SS #2 Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation

Want to get lost in

The woods or fall in LUV? Just

Go to Camp Mohawk!

Summary

The girls (and Logan) decide to go to camp for two weeks as CITs. Here's a rundown of who did what:

The sitters have to do some convincing to get Stacey to agree to go. She does (obviously, since she's the "main" narrator for this Super Special). She's assigned to a cabin of 6 year olds, including Karen Brewer, and she notices that they seem to be sick a lot. Stacey hates sickness, so it's only fitting that she's the one who ends up spending a good chunk of the camp session in the infirmary. Her laundry list of ailments include a cold, poison ivy, impetigo, pinkeye, and herpes. Just kidding about the last one. :)

Claudia falls in luv at first sight with a boy CIT. Her campers (9 year olds including Haley Braddock and Vanessa Pike) do some investigating, and find out that Drean Boy's name is Will Yamakawa. They don't officially meet until CIT Movie Night, where they actually have a pretty deep discussion about grandparents, heaven, and hell. They see each other again at the CIT Dance the next night, and decide that they need to end their relationship (which, I might add, is two days long at this point) since they live in different states and wouldn't be able to see each other. They don't even exchange addresses or phone numbers, but, once again, Claudia's campers come through. They get Will's address for her and give it to her after camp ends. I swear, those kids are future identity thieves; they sure seem to have a knack for getting information that they shouldn't have. Anyway, the lovebirds end up keeping in touch for awhile; Will is mentioned in the next Super Special.

Mary Anne's assigned to a cabin on 7 year olds, including Margo Pike. The other three CIT's in her cabin are, as she puts it, "into being totally cool." She tries to sound more awesome by telling them that she only came to camp to be near Logan, but it backfires; the other girls don't even believe that someone as lame as Mary Anne could actually have a boyfriend. Mary Anne is determined to prove her coolness (and Logan's existence) to her fellow CITs, so she writes what must be the most awful love letter in the history of love letters and leaves it on her bunk for them to find. They do, but once again, the idea backfires. The other CITs suggest she get the note to Logan by walking around the lake to him at night. To save face, Mary Anne agrees. One of her campers tattles, though, and Mary Anne only makes it about halfway around before being caught by her own counselor, Old Meanie (camp director), and two counselors from the boys' side. One of them takes the note from Mary Anne and assures her that Logan will, indeed, see it. The problem? Mary Anne never intended for Logan to see the note, and it's not the kind of thing she would ever send him. Back at the cabin, Mary Anne's earned a little more respect from her fellow CITs. Hardly anyone has tried to sneak around the lake, and Mary Anne made it further (farther?) than most. Even though things are a little friendlier now, the other girls still try to test M.A. They keep asking her for beauty advice, and she just makes stuff up and hopes it's what they want to hear. When one of the other CITs wants to pierce Mary Anne's ears for the CIT dance, she agrees. Both of them chicken out at the last minute, though.

Logan pretty much just gets made fun of for the whole Mary Anne debacle. The note is delivered at lunchtime, and one of his buddies entertains everyone with a dramatic reading. Logan then starts a food fight, which is actually pretty awesome.

Kristy's not loving the group living situation. She gets pretty tired of having so many people breathing down her neck, and never having any privacy. She doesn't get much of that at home, either, but whatever. Like Mary Anne, Kristy feels inferior to her co-CITs. The difference is that Kristy's "mean girls" are actually nice, they just want to change her entire appearance. After days of mentally and verbally trying to "fix" Kristy, they end up giving her a makeover for the CIT dance. Kristy isn't thrilled about that, but she lives to tell the tale. When she's not dodging the efforts of the Stacey London wannabes, Kristy is also dealing with a homesick Charlotte Johannssen. I don't envy Kristy; Charlotte basically spends the whole two weeks crying, which was pretty freaking annoying to read about. I can't even imagine what it would be like to actually deal with something like that.

Jessi and Mallory beg to be allowed to be CITs even though the minimum age is 13, but no dice. To make them feel better, Old Meanie names them Junior CITs. The title is basically meaningless, although they are asked to put together a dance performance for one of the cabins of 8 year olds (including Becca and Charlotte) for the Parent's Day program. It's a good thing they have that to keep the occupied, because cabin life is less than ideal. Talk about mean girls; from day one, the others in Jessi and Mal's cabin are awful to them. Nothing the girls say and do is right, and it isn't until their dance performance (which is about racism and friendship, and casts Becca and Charlotte as twins) that their cabinmates apologize.

Dawn is a CIT in the other cabin of 11 year olds. Their counselor has a family emergency and has to leave right before they're scheduled to go on an overnight hiking trip. The replacement counselor is only 15 and kind of a idiot, and they end up lost in the woods. They finally return two days later, thanks to the efforts of one of the campers. Heather is the quiet type, and only came to Camp Mohawk because her parents made her. She'd spent most of the sessing reading and not participating in camp stuff, and her bunkies weren't exactly fond of her. They change their tune, though, when she's the one who "rescues" them.

Thoughts and Things

• This book was published in July of 1989. That means that it's been a little over twenty years since the BSC first went to Camp Mohawk. Lord, I'm old.....
• If Will Yamakawa was from New York, did he ride the same bus as Stacey? If so, wouldn't she have given him Claudia's address? She was pretty quick to give out Claud's number to Terry, the guy in California Girls.
• I was a total Mary Anne about camp when I was younger. She watched camp movies and thought it would be the most awesome place in the world, and I read this book and thought that camp would be the most awesome place in the world. Lucky for me that it actually was pretty awesome. :)
• I love that Stacey ended up settling into a patch of poison ivy immediately after a lecture on avoiding it. Someone wasn't paying attention to Old Meanie.
• Speaking of the Meanies, do they live separately during camp sessions? Logan mentions people sneaking over to Mr. Meanie's cabin to spy on them when Mrs. Meanie comes to visit. That doesn't seem like an ideal arrangement...
• Lots of Mimi foreshadowing.....