song

Play the Grandma's Camp Song!

Meet our Song Leader, Karree J. Phillips

Down At Grandma’s Camp

Written by Charles L. Smith

Verse 1

In a world of changing values, amidst diversity,

There’s a place to get back to the roots—of what makes a family;

Where you can learn and have some fun, and you can be a champ…

You can make some mem’ries…(where!)…down at Grandma’s Camp.

Verse 2

Time is really precious, it’s worth more than gold.

It’s here today, and gone tomorrow…the young become the old.

Time waits for no one…not a kid, nor a gramp…

You can make some mem’ries…(where)…down at Grandma’s Camp.

Verse 3

Now grandparents and grandkids…one day have to go…

Back to their homes or to a place…beyond the rainbow…

Either climbing up that stairway, or rolling up that ramp;

You can make some mem’ries…(where!)…down at Grandma’s Camp.

Verse 4

I never thought I’d miss them, until they were not there.

But how I miss the times we spent and the times we did not share.

Like sitting ‘round the camp fire, every night at camp;

Glad I made some mem’ries…(where!)…down at Grandma’s Camp.

Chorus

Grandma’s Camp, Grandma’s Camp…

You can make some mem’ries…(where!)…down at Grandma’s Camp.

Grandma’s Camp, Grandma’s Camp…

I’m glad I made some mem’ries…(where!)…down at Grandma’s Camp.

Charles L. Smith, the son of Leroy and Lura Smith, is a former Board Member of Grandma’s Camp, and native of the “Music City”-- Nashville, Tennessee, who grew up in Lebanon, TN, where he graduated from Lebanon High School in 1974 and Cumberland College in 1976. He began his formal piano lessons at the age of eleven, and shortly after began playing the piano for the youth choir of the Lebanon Church of God. There he developed his gift and love of music by playing for various groups throughout the community and Middle Tennessee, including recording with the funk and top-forty band, Phaze III, in the 1980s.

From November of 1976 to December of 1977, Smith, with no other siblings, endured the pain of losing his only grandfather, and both parents; however, joy returned in January of 1985 with the birth of his only son Arron. Smith first met the future founder of Grandma’s Camp, Marti Carelli-Gilbert in 1988, when she was an instructor teaching his son to swim. Through a chance meeting at a professional football game concession stand, Carelli-Gilbert, invited Smith to go to the website, and later she expressed her need for a camp theme song. Smith said that it was easy for him to write “Down At Grandma’s Camp”, because he has learned how precious life is and how quickly it can pass.