It started out to be a nice, family camping adventure. This had to be in the mid to late 1950's. Between Yosemite and Big Sir our family spent a lot of time camping. They were our two most favorite places and it didn't take to long to get there, (mother and dad would make a bed in the back of the station wagon and shove us all in there with our p.j.'s still on). We would try and get back to sleep so we wouldn't get car sick.......sometimes it didn't work!
Anyway camping was great because with a growing family you could have a lot of fun and not spend to much money.
Great memories of those times, I'll say. Pitching our old green canvas tent right by the river, {
I can still smell that tent}. It was the old umbrella kind with the pole in the middle. Oh, you had to find just the right place for the tent so your head wasn't downhill and the sun could greet you at the door in the morning...{it really didn't matter to us kids we slept in the back of the car most of the time, or trade off in the tent} the tent could sleep four. Dad was very particular about putting the stakes in first. Then he and mother would both lift it up and try to push the pole up and get the other things in the corners just right. Well that was a job! I look back now and can see just how funny it was. They would disappear in that tent, you couldn't see them but you could hear all the directions going back and forth, "push here" and "pull that", "hold that up", "would ja just do what I tell ya", "can'tja just help me"?....etc. All of us kids would be waiting by the camp table or by our car listening and watching afraid to do anything till that part was over. Then after many minutes all of a sudden they would appear a mess...all hot and their hairs all messed up, and dusty.... Then the task of unpacking the car and putting things away so the bears wouldn't bother us. When that was done we would get ready to eat and go to the river..... what more could you ask for?
The sounds in the mornings of campers chopping wood, the woodpeckers, and blue jays putting in their two cents worth. Then there was the smell of bacon, eggs, and in the distance coffee, and whatever else one could think of to eat for breakfast out there. At night the camp fires, the smores....the singing! Then the sun would start to makes it's appearance for the day.
Campers must be really, really patience people for the most part when it came to our family...
Well, I can't really remember if it was our first night or second night. It was time to head for bed. So mother and dad where in the tent and I think there were three of us kids in the car, {we were small then}. It was the middle of the night and we started to hear a little commotion. I rolled the window down a little to hear what it might be....then there was more and more noise coming from the tent. I could see flash light beams darting around in the tent and could hear mother's commands getting louder and louder, more rustling, and then more noise from mother telling dad to hurry, hurry, get out there, I need to check the kids....well I looked around and we seemed alright. But before we knew it mother had made a "b" line for the car, jumped in the front seat and slammed the door shut. And dad shot out of the tent like "GI Joe" with his big hunting knife in the ready position....by now other campers were up coming around wondering what is going on.....mother had the window down to give more instructions to dad and also shouting something about bears being in our camp! Well now panic was about to set in with me...out of nowhere a ranger showed up..."Well, ya see here what happened" the ranger said... you scared the mama bear, and she in turn sent her cubs up the tree that just happened to be between our car and the tent! Then the mother bear was rustling around in the area to protect her cubs, your lucky she didn't get in your tent! Well about then people started laughing and pointing at dad, even mother was joining in and then us kids....When we figured it out it was pretty hilarious. It seems with all the commotion in the tent, with dad trying to hurry and all to get dressed and mother was trying to get something on to make a brake for the car, when dad pulled on his pants he didn't notice that mother's black brazier got hooked to his back pants pocket. So all that time running around like GI Joe, no shirt, & his bowie knife...he had a hitchhiker in his back pocket! I can tell you it took a while for things to calm down after that. This is a story we still get laughs with time after time!
Oh those camp stories!!
And you know every time we camp at Yosemite we have bears in the camp. Yes, even in the daylight. That's a much shorter story I will tell sometime about making lunch with a bear!
From the past to the present all those that have paid the price, or those that are serving our country now.......
