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Sunday, April 14, 2013

"Wild"

Every year my family went camping.  Dad wanted to go as deep into the wild as possible and led us into multi-hour sing-a-longs in the car.  We made words out of the letters on license plates and waved to truckers.

Oh, okay, maybe things got loud when one of my sisters punched me.  I’d holler I didn’t touch her, so her punching was unfair.  “If I have to stop this car somebody’s going to get hurt!”  We believed it too, so we’d behave for a while… until I went back to my favorite pastime looking at Sis #2 in various ways until she exploded and punched me again.  After a while she could sense when I was prepping for another round of looking.  The real beauty of this game is that when my sister screamed “She’s looking at me!!!” my parents had a complete lack of sympathy.  Mom told Sis to ignore me, but Sis was incapable of ignoring me.  This might get us as far as Ontario.

Once in Canada, things settled down into a cement blur of boredom.  Sis #1 studied something useful, Sis #2 would chatter about people in the other cars, and I’d play car games with my parents.  When Bro #1 got old enough, I looked at him too.  I guess I was mastering my future boss persona, and eventually learned that if I look too much at people I’m liable to get punched.

So, after many, many, many hours in the car of family togetherness, we’d pile out and erect a tent on the sharpest rocks in the forest.  Once, we pitched the tent on a patch of poison ivy.  Most of my relatives woke up scratching and complaining, but I was pleased that sensitivity to poison ivy is a weakness of lesser humans.  (I’m afraid to test that theory in more recent times.)

One morning I woke up on the Canadian side of Lake Superior before anyone else.  I remembered the blueberries we’d found the day before and decided to pick some for a blueberry pancake breakfast.  More blueberries were getting shoved in my mouth than going into the colander until I started slowing down enough to notice that I wasn’t the only one shoving down berries.  A black bear was just as interested in them as I was, and he was so close that I could actually see his hair bending under the weight of a black fly walking on his fur.

Oooooooo…. Back away slowly… then… RUN!!!!!

I doubt Mom understood that I could’ve died by bear when she complained I didn’t bring back enough blueberries, but Dad seemed to think maybe we shouldn’t continue camping at this most beautiful place if there were bears around.  I hated to pack up the tent.  The water of Lake Superior was a gorgeous deep blue, we jumped off sandstone cliffs into the pure water, and Sis #2 almost sent herself to America on the raft we built.  Good memories J  Well, maybe Sis didn’t think so because she really did almost get lost on that raft.  Dad had to swim far and fast to get her back while I waved bye from the shore.

I guess it’s a good thing Dad caught her.  It would’ve been very boring to stare at my oldest sister into violence on the drive back.  Besides, Sis #1 punched harder.

This has been a crazy weekend in a crazy week, so sorry, no masterpieces this time.  Besides, it seems to me that I’ve covered “wild” many times in the past.  I asked my brother to be guest artist because I was too tired to draw and this is what he came up with.  I think I should’ve given him a fresh piece of paper instead of having him draw on the backside of a work report.

18 comments:

  1. Yep that looks like a Brian piece. I like his little monster in the corner :) Fun memories of camping!

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  2. That is one wild drawing Linda. It looks as though your bro is drawing someone in melt down! Your camping stories are great fun but I would not want to meet a bear in the wild. The only bears we get over here are teddy bears, thank goodness ;0)
    Jane x

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  3. Love how loose, expressive and free the sketches are today! Your guest artist certainly has a wild imagination- Artistic skill and creativity must be family traits. Your family road trip accounts made me laugh- I feel the pain (of those sibling punches!)- Ah, the good ol' days! :o)

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  4. That's a pretty wild guest drawing - like something after staring at a campfire for a long time? I like it!
    We have black bears here, but yours was a little too close for comfort!

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  5. Wow, that is an amazing story! I'm very lucky to have never had an encounter like that - great work!

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  6. I'm sure the blueberries tasted better than me or I wouldn't have lived to tell the tale. My brother's drawing is doodles during a pretty heavy conversation, so I guess that shows. Thanks for the comments everybody!

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  7. Just another reason why I don't camp.

    But I do have a brother.

    The fly drawing is pretty cool, though.

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  8. My favorite childhood car memory was eating crackers and that cheese that you squeeze out of a can. Ha!

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  9. How can anyone replace memories like eating cheese from a can? I hope you didn't punch your brother Josh :) Thanks for the comments!

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  10. LOL! I haven't thought about camping in a while, since lately I prefer my camping in a nice 4-poster bed, with room service! :) My older bones, don't do camping as well, as I did as a pre-teen/teen, when I loved it! I've had a couple experiences with bears. Thanks for sharing your wonderful memories and allowing us to walk with you with ours. :)

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  11. Our family was homeless as well in the summers. My parents called it "camping" but really six people in a tent I call homeless. Loved your story this week. :)

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  12. No family camping trips for me as a child, but I do remember days at the beach with umbrellas and crazy makeshift tents to keep us from baking to a crisp.

    Maybe stories like yours of sharing blueberries with bears kept camping from being a consideration; among other things.

    Great memories of family "togetherness."

    I like the drawings. The latter looks like a horse's head in the center.

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  13. Nowadays I'm more likely to do wimpy girl camping which involves a cabin with beds and plumbing. That makes me feel wealthy because during those times I have a regular home and a vacation house :)

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  14. Fantastic memories, Linda. I have to admit I enjoyed reading about your skills of stone-walling your sister. Is that how you treat your co-workers these days? Hopefully they don't punch back... Your little fly might not be a masterpiece, but I love the simplicity and how you with few strokes are able to create an insect with character.

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  15. Ahh…creativity runs in the family! Totally can relate to the siblings-in-the-backseat dramas, being one of three (before the fourth one came along much later and rather unexpectedly). Our outdoor adventures ala family were not nearly so outdoorsy 'wild,' but I have a scrapbook of memories in my head too. Great post, as always, Linda. Even tired, you write good! :-)

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  16. I am now a wimpy girl camper too. Beds, plumbing, not sleeping on a stick or a rock...lol

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  17. So far none of my coworkers have punched me :) My brother smiled when I read the comments you wrote about his drawing. Thanks!

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  18. Oh dear, family trips! I was the youngest of four so always squeezed in the middle in back or sometimes, in front. Most of the trips were to cabin resorts or recreational areas, though I was very young and don't remember much. Lots of arguing in the car and being blamed for stuff, certainly!

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