For part of a week in early June my wife and I went camping at a state park in Sauk County for a few nights. Off to the side of our site, were a couple families, perhaps camping together. In the mix were some children, whose numbers, oddly, seemed to vary for the few days we were present. Say about five or so children ranging from age from about 6 or 7 to teenagers. What was of interest to my wife is how their activities reminded her when she camped with her parents and siblings, along with her aunt and uncle and their children. Sometimes other of her family members would join in, to make a rather large gathering that today would be at a group campsite. Camping kids can run the gamut from making life interesting and fun to watch, to the opposite end of some who may be to rowdy for the time and place. Like last year with the language some kids used while we were camping in northern WI. On our most recent trip this week (June 123 to 18) my wife noted the sassy words two girls made to their grandmother at the beach.
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| Campsite, June 13 to 18, 2021 |
My wife, her siblings, and some of her cousins were camping kids. Her father's place of employment would close the factory for two weeks in July, and it was for this two week period that they had their longest camping trips. They would camp up north at Crystal/Muskellunge, camp at Veteran's Park in Marinette County, and up at Lake Gogebic in the UP, to name but a few places. Through it all she kept her speech patterns as that of a southern Wisconsinite, and never really developed the northern WI, or UP accent all so love to mimic. She of course, was the oldest child (unless another cousin joined in) and had to do her fair share of work. She helped wash/shower the younger kids, which they sometimes did in assembly line fashion.
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| Butterflies |
The camping kids nearby made her reminisce about her childhood camping experiences. Some of the stories I had heard before, but many were new. To say the 1960's to early 70's was a different time would be an understatement. They would go to the dump to watch bears. Some of those dumps may well now be super-fund sites. Hopefully all have been remediated. Their family camping ranged from a small camper which would only sleep two, and a pull out canvas that covered the ground where she and her siblings would sleep to, later, a more suitable pop up. In July of 1969 they took a television along with them on their camping excursion, one of those small but heavy cathode ray tube devices, that they plugged in at the shelter to watch Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. Or, in Utah, if you are a conspiracy theorist. Or, for the way out their crowd, perhaps Neil never left a Hollywood Studio.
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| Peshtigo River Rapids |
Her dad and uncle Larry did most of the evening meal preparation. One day, the kids and the moms went to the beach, but my land girl stayed back and recorded everything that went into the clean out the cooler stew her dad and uncle were cooking. I doubt, the cooking put a pause in their beer drinking. After all, her dad and uncle would play Jarts, the old kind with the pointy tips, that could be weaponized, and are now banned, all the while consuming their fair share of beer. (I said it was a different time.) Any way, the meal she recorded would, I guess, be the Goff-Schleis version of the Italian dish chicken Cacciatore, or Hunter's stew. She even recorded when a some pine sap dropped in. Her mother has treasured her notes of the meal, so it can either be replicated, or for what they ate. Perhaps, the idea of keeping it is no one would try to replicate the meal. The cooking set they used, made by Mirro Aluminum, is now considered a classic, vintage set , and one in good condition has made its way to the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum. We use their set, although there are a few missing pieces, mainly the coffee cups, but the pots and pans and plates are still used. She is extremely proud of her note taking. I perhaps now know the event that is the precursor to the woman I live with today who likes to make lists, and remake lists, and remade remade lists. It was her recording what went in to their meal that long ago night. I have a camping trip to thank for her attentiveness to list making, if not detail.
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| Eagle in Flight |
Her, and her parents, rule following assured that they were the good camping kids, no swearing, no loud activity after quiet hours. Funny thing is this camping trip was to the same state park where we had our worst experience with noise and obnoxious behavior. At least we did not have to put up with obnoxious behavior on this trip.
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| Loon |
While her dad and uncle did the preparation of supper, at times in the morning they had cereal. She asked me if I recalled the small rectangular, individual serving size,cereal boxes that you opened up and pour some milk into and could then eat your cereal. I said yes, I recall as a boy scout on some camping trips we had that for breakfast. They came in a pack with different cereal varieties. I recall them being Kellogg's brand cereal, so it was frosted flakes, mini-wheats, rice krispies, raisin bran, and a few other types. I then said to her that I felt sorry for the person who had to eat the raisin bran. As I said this, I thought to myself, that a woman, who is a strong rule follower and list maker who now drinks kumbucha, and eats sauerkraut will probably say she liked raisin bran. Sure enough, she said she liked eating the raisin bran. I said, what kid in their right mind would eat raisin bran? That would be my wife as a child. She said I eat bran cereals, and I said I am adult, not a kid (no matter what she may think).
I think what camping does is insert memories in our consciousness like any good excursion or adventure should do. Just this past week we saw things we had never before seen, an eagle in a tree just above our heads, and a loon sitting on her nest. They will remain in our memories as does the over 6" of rain in less than three hours on the first night of our first major camping trip at Pattison State Park. Of course, this past Sunday we had rain, pea-sized hail, and high winds. But, memories, as my wife indicated by her stories almost two weeks ago, are also in the gatherings and interactions with family members.
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