Adrienne goes to camp

My niece Adrienne will turn 12 in May and went to her first church Girls Camp today (during Spring break in Florida). I talked to her over the weekend and she was excited. I wanted to get her something that she could use at camp so I ordered this nalgene bottle from L.L. Bean for her. I wrote the following story for her too.

The 12th Birthday

Around the time your dad turned 12 he was preparing for his first Boy Scout camping trip. Since our family didn’t really have any camping equipment (except a very heavy big tent) Grandpa and Grandma Patton took your dad shopping. They went to a store in Van Nuys called Gizmo’s. That store sold everything for camping: tents, compasses, sleeping bags, freeze dried food, canteens, flashlights, lanterns, stoves, etc. I remember that your dad got an orange mummy sleeping bag, a big orange back pack with a metal frame, a canteen, some freeze dried food, and a few other things for his first camping trip. It added up to about $125 (which would probably be about $800 now!). It was a lot of stuff. All for your dad’s 12th birthday! He was so lucky. In our family we always celebrated birthdays and got presents but never that many presents! So uncle John and I complained that Robert got all those things for his birthday and Grandpa and Grandma Patton said, “Don’t worry, you will also get lots of things for your 12th birthday.” Well, that was not true. None of us ever got that many things for our 12th birthday! We always talked about “the 12th birthday” and all the things that Robert got. So, in memory of that and because you are about to go on your first camping trip, I wanted to get you something special so I ordered a pink nalgene bottle for you (which is like a canteen). I hope you have fun at your first Girls Camp and that you feel special like your dad who got lots of things on his 12th birthday!