Saluting Salute Your Shorts

“Camp Anawanna, we hold you in our hearts…â€? and what kid didn’t dream of going to a summer camp like the one portrayed on Nickelodeon’s Salute Your Shorts.

Nickelodeon’s show about a camp and the hijinks that went on there featured people you may recognize from your own camper days like: Michael, the new kid; Donkeylips, the fat guy; Bobby Budnick, the resident asshole who introduced our generation to Metallica; Sponge, the nerd; Pinsky, the jock; Telly, the tomboy; Z.Z. the hippie; Dina Alexander, the camp hottie; and their counselor Kevin Lee otherwise known as “Ugâ€? (Am I the only one who notices a resemblance to the lead singer of Gin Blossoms?).

The show’s plots were about camp life and activities like putting on the end-of-season play, or daring Budnick to camp out at the gravesite of the camps urban legend, Zeke the Plumber. But it was Bobby Budnick’s constant ribbing of Ug for flunking out of gym teachers college, and pranks on Michael for being the new kid, that kept us coming back week-in and week-out for more.

Camp Anawanna, we really do hold you in our hearts but what we really want to do is hold you in our hands in the form of a DVD. We want to pop you in our DVD players and relive the episode where the kids turned Ug’s face blue. We want to remember when Budnick fell in love with Dina Alexander and offered her a used tissue, or when Budnick and Ug traded roles for a day and had to settle an argument between Z.Z. and Dina over a frog, or when Sponge used his knowledge to win one thousand dollars in a radio contest. Nickelodeon, this is an ultimatum, get your head out of Spongebob’s ass and release this classic on DVD. Until then, we can remember the summers at Camp Anawanna on YouTube.