Teen Diaries |The Camp Blue Bay Diary Entries of 1985

Take note of my lovely ET sheets. I still have them.

Upon visiting my mom, I stumbled upon a red journal filled with entries from my week at Girl Scout sleepaway summer camp in East Hampton's Camp Blue Bay.

Summer of 1985 I was 12.5 years old. I loved The Goonies, Cyndi Lauper, makeup, gummy bracelets, friendship pins and Huey Lewis & The News.  Looking back, summer sleepaway camp sort of prepped us for college dorm life. I love how I documented everything I ate! Such a chubber!  I'll admit, these diaries are queer and boring. My comments are in parentheses.

FIRST DAY!  Tuesday, August 13, 1985
Today I re-met Nikki from last year. I met two new really nice girls, Lisa and Diana. I just set everything up, it looks neat. I wrote 2 letters so far. One to my friend Serena and another to Mom. I took the swim test. I ate a mayo and lettuce sandwich for lunch (ew?) OK, time for dinner.

I'm back and ready to write. I'm also alone. I have bad windburn on my cheeks. It's now 8pm and getting dark. I wonder where everyone is. I mailed my letters. The other girls are starting a camp fire. I'm gonna write Danny a letter (Danny was my platonic male best friend). 


It's now 9:21pm and we made smores. Dee is reading her bible and I'm laying on my bed holding a flashlight. I love Sean Astin. Good night.

Posing in front of our "lean-to" showing off my Tommy Howell pin-up.

Wednesday August 14,1985
So far I ate bread and butter for breakfast. We went on the BMX bike trail. It sort of stinks. My hair is very wet. I put my head under the hose. It's break time now. 


Tommy Howell is hanging on the post in our tent. He's not that bad, kind of cute. I wish I didn't have to go swimming. I hate the gross rocks and smelly salt water. I'm hungry. I hope we have a good lunch. I skipped two meals so far because I didn't like the menu choices. I can't wait to go home and swim in our pool. Summer's almost over, only two more weeks to go. I'm so depressed. I wanna go home so bad. (This is funny, I thought I loved camp!)


I love Sean Astin.

Nikki really hates me, but that's okay because I hate her more.  I might move in with Kristen, Athena and Nicole. I can't stand it here in the tent with Nikki and Dee. They're always fighting with me. I'm friends with everyone at camp except Nikki and Dee. Lisa is nice though.


For lunch I ate 2 tacos. I found out I can't move in with my pals in Tent 6. Nikki and I are trying to get along now. We all had a water fight before, it was fun. I bought a really gnarly tote bag (ha ha, gnarly!) and Collette, a counselor from Belgium thought my name began with an "E" and wrote "Ellyson" on my bag. I don't really care though. 


Tabatha and Laura are fighting. I'm sitting in the kitchen, it's 8:24. I'm dying to go home. I hate bugs so bad, especially Daddy Long Legs. (I still hate bugs!)

Thursday August 15, 1985
I ate 2 boxes of Sugar Pops (remember when they weren't called "Corn Pops"!) for breakfast. Nikki's singing and we're alone in the tent. I can't wait to go home! I'm not having as much fun as last year. A lot of the kids are flaky this year. I'm very hot and tired and wish I didn't have to go boating. (I was never an outdoorsy person, I forgot even as a kid I hated doing things outdoors!)


It's break now. We had to clean the bathrooms. We ate pizza bagels for lunch. We played line basketball and killer for 2 hours. I went rowing for a while. I hate swimming. I don't like Andi that much and don't think she should be a counselor, she's not that nice. I can't wait to go home tomorrow! We have lazy day, we get to sleep til 9am! I love Sean Astin. I miss Mom. I wrote Mom, Joe (brother), Serena and Danny. They made us write to our family again today. 


We had a big talent show.  I wanted to do a lip sync. We looked so dumb. I ate potatoes for supper.

Stay tuned for Part II of the exiting and dramatic Camp Diaries. Did you go to camp? Did you keep a diary while at camp?