The warm weather is reminding me of long lost summer vacations. Obviously, we would spend a lot of time outside. Primarily we spent a lot of time playing cards.
One summer, we went camping as a group of young adults. At the campground, we spent a good chunk of time playing soccer against a group of Portuguese guys. We also ended up befriending many of the children on the campground and, when they weren’t around, built a giant fort out of beer crates with a table in the middle to play cards.
After the soccer we also went swimming one day and I distinctly remember we had to drag several friends out of the pool because they started cramping up.
The campground was accompanied by a small restaurant that was essentially a bar in the evening but played host to children’s activities during most of the day (hypothetically for parents who might want some time to themselves).
One evening, when we went for a few drinks. Unbeknownst to most of us, there was a singing competition the next day, primarily for pre-teens.
The next day, very early in the morning, or at least very early in the morning to a group of hung-over (late) teenagers, a crowd was gathering outside our tent. Not only was there a very young crowd, they were also chanting.
“Backstreet Boys! Backstreet Boys! Backstreet Boys!” Their little shrill and excited voices thundered through the thin walls of our tents.
Most of us were quite confused as to what was going on. One of us, who apparently had been aware of the singing competition had signed us up as the Backstreet Boys.
The pre-teens, who at this point we were quite friendly with, were super pumped that the “older kids” would be taking part.
It took us surprisingly little time to get ready to go, perhaps because changing clothes to a chorus of little ones wasn’t really an option.
We made our way to the venue and were introduced to much applause.
“They’re a little late because their plane was delayed, but finally, here they are: the Backstreet Boys.”
It was truly one of the most awful performances ever put to stage. It was horrendously out of tune, three out of five of us had no idea what the lyrics were and as for the stage presence, let’s just say it’s a good thing mobile phones weren’t really a widespread thing yet.
Somehow, however, the little kids seemed to absolutely love it. Meanwhile, the parents who were in attendance also seemed to quite enjoy it, although mostly as my German publisher would say due to Schadenfreude.
