Rocky River Ranch

This was my very first camp I ever went to and let me tell you it was the best! I only wish I had found out about it earlier so I could have spent more than just one year there. Y'all are an amazing camp and I hope you keep running for another 50 years.

I would definitely not be the person I am today without the experience of camp. I remember being 7 years old and so excited about my first camp experience. I don't think I slept the entire night before leaving. When I arrived at camp it was the most wonderful place I had ever seen. Rue was my first counselor and she took the time to show me around and introduced me to the other girls. I was scared at first, but it did not last long. By the end of the first night camp already felt like a second home. By the end of my first two weeks I did not want to leave. Rocky River was a part of my life forever. In the end what I took away from camp was friendship, love, respect and confidence.

RRR is not just two months of SCREAMING prepubescent girls singing songs in the Grubstake, Free Swim at the river or raids on other cabins, it becomes a way of life that helps guide you through the rest of your life. Not unlike the Marines who are brothers for life, those of us who were campers and counselors are sisters for life and will do anything to help each other, no questions asked!

I had a wonderful experience of being a counselor at RRR 1960-61 and 1966-67. Those first 2 years I knew and loved both Mama Knolk and Jane. Later, I was there with Skeet and Sandy. I have great memories of all those special people and all the fun times at camp. I'm so glad the camp is still going strong!

I love Rocky River Ranch. It was a place I could go and feel accepted for the person I was — not the person I was expected to be. When we passed under that arch, the playing field was leveled and I was free to be myself, or even to reinvent myself! If I could ride, if I could swim, if I could do crafts or even if my only talent was spitting watermelon seeds, I was accepted!

I loved RRR from the second I saw it. The smell of the cedar trees sure was heaven compared to the pollution of Dallas. I only got to stay for two weeks that first summer, which was way too short a time. I rode the horses, shot up targets, and made stuff in the crafts hut. I know I made it down to the river a few times. It was the year that I got my red tie in the horseback department and I was sooooo proud! I got to stand in front of the campfire while the campers all went berserk over my accomplishment. I feel so lucky to have the memories that I do and those are of RRR. I don't remember much about my childhood, but I remember everything about RRR and how much I loved going there every summer. It was heaven on earth.