What's summer camp without a good ghost story? You recall the thrill of hearing scary stories at summer camp. You're tired and sunburned from the day's activities, and you sit around the campfire listening to an urban legend you've never heard before from an experienced storyteller who may be just a couple of years older than you, but is an authority figure at camp. The fire flickers, and unfamiliar sounds come from the dark woods around you. The story is terrifying, and you hope it doesn't keep you awake, but you're so tired that you sleep soundly and don't remember much of the story the next day. Yet you always remember the thrill.
That thrill is starting to go by the wayside. A 2015 study revealed that 31% of summer camps for children forbid ghost stories. Only 13% encourage them. But scientists say that a little age-appropriate fear will help children learn to manage their fears. Scary campfire stories are like the much-scarier versions of fairy tales from the Middle Ages, meaning they help a child build up their defenses against fear while often imparting cautious behavior and moral lessons. While parents in this day and age can be over-cautious about traumatizing children, some highly-publicized cases of scary stories going overboard have left a chilling effect on camp counselors. Read about the diminishing custom of summer camp ghost stories at Atlas Obscura. We also learn the ghastly story of the Spoon Lady.
This is part of a continuing series of articles Atlas Obscura is doing about summer camp. You can see them all here.
(Image credit: Charles Dyer)