“Never went to camp. Worked on the farm in the summers.”
Same here. My parents shipped me to my uncle’s farm in eastern NC where I worked the corn fields and harvested tobacco. A big thrill in late summer was going with him in late summer to the tobacco auctions in Wilson.
This time every year we were always getting ready to see if we’d get a second cutting on the hay fields, improving springs, fixing up the barns, sheds, tractors, etc. That was valuable, and summer camps are nice but can’t replace being required to solve the problems of daily life on your own.
I remember school passed out brochures in May to give to our parents. They were to send us to work on tobacco farms in CT as I recall.