With apologies to Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon, it’s the stuff dreams, and some of life’s best memories, are made of. We’re talking about summer camp, of course. Be it a day, a week, or a month, summer camp experiences are among the easiest to retrieve even as we age (and oh boy, do we age!).

For me, Young Life’s Castaway Camp on Pelican Lake in Minnesota was a slice of heaven on earth. I remember the cliff-side water slide into the lake—it was the longest slide I’d ever seen. But what really made the camp special was the Christian, spiritual side of it and how much the counselors cared.

Here are some of KFOR’s on-air personality’s summer camp memories.

Girl Scout camp had a major impact on me. One of our daily activities was journaling. Since I couldn’t write yet, I
would just draw pictures (bananas for food, waves for swimming). But I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t write, I spent the whole week hiding my journal so no one else could see.
- Meg Alexander

Horseback riding camps were my favorite. One year I ended up having to muck the stalls on my birthday. The camp made up for it by baking me a chocolate cake, but all the silverware had been put away, so we ended up eating it with our hands.

- Marika Lorraine

My favorite camp was the Jim King Basketball camp in Mannford, OK. I was a camper for six years, then a counselor, and a camp director for two years. It gave me a chance to meet basketball greats like Jerry West, Jerry Sloan, and Clifford Ray. I still run into kids I counseled at camp who are now grown up.
- Bob Barry, Jr.

My mom was the best thing about summer camp. She would write to me faithfully while I was away, even putting a note in the mail before I left so I’d have something waiting for me on the day I arrived at camp. Those notes came in bright envelopes covered with unicorn stickers.
- Ali Meyer

I spent so many great summers at Camp Takatoka, the YMCA camp on Lake Ft. Gibson near Wagoner, OK. My most vivid memories were of pontoon boat rides and hiking in forests that were lush from the June rains. The katydids were deafening at night.
- Mike Morgan

Kevin Ogle, a native Oklahoman, is a news anchor on Oklahoma’s NewsChannel 4. He and his wife have two teenage daughters.