So about 12 years ago a few families in the neighborhood went camping.
And the next year they asked another family.
Then another.
Pretty soon there were eight or so families going every year.
Thirty or so of us. Forty plus if the kids brought their friends.
We had canoes and motor boats and tents and massive amounts of camping gear.
Fishing (I never caught anything even though I wore my lucky fishing shirt) and hiking.
Swimming and drinking and playing games.
Cribbage, rummy, chess.
S'mores. Burgers and dogs. Every conceivable food and snack and drink.
Thirty people sitting around a campfire singing songs while my youngest played her guitar.
Huge rain storms. Cars breaking down.
That noise of stuff falling on your tent all night.
Pancakes on the Coleman grill (I'll miss you!)
Just sitting around doing nothing. No computers. No TV (would have been better with TV)
That book.
The SLAMMING DOOR in the middle of the night when someone used the bathroom up the hill.
Stumbling through the woods at three in the morning finding a vomiting kid.
Bears! (there were no bears. But there could have been)
Kids sneaking beers. Dad getting angry.
Adults only cruises around the lake.
Kids only I DONT WANT TO KNOW!!
The packing up to go home.
The goodbyes even though we'd all see each other in the neighborhood in a hour or so.
Maybe McDonalds on the way home.
Well, sometime last night around 10:20 it ended. It became official.
The Camping Trip is no more.
The kids are grown up. This one can't go.
That neighbor had to cancel.
Someone has to work.
The Camping Trip is no more.
7 comments:
How...poignant.
For IANO, anyways.
Not true..............."everyone is still going".............Just told you "we weren't"........
Reminds me of when Joe D. wrapped up his Lost Weekend parties at his lake house. Man I miss em.
10 years running, surrounded by my best friends, drank more than I ever have, listened to lots of great music, met my wife there (well, stumbled into her drunk at first...)
I think it was only a couple of years later that the house got hit by lightning and burned down, so maybe it was a good thing they ended....or maybe Jesus was mad at us.
OK, I'm sure Jesus was mad at us...
Jesus is always mad at you.
campers shouldn't be allowed to marry each other
But they can be campy. They can be campy as all get out as long as they stay away from camps with their campiness.
Wait. What the hell did I say?
Jesus was just mad he was never invited. But, for the record, Jesus, you were always welcome to tap a keg with us.
Not a euphamism, either.
IANO never came to a Lost Weekend party. He always thought he was too good for us. I don't care if he's right.
My favorite memory is Joe O (Horroru) screaming out at the top of his lungs, on a raft in the middle of the lake, at 2 in the morning.
Thinking back, maybe it was the neighbors that burned the place down. I guess I wouldn't blame them.
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