Our family was large with 7 kids, and we weren't very well off financially as I was growing up. My parents were avid Boy Scout leaders, so we often went camping as a family, since we had the gear and it was cheap to do.
One time, we went camping, and when we arrived and set up, we realized that we were one sleeping bag short. My dad being as anal as he is, as well as someone who never fails to follow the motto "Be Prepared," had an extra tent or two that he decided to sleep in like a sleeping bag.
During the course of the night, it began to snow hard. This was a surprise storm and we weren't exactly prepared for snow. My sleeping bag was in the lowest corner of the tent, and halfway through the night, I discovered that my sleeping bag was soaked through. I woke up my folks, who decided to share the extra tent as bedding and they put me where my mom had been, on a cot in a shared sleeping bag with my little brother, Steve. He was two or three at the time.
About an hour later, I woke up to find Steve shivering and trying to snuggle up to my warmth. He had PEED OUR SLEEPING BAG!
The rest of that horrible night was spent trying to keep poor Stevie as far away from me as possible.
Needless to say, we packed up and went home first thing in the morning.
Could this be why I have never brought myself to buy the gear and take my family camping?
5 comments:
My mother married a man (my father. They're still married) who grew in the Scouting program and was an avid camper. Mom, on the other hand, had never spent a nice outside without being within 20 feet of a bathroom (think slumber parties in the back yard.)
The first time my parents went camping, they went "up Provo Canyon." Mom says she left camp eight times that weekend under the guise that she'd left something behind at home that they needed.
Eventually, my parents bought a camper, which was okay, but even that meant camping to Mom. I think Dad finally got a clue and gave up. (And believe me, we were all grateful.)
I never even went to girl's camp, though I did do a couple of those pioneer trek youth conferences. Mom's idea of camping is staying at the Marriott. I guess we all inherited that gene! Poor Dad.
P.S. I deleted my comment because of a glaringly BAD grammar error. Gag. I'm telling you, my writing skills are going to hell in a handbasket!
I loved camping when I was...er...younger and more wieldy. We had a camping experience, once much like your, but the pee-ist was my daughter's friend.
Now, much older, we're looking for a small trailer.
I love Love LOVE camping.
Fresh air. The smell of cooking bacon in the mornings. Freshly brewed coffee. Enjoying nature. Sex in a tent, for whatever reason, is just hawt hawt HAWT. Granted, camping requires running water and functional bathrooms - I don't enjoy the hardcore kind of camping where there isn't a facility nearby.
Your post had me howling :) Thanks for the great chuckle.
I used to camp all the time when I was a Boy Scout in my youth.
Later, when I was in the Marines, sleeping outside, on the ground, in a hole in the ground, in the rain, in the snow, in the jungle, in the monsoon... got old rather quickly.
I haven't slept outside since, and don't plan to do so ever again.
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