Incredibly popular city-owned Camp Mather sees increase in cancellations due to The Recession. Vacated spots are filled within 12-seconds, so don’t get worried that you might be able to go now. There are still 373 families on the waiting list.
In a Chronicle article on the cancellations, The Chronicle highlights how the obvious appeal of this woodland oasis coupled with the low cost of camping ($1,100 for 4 people including all meals) makes this family summer camp popular with both San Franciscans and the dreaded non-San Franciscans.
However, the article is quick to point out that real San Franciscans get priority, and non-San Franciscans “rarely even get a chance to experience what, in every aspect, is a throwback to a more innocent time.” This is probably due to the well-documented fact that non-San Franciscans wouldn’t know innocence if they were slapped in the face with it. This is because they never experienced a little something called The Summer of Love, the remnants of which still flows through the veins of even the surliest of San Franciscans.
Camp management is mysteriously concerned about the 5% increase in cancellations even though they were filled by only somewhat lesser waiting list campers in about .3 seconds. “How could anybody stay away from a place like this?” camp manager, Claudia Reinhart asks, and then she travels back in time, to the beginning of the article, and answers her own question, “People don’t know whether they will have a job in September, so they cancel vacation.” If only it was as easy for the financial institutions of America to travel back in time and let their past selves answer a few questions posed by their future selves, everyone might be going to Camp Mather after all.
