really leaned into it.