After
my children got old enough, I took them camping every summer.
Remembering my childhood, I tried to go to a place that was on a
creek or river, preferably on a creek close to the mouth where it ran
into the river. We would go swimming and fishing. I didn’t take a
gun along. I thought it would be too dangerous with children around.
We would stay out three or four days with a piece of
plastic instead of a tent. Using a 16 by 20 foot sheet of the heavy,
flexible plastic that is used in construction, we would pull a length
of rope between two trees as tight as we could. Then laying the
plastic sheet across the rope we would use baling line tied around
rocks wrapped in the edge of the plastic with 60 penny nails for
stakes. Making sure the lines between the plastic and nails were long
along the back, we would make a lean-to. We would also make sure that
if it rained the water would drain in the right direction. With the
ends open and one side of the plastic only one half way to the
ground, we went through some very bad weather without getting wet or
our shelter blowing away. The long peg lines on the side that went to
the ground allowed that side to rise up and let the wind go under it.
When
I first started taking the family on these trips, there were numerous
places to go camping. As people started organizing into hunting clubs
and leasing land it got harder and harder to find a place to camp
until it was almost impossible.
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