A Letter Home From Rams' Football Training Camp

Ah, summer! It's the time for summer camp—swimming, canoeing, softball, volleyball, arts and crafts and a lot of other fun things. But not all summer camps offer the same programs. 

While watching a Rams' football summer camp workout on a hot and steamy morning this week, I thought about a summer camp from another era. Remember Camp Grenada, as in the song, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh?"

Alan Sherman wrote and sang the lyrics. It was all about an unhappy camper begging his parents to let him come home after just one week at camp. It was set to the music of "Dance of the Hours" from La Giaconda. The song was a Grammy Award winner and reached second place on Billboard's Hot 100 back in the summer of 1963. More interestingly, the song reached number one in Hong Kong, which has no summer camps.

I wondered what kind of letter New Canaan football players would have written had Camp Marinelli been Camp Grenada. I've taken a little license—well, more than a little—with the lyrics and what follows could have been a letter from a Rams football player to his parents if football camp were a sleepover camp: 

"Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh, here I am at Camp Grenada.

Not much swimming or canoeing.

All the guys are wondering what we're doing.

Lots of stretching, lots of drilling.

All my muscles-all my limbs-this camp is killing."

However, things changed for the better in the second letter to home one week later:

"Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh. Things ain't bad here, at Grenada. 

We're all in shape—yeah things are better.

Can you tell that from the tone of this letter?

The pain was worth it. I'm ready to play.

I think I'll be ready for opening day.

I've got a request I'd like you to hear.

Can I come back to Camp Grenada next year?

P.S. Check out enclosed photos,

Your loving son."