Make Mine Mike

One Fourth of July, when I was a kid, I remember I was at sleepaway camp. I've been reminiscing about camp a lot lately, possibly because of this book, which I must own. Nearly every Jewish kid from the East Coast suburbs went away to camp in the summer. Yes, kinda like in Meatballs.

Also, I found a website from my old camp. It featured photos of some of the counselors I admired. Looking at them now, I have no idea why.

We also had a lot of British counselors. They talked funny. We used to try to imitate their weird accents, and they'd say, "Oh, you want to know what you Yanks sound like?" And then in their most nasally New York twang: "Aww c'mon you guys... You guyzzz.... c'mawnnn, stop bein' so obnoxious!"

So on the day we celebrate our independence from the English imperialist bastards, they snuck into the office with the PA system, early in the morning. Woke up the whole camp with a bunch of British drinking songs, Monty Python sketches, and I don't remember what else. The theme to the Benny Hill Show?

Some people were annoyed, but I had to admit I thought it was all pretty funny. I always wondered what the Limeys did on July 4th.

But perhaps that's not a fair assessment. After all, Adelphia and I went to today's Second Annual Santa Monica July 4th Parade. We've been to every one so far.

But back in the day, we both had gone to sleepaway camp. She had British counselors, too, but wasn't woken up July 4th by some cockneyed hackneyed public announcements. So these two Jews didn't have the same experiences on America's birthday back then, even if now we both check out the local parade. But everyone's different. Some members of the tribe sing "Star and Stripes Forever" to the tune of "Hava Negila".