Before Blogs, There Were Diaries

People ask me all the time: “How did Outdoor Afro begin?”

Quite frankly, it began in the pages of a diary I wrote up when I was about 9,  and continued sporadically into other diaries over the years, until I became a young adult, when I discovered newsgroups, email lists, then finally blogs.
Here is the start of an entry that painstakingly detailed a Girl Scout camping trip at Hidden Villa Ranch, captured in vivid, youthful detail after arriving home. Click for larger view:

I wrote, “It was so fun. It was the very first camping trip I ever had. When we first got there, we had a big argument over cabins and we finally got a cabin! I think our cabin was the livest [sic] one of all…”
The entry goes on to share about our various adventures on the trip, such as night time walks to gaze at stars, doing “capers”, the food, and the songs we sang. I remember it all vividly.
The six-page cursive-written entry ends with plain-text song lyrics from our trip and me lamenting , “wish I could go back for another night.” Click for larger view:

What a difference camping makes in the life of a child.
What a difference it made for me.
Did you keep a journal or a diary as a child? What sparked your passion for the outdoors?