In full swing now are summer camps, one of the more blessed bits of Americana in my view. Of the many camps that I attended growing up, the most unique had to be what I now refer to as “business camp.”
Laugh all you want about kids spending a week of their summer running a small snack business or attending etiquette dinners.
But this camp, known now as 21st Century Leaders, gave a small-town boy entree to the board room of Coca-Cola and the sets of CNN — truly horizon-broadening experiences. My fellow campers hailed from all parts of Georgia and were diverse in every way identifiable. We had fun and learned a lot.
This experience has come back to my mind often in recent months, as the economy has tanked and business has become something of a public villain. I wonder how our fits of industry-bashing will affect the national psyche in the long run.
In the mid-1990s, it didn’t seem odd to put a friendly, summer-camp face on business. Long past were the painful economic …
