P.S. I Hate It Here, a collection of actual kids’ letters to their parents written during summer camp, is pretty adorable. Little Sally and Johnny write their required letters home to ma and pa with the cutest, sometimes-spelled-correctly anecdotes and requests for personal items. It was released in May, but we didn’t find an example of children being taught about how “gay” everything is until now.
Kids will say the darnedest, or something?
The letter below reads: “Dear Mom & Dad, Camp is great! I accidentally forgot to bring a baseball cap. Can you send me one (not Cubs) as soon as possible, I need one for the dunes trip. Also please don’t send any of the hats in my room because most of them are really gay. P.S. Sox hat if possible. Love, Sam.”
concernedcitizen
ahhh its still great to see homophobia integrate US society in such a seemingly innocuous way, and I’m sure his parents just chuckled as if nothing were wrong…
Kieran
Here are two kids letters that weren’t chosen for the book for obvious editorial reasons:
Dear Mom and Dad,
Camp is great! But I need a baseball cap. Can you buy one and send it to me? And don’t be a Jew and buy a real cheap one either.
Love,
Sam
Dear Mom and Dad,
Camp is great! But I need a new baseball cap. The one I brought with me got stolen by the black kids.
Love,
Sam
[email protected]
Ah…I remember when I was about 5 and went to (was forced to go) “Vacation Bible Camp”!!! In my parents’ defense, it was my Great Aunt’s idea and I loved her very much! But, I *hated* it there! Not only did they have a gift shop, but I couldn’t have bought anything even if I had wanted to… The water in the swimming pool was FREEZING ice-cold without the slightest water-heater. And, the girls and boys were segregated in an almost dangerous fashion. Remember that this was Iowa, if there was a tornado (we were out in the sticks!) the boys would have to leave our rickety cabins to go to the above-ground kitchen/ dining hall with a wall of glass! (To go to the bathroom, we’d also have to go to an outhouse where a communal shower was located). The GIRLS, however, not only had indoors plumbing and private bathrooms, but also a concrete storm shelter within their brick dormitories!
Republican
@[email protected]:
I actually enjoyed the one time I went to Vacation Bible Camp. The gay in me loved decorating paper plates with macaroni and glitter and livening up snow cones with all the colors and flavors of the rainbow.
Adam
I thought it was cute. I just wanna know why he has so many gay hats and what they look like. I’m picturing a full Cher “Half-Breed” headdress.
edgyguy1426
At least he wanted a Sox cap.
jeffree
Big strapping guy named Dale was my summer camp counselor. 6′ 3″ maybe 200 lbs. I was between 6th & 7th grade & in total awe of him. He was funny, smart, kind, and —here’s the bad news– dating a lady called Rhonda. He taught me to kayak.
Only time in my life I ever stole anything was his grey XL Gap teeshirt.
He smelled like heaven: lake water, pine trees, mansweat, testosterone, campfire, and beer. :- )
I slipped that shirt into my backpack the second to last day of camp and secretly slept with it for all of September until mom washed it and it didn’t smell like him any more!
Dale, if you’re out there I O U a teeshirt, and I’m sorry …..
slobone
There’s a theory floating around out there that when kids call something gay, they don’t really mean gay, they just mean, you know, lame or something. But I don’t buy it. Even if they’re too young to understand what gay really means, why start planting that idea in their heads? This is not acceptable…
jason
I don’t like the word “gay” anyway. I think our community needs a new word.
jeffree
@ Jason: it started as a joke amongst friends, but we call ourselves “PROUD” instead of “gay.” Tequila was involved, if I remember correctly.
Instead of saying “Jojo came out” we say “Jojo is proud now.”
Yeppers, it’s lame-ish but until we come up with something better, that’s what we’re stickin’ with.
And we swore off all cactus-based beverages too.
Michael
@jeffree: LOL! This sounds like some sort of a Southern thang, like; being “with child,” or going through; “that special time.”
L.
Um. I thought this was indeed very cute. And I don’t think it’s homophobic, or “planted”, or whatnot. The kid is talking about his *own* caps, which he most probably selected in the first place, and that’s about it. It’d be different had he been talking about somebody else, but not here.
jeffree
@Michael: (#11). LOL, thanks. I’m not “technically” southern but if you heard me talking in my real accent, you would probably nick-name me Tex or something like that !
But I can also pass for Bostonian, Standard Midwestern, three kinds of British, and eastern Canadian thanks to a few years of speech therapy (ex-lisper), acting lessons & a lot of stage time as a stand up. Lately I’ve been working on New Jersey accents but it’s kinda difficult.
Fitz
I don’t wish well for homophobes. Even the cute little ones.