BEST CAMP EVER

My son Alex and I were driving into a local park when I quickly hit the brakes. “Oh My God!” I pointed to a sign at the side of the driveway. “Best camp ever!” I cried.

Alex looked over at all the signs for all the different camps. They had Basketball Camp, Baseball Camp and Soccer Camp. It took him a second to read through them all before he saw what I was talking about and began to laugh. “Dodgeball Camp! Wow! They wouldn't even let us play that back when I was in middle school.”

“You haven't lived until you've been pegged in the face with an overinflated rubber ball!” I began to laugh. “Of course, the rules were 'never aim at the face'.” I looked over at Alex and shook my head. “No one ever followed that rule.”

Alex laughed. “Nope, nobody ever did.”

I shook my head. “Remember the sting you'd feel after that ball made contact on bare skin?”

“Depended on who was doing the throwing.” Alex added. “Some made it sting more than others.”

“True.” I nodded in agreement.

Instead of parking I began driving, following the arrow on the sign. “I have to find this camp.”

“Seriously?” Alex began to laugh.

“If you're crazy enough to sign up for this camp you've got to be a hardcore dodgeball player.” I looked over at him. “Don't you want to see it too?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “I guess it could be fun to watch.”

I finally found the field they were playing on and pulled over to watch. “They look like middle school kids.” I put the car in park but left the engine running. There were about twenty children standing on the sidelines of a field watching while three others were running around. “They don't look very hardcore.” I had to admit I was a little disappointed. “I was expecting them to be in matching shirts with team name like Dodgeball Demons printed on the back.”

Alex shook his head. “It looks like a middle school gym class where they all just stand around.”

“Maybe they're on a break.” I reasoned. “It is pretty hot out.”

We saw that some of them had wandered over to a picnic table where all the water bottles were.

The girls on the sidelines stood next to each other talking, not really paying attention to the boys on the field, when suddenly one of the boys whipped a ball at the girls who were talking.

In unison Alex and I both called out “Ooh!” as we watched the ball ping off the side of one of the girls head, and she laughed.

“Yeah, that's about right.” Alex said as he shook his head and laughed. “Just like gym class.”

I put the car back in drive. “Hey, she took that hit pretty well. Maybe they are more hardcore then they look.”

I began driving back to the main part of the park. As we passed the camp signs again I couldn't help but smile. “I still say that's the best summer camp sign ever!”