| Hooks, bugs and blue beards Labor Day weekend, 1959, we took our first camping trip in a black 1951 panel truck to Seneca Park, Md. This truck had only one seat—the driver’s—so I rode in a rocking chair. When my husband, Landon, would brake, I rocked forward, and when he took off, I rocked backward. Our three small children thought this was very funny and laughed all the way. On the way to the park, our daughter got a fishhook caught in her arm. After all of the screaming and crying, we got the hook out and continued on our way. That night at the park, I asked my husband to keep the windows shut, because of a loud group up the road. During the night, I felt water dropping on me and I woke my husband. He turned the light on and there was condensation dropping from the ceiling. We opened the windows and went back to sleep only to be awakened by buzzing and biting. Landon turned the light on again to find hundreds of mosquitoes on the ceiling. He took care of this, and we finally slept. The next morning, as we were eating our breakfast by the river, caterpillars fell on our plates. At this point, we decided to move on to Patapasco State Park which was better equipped for inexperienced campers. The first night we nearly froze to death. So the next day we went to a shopping center, bought two cheap blue blankets and that night we slept warm and good. Landon had not shaved for several days so he had accumulated a little beard. The next morning, I woke first, then one by one, the children popped up their little heads and started laughing at their father. He had all this blue fuzz in his beard from the blankets. He was a true blue beard, and we continued to laugh as he picked it out. That night we had grilled pork chops and a wonderful dinner cooked outside. It was dark before our dinner was ready, so Landon climbed a tree over the picnic table and hung a flashlight from it so we could see to eat. Most of the other campers had tents and Coleman lanterns, but I know they didn’t enjoy it any more than we did. Ona B. Deane |
|