The last point is pretty common at camp. Remember the counselors are only "adults" relative to the campers- at my overnight camp counsellors were about 17-21. We had counsellors teaching us drinking games sans alcohol. There was another game called suck and blow, similar to the apple necking game, where you had to pass a playing card down a line by holding it in against your mouth by inhaling and passing it to the next person by having them inhale while you blow out.
The most similar game we had to what you describe was called make me laugh which I think was a 60s Tv show. You had two minutes to do anything to make a seated opponent laugh. The winner got to dump raw eggs or whipped cream on the loser's head.
I'd say my camp was pretty extreme in the bad behavior permitted or even encouraged among counselors. There was a nominal "library" that was really just a smoking area. Once a month they bussed half the counselors to the nearby town for a night out- one night for the ones over the drinking age went to a bar, the other night the ones under the drinking age were dropped off at a movie theater but everyone went across the street to a bar. They'd all come back shockingly drunk for people who were nominally supervising kids.
Was there a way to opt out? I feel certain that I can remember 12-year-old me well enough to say that I would not have participated in a game like this under any circumstances ( Possible exception - POW camp in which literal execution seemed like a reasonable possibility)
If you were in the game and someone picked you, there was no way to opt out. But I think the first game might have been mandatory, and after that when they were camper-initiated, not mandatory.
1 is a whole 'nother ballgame from anything I experienced.
At two of the camps I went to, we did have an ungodly amount of freedom, even by 80s standards. I went to a daycamp on a hippie farm (literally called Lotus Land back then) and there was just counselors camped out in different areas - playing baseball, art room, etc. There was no signing up, or schedule, or anything that I can remember - you just visited whichever area you felt like. There were plenty of unsupervised activities, like the two-square and four-square courts. I used to disappear to go pick blackberries for hours. There were also peacocks all over the place, and finding an eye feather was a huge deal.
Later, at this sleepaway camp from the OP, we just sort of had the run of the town, which was a very tiny college town. You were expected to be back at your dorm by a certain hour, and show up at certain activities at certain times. But you wandered to the campus cafeteria to eat meals on your own accord, and were generally allowed to do whatever the hell crossed your mind, if it was free time. There was a lot of free time, especially sometimes on the weekends. It was great.
17-21 year olds in charge of 15-18 year olds without real adults also being involved is just such a tremendously terrible idea. Even just throwing in some 25 year olds makes it a million times better.
I recall a "leadership" camp where we stayed in the dorms of a local college. We ran around the town one night, very much against the rules. Getting out involved climbing out a window to evade counselor detection. Getting back involved running from the cops.
Speaking of smoking, the first time I used tobacco (dip in this case) was on a school field trip in the presence of a teacher.
And this is why my kids will never attend sleepaway camp.
Didn't do camp that young (just a bit of a nerdcamp thing at age 15-16), but in elementary and middle school the default birthday party experience was at the local roller rink, and a song that always featured for the skating was Multiplication by Bobby Darin, which again in retrospect is surprisingly flirty for the age.
6- there were a dozen or so older staff called section heads or activity heads. But one of the privileges of that position was that you got your own small cabin so the 24 hr supervision fell to the younger staff. And I think they generally tried to get older counselors for the 15-16 year olds.
But yes there was a specific phrase describing when a counselor was dating a camper (which was officially forbidden, but some people knew each other outside of camp)
We didn't really have summer camp as such, but I did get packed off at the age of 13 to learn how to fire naval anti-aircraft weapons. (I was small for my age and therefore had to stand on a box to reach the controls.) I wanted to go sailing but there was a minimum age of 14 for sailing.
No flirty games were involved at any point.
Boy Scout camp had .22 shooting, but we were specifically forbidden to shoot at any planes.
Just in general they were worried about shooting up at all.
I remember being mildly scandalized at about age 14 when a kid at soccer camp -- most campers were sleeping in dorms, but I commuted in -- pulled out a secret vodka bottle. I had a small taste and didn't care for it; the kid who brought it said it tasted "like life."
His method of smuggling was to use an old sunscreen bottle to carry the booze; only fairly recently have I wondered how or if he got it clean before he started drinking from it.
At my week-long Girl Scout sleepaway camp, we played this as "Honey, if you love me, will you please just smile?" That camp was super wholesome and very structured.
In my later teens I first attended and then eventually taught at high school speech and debate camps located on university campuses, and those were dens of sin (except that one of my first instructors was also a priest, and even celebrated Mass for students who wanted to attend). Another one of the instructors at that first camp, though not in my particular event, later became famous as the voice of Olaf the Snow Man. A student, also in a different event, starred in Gilmore Girls and Smallville (I think).
Oh yeah, that reminds me of a similar person from my camp- I guess he's a moderately well known actor? He was in some series with Laurence Fishburne.
I went to a tween YM/YWHA camp and then their teen travel camp after that. It'd be one week spent around NYC area (sometimes NJ or LI) and one week on long trips to DC, Canada, etc. It was wonderful. Especially the week away, there was a lot of pairing up, sneaking off and fooling around.
We've been sending our kids to YMCA sleepaway camp. It seems in Texas, the choices are either camps for extremely wealthy kids or extremely religious kids. (Or specific niche camps.) It appears that YMCA is too secular to attract anyone truly interested in proselytizing, but they also work hard to keep it affordable, thereby making the clientele not-so-insufferable.
This summer we are achieving a new parenting level: all four kids are going to camp together for the first time. One week with no kids, and then one week with just Rascal.
There was exactly one year where kids were all the right ages to go to the same camp during the same two weeks. It was summer 2020.
later became famous as the voice of Olaf the Snow Man Elder Price in the original cast of The Book of Mormon. FTFY.
Argh, Cunningham. I'm fired.
20: which was kind of one big yearlong summer camp, except you were the counselors, right?
I went to nerd camp every summer at Appalachian State and it was pretty much one giant makeout session for people that couldn't get a date at home.
It's always rough when your cousins are that much more attractive than you.
I liked day camp. My overnight camp had 2 3.5 week sessions. One of the other well regarded girls camps had 2 4 week session. I was there for 7 weeks and unhappy, so I never went back.
25: Mine was at Western Carolina University.
22: I mean, he's famous for a lot of things. That's just the role I mention so people know who I'm talking about.
25, 28: Franklin and Marshall. (But not every year.)
I was at F&M in I think 1st session 93 and 2nd session 94?
I went to nerd camp two summers when was a teen. Even there no one wanted to make out with me.
Did anyone else play a game called "psychiatrist" or was this purely local to my friend set?
Other than Bob Newhart cosplay, no.
"My darling, I love you, won't you please, please smile" was a game I learned from the first girl I french kissed.
But kids today are probably doing Esther Perel cosplay.
40 was me talking to myself. I guess I figured I didn't need to identify myself to myself, but I forgot there may be spectators.
honestly I think we as a society do shockingly little wrt socializing teenagers into romatic/sexual relations (and seem to be in another reactionary cycle (with the 'don't say gay' laws, p*philes. under every pizzeria, etc.)). Proms and weddings seem like just about the only cultural activity in this regard. We need more dense, mixed use neighborhoods where once a month everyone of all ages get together in the square to play music and shake our asses, and this game seems like a good thing for young people. Liberal places at least have a sex-ed class , but mine was incredibly clinical and did nothing actually inculcate how to romantically interact. We have a society of adults who have abdicated responsibility in favor of outward prudishness and leaving teaching to romcoms and pron.
The camp I went to in the summer of 1975 still exists.
I guess the remarkable aspect of this is that I remembered the name after 47 years.