(Otherwise known as “Packing for Camp”)
We are leaving for a week-long camp on Sunday, so for the past few days I have been washing clothes furiously and packing them in Rubbermaid bins. Why I am washing them, I am not sure. By the time camp is over every single seat of our pants will hold a round dusty stain from sitting on dirty surfaces, our socks will have sticker plants clinging to them like interlocking toys, and our odor will be eau de camp (a pleasant aroma of camp fire, sweat, chlorine, bug spray, and dirt). But we might as well arrive well showered and groomed, smelling of laundry detergent and looking well rested, before our day of departure when we look like we haven’t slept a wink. For some of us (as the teen staff advisor, I am raising my hand here), this will be true.

Anyway, back to packing. By the way, if you are packing for camp, let me highly recommend plastic bins. I’ve gone past years using duffel bags. But when all was said and done, we were lugging several bags of stuff to our bunks. Who wants to do that? Besides, we sleep on planks under the stars and trees. Everything from those trees falls on our bunks and in our bags. Plastic bins are easily shut up tight so that nothing, no dust or falling scorpion, can reach our belongings. On that same note, the same is said for a single sheet to lay over the sleeping bag and tuck underneath. Only once have I jumped out of my sleeping bag due to a creep crawly spider that made its way in. Once was enough.

Oh yeah, packing. I have realized that the best time to find out what your child is in need of in the clothing department is when you have to pack them up for summer camp. What I would like to know is, how does a child who spends half his life parading around the house in his underwear become so in need of underwear OVERNIGHT? I mean seriously, I went through his drawers, I washed every single article of clothing he owns, I searched under his bed and in his closet and in the backyard (if you have an 8 year old boy, you understand), and I came up with THREE pairs of underwear. Three! My daughter had hers all in neat piles in her drawer. I found them and all of her neatly folded clothing easily, and her bin was packed up without a hitch. But my son? I had to search through drawers of crumpled clothing to produce THREE pairs of underwear.

The funny thing is, I just spent $100 at Target buying the odds and ends we still needed for camp. I even bought new socks for all of us, as that is always the culprit in missing clothing. I had passed by the underwear casually, hesitating for a moment as I considered buying more. But with a full cart, I finally decided not to. It would have been a waste to buy more when he obviously had a ton of underwear at home. I didn’t know that he was apparently hoarding all that underwear in some unseen spot I could not find.

The search isn’t over. I am still on the hunt for this missing underwear. But with the way things look, I am most likely going to be back at Target to buy some size 8 Spiderman skivvies for my underwear challenged son.

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