My Childhood Camping Experience

At one point during my childhood, my friend and I were going to Girl Scout camp. We'd be staying in cabins for the week, and doing various projects and activities. However, we wound up having to drive to the location, then stay at a nearby campsite, because we couldn't get a hotel. So begins the adventure.

Now, I'd never camped before, and let me tell you, I turned out to be a wimp. If I got lost in the wild, I'd be dead within the hour, probably from something ridiculous.

The wise and knowledgeable adults set up the tents and started a fire at the campsite. We wound up having hot dogs and toasted marshmallows, if I recall. I didn't especially enjoy the meal, as little gnats kept bothering me. As an added bonus, they would land in the ketchup on my plate and drown themselves. Yummy.

At one point, Mom asked if I would roast a marshmallow for her. Dad was trying to give me instructions, but to no avail. I somehow managed to make the marshmallow soft and gooey, but without toasting it.

Then there was the outhouse. A little wooden shack filled with spiders, spiderwebs, and webs with spiders. And if you make a disgusted face now, they'll throw in some other bugs, free of charge!

Besides that, the toilet was set over a deep hole dug for the purpose. The toilet somehow seemed enormous, a great yawning pit that you're supposed to sit upon. and all I could think of was whether I would fall into it and die. There's a great thing to put on my epitaph. "She tragically perished when she fell into an outhouse toilet. Her body was never recovered, as the terrifying chasm stretched all the way to the center of the earth."

Needless to say, that wasn't happening. Perhaps it was an irrational fear, but nonetheless, I couldn't use that outhouse. (Can that actually happen? You know what, I don't want to know.) My friend didn't want to use it either. Our parents suggested squatting behind a bush or something, but that wasn't working. In the end, we wound up driving somewhere, I think to the Girl Scout camp, and using the facilities there. (Yay, a flush toilet that isn't a gaping cavern of death!)

I spent the night in a tent with my dad, he in one sleeping bag and I in another. I don't remember it well, but it probably wasn't that comfortable, and I don't think I slept as soundly as I normally would have. I do recall lying there listening to him snoring. When I woke up, I was bored and wanted to leave the tent, but Dad didn't want me out there alone. Parents are funny that way, they act like they don't want their child lost or kidnapped.

Anyway, that was my brief experience with camping. After that, my friend and I went to Girl Scout camp, where there were bathrooms with modern plumbing, and cabins with bunk beds.