It’s the Fourth of July today and I’m thankful the weather
is sunny and warm, bringing back some wonderful childhood memories. Camping often coincided with the holiday. My parents took me camping when I was about
nine months old and by the time I was old enough to remember any of it they
were seasoned campers, complete with a home-made food box that transformed the
trunk of our car into a well organized pantry.
The car and trailer would be packed in expert tetris style, each item
having a special place to go so that everything would fit. The cloth bags for the various necessities
had unspoken color codes; the blue one held kitchen foil and trash bags, the
red one for beach towels. Amongst them was a brown bag, full of toys and games
saved especially for camping. Part of
setting up the campsite was creating a matchbox town for our dirt caked cars to
reside.
We always packed books, crayons, and various other bits and
pieces that could keep us busy when it rained, which it inevitably would at
some point during the stay, but ultimately we were outside as much as
possible. We had treats like chocolate
pancakes, gorp, s’mores. I thought my
Dad was the smartest man ever when he cut my mini cereal box open, poured milk
in it, and let me eat straight out of it – a cardboard cereal bowl? Genius.
