Creating Memories to Last a Lifetime!
What do a bear, a dog, a skunk, matches, and a tornado have in common?
Our family’s summer camping trips when I was a kid! What excursions they were.
Here are a few shorts about our fantastical family times together.
🐻We would camp overnight at lakes and stay in our large tent. It didn’t have a floor. My grandparents would sometimes camp with us and stay in the tent. One big happy family snoozing away. One night, late, after we had all fallen asleep, my grandmother started screaming, “Bear, bear, bear!” We all shot off our cots from a deep sleep, totally startled.
My grandmother's hand had slipped under the tent outside. Our dog came along and was licking her hand. My dad was quite annoyed as he told her what was going on. In her defense, she was from Arkansas, known as ‘The Bear State.’
🦨💨 One year, we upgraded and stayed in a trailer at a lake spot that our aunt and uncle had. Our curious dog went exploring and, of course, came upon a pretty kitty, otherwise known as a skunk! That poor dog was so sick and smelled so bad! He had white rings around his eyes and was just beaten down. My dad threw him into the lake, hoping that it would help. It only made it worse. It took weeks for that dog to be normal again!
🥢On another camping trip at the trailer, I had gotten something in my eye. I was about nine or ten years old. Whatever it was, it was causing my eye to water. My dad decided to take a look. It was evening, and it became too dark to see well. In his camping intelligence, he thought that lighting a match to take a look was a great idea! Did you know that burning hair smells really bad???? My mother was not amused when I went home with charred bangs. I have no idea what was in my eye. It remains a mystery.
🌪️ Ever been rocked to sleep in a car by a tornado? I have! What a dealio! We decided to camp at a lake that we had camped at before. Every time we camped there, a storm would come up. Our last experience helped us make the final decision to never camp there again. We had just gotten camp all set up; tent stakes in the ground, coolers, chairs, fire pit, you know, all the camping goodies were in place for us to relax and have some fun. The campsites were full, and all our camping neighbors were on top of us. About the time we were done setting up, a storm suddenly came up.
The wind was thrashing around the trees, and the waves were crashing against the shore. It became very dark, and lightning was dancing on the lake. We quickly ran to our car for safety. Through the lightning strikes, we could see a tornado dancing around the lake!
We had no choice but to stay in the car. Driving away could have been a deadly decision, as we could have driven right into the tornado.
Yes, all four of us slept in the rocking car all night until the storm passed. The next morning, we could see all the devastation. Our campsite was blown everywhere and mixed in with everyone’s stuff. Yup, we packed it up and went home.
The only good thing that came out of this was that Mom had stocked up on a bunch of Hostess snack goodies for our weekend stay, and we were allowed to eat them when we got home. Oh, yeah, and secondly, the fact that we lived through a tornado. That was a good thing, yes. ☺
I hope you can create some fun memories this summer, safely!
Debra Lee | Biz & Life
Coach | Author | Keynote Speaker | Blogger
Books: “It Is What It Is…But It Wasn’t A Tragedy” | “Making
Wise Choices…the most important life skill to master”
