My love of camping
began when I was
young.
I am the sixth of seven
children. I grew up in
Houston, and my parents introduced me
to camping by packing all us children, the
dog and the cat, and seeing most of the
southern United States. But what really
iced the cake, was our grand adventure
of touring all the National Parks in the
western United States and doing it
camping in a small Nimrod pop-up trailer.
The math is correct: nine humans, a dog
and a cat in a small trailer originally built
to sleep four. My father built canvas
bunks, which he could install over each
full bed to sleep us smaller kids, and a
cabinet where my oldest brother, who
was an invalid. slept. I remember being
under the threat of “death” if we ever
touched the canvas when it was wet! This
trailer had no toilet, kitchen or electric.
All our cooking was done on a two
burner propane Coleman stove and lit by
Coleman lanterns that had to be pumped
up before lighting. Pumping the fuel was
one of the jobs we were given as childern.
In fact, we all had tasks to do before we
could play or explore, and all had chores
like washing dishes. Even today, hanging
in my trailer, is a picture of me at around
five years old, washing the dinner dishes
in a bucket on the picnic table. This love
of camping I shared with my own children,
but we camped using my husbands
families old five-person canvas tent. And
boy, was that a bugger to set up and take
down each time we camped!
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