Today is Canada Day. For us that means that we will do our best to keep the tradition…going out to the trailer for supper and then watching the fireworks and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the fire. Camping represents simple and memorable times for our family…bicycle rides, walks along the beach, skipping stones and making sand castles…Coleman stoves, hibachi barbeques and whittling sticks for roasting hotdogs. In the summer time it was a treat to sleep in the tent in the back yard and when I was fifteen, I remember going camping with some friends at the Pinery Park. Mom and Dad had a couple of motor homes when I lived at home, and we explored a bit with them.
When my own children were young we went camping in the summer because it was fun and it was a relatively cheap vacation. One time when we were camping in Wheatley we had a sleeping tent and another structure that had mesh walls…something to keep the food in and most of the bugs out. I woke up one night to a lot of noise and realized that raccoons had found their way into the food tent, delighted that somebody left the lid off the peanut butter jar. My first thought was that I was bigger than they were and my presence alone would scare them off. But what those little varmints lack in size, they make up in determination. They were very territorial about that peanut butter and as soon as they all started hissing at me in that dark tent, I could only imagine that there was an army of them and I couldn’t get back inside my tent fast enough! A lesson learned for sure!
Sometimes we would camp out in the basement on a Saturday night during the winter, watch Saturday Night Live and then fall asleep in our sleeping bags. In the summer we would find a park. Other times we would set up a tent in the back yard and on a warm summer night or even a cool fall night we would sit by a fire. If it was cold we would wrap a blanket around us to keep warm and that’s where we had some of our best conversations…makes me want to do it all over again!
Happy Canada Day from our family to yours!
Until next week,
Marc
