Ahhh, SWEET WILDERNESS...Sour Stomach, but Sweet Wilderness

Nothing like having breakfast outside on a camping trip...unless you get food poisoning. You're a long way from medical attention out in the woods. You better make sure to NOT put mayo on anything before you leave home.

As to what's going on here? I'd say these folks are not paying attention to the family member writhing next to the tent. Did he eat something gone bad? Is the woman in the foreground smelling the bread thinking, "Oh geez, this is gone bad. Wonder if anyone has noticed."
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 This is my submission this week for Sepia Saturday. Just hang the sign on my door "Gone Camping!"

And no idea why the second photo is green. The original isn't. The one uploaded isn't. But then this page has been a nightmare to create. 
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 9 available at Amazon.

TEPEE in a Field

No idea where or when this shot was taken. A legit pow-wow? No idea.




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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

SaveSave

Friendly PERSUASION

Sometimes you really want the backstory.


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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

On a SUMMER DAY…Skip

On a SUMMER DAY…You Might Find a Fossil in a Campground

While camping in the backwoods of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, Rachel Hodgkiss spent time hunting for fossils. Hoping for a great discovery she was quite surprised by what she did find. This happened in 1967 and until now the family has kept the finding private.

Rachel slept on the floor of the tent and each night complained about something sticking her in the back. Each night her parents, used to Rachel's vivid imagination, would tell her to "Shut up and go to sleep!"

By the fourth morning Rachel, exhausted from no sleep for three nights, convinced her dad that there really was something sticking her in the back. So her dad moved the tent and Rachel began digging with a small wooden spoon that had come with some Neapolitan ice cream she'd bought at the camp store. It took her about an hour-and-a-half to uncover this amazing discovery.

You can imagine how surprised they were when SNL did a skit about the Coneheads in 1977.




Rachel Hodgkiss holding Conehead fossil outside family tent, August 1967.

YOU HAVE A CHOICE this holiday season

The holiday season is upon us. Dance and be merry! Or be like me and sit on a log and stare at some guys butt.

Camping with your uncle who WORKED IN VAUDEVILLE

Imagine going camping with someone who worked in vaudeville. Someone used to quick skits, quick lines, and used to dodging "boos" and tomatoes. What was it like around a campfire each night? Did they regale their fellow campers with jokes or stories of traveling the circuit?

Now, I have no idea if this fellow worked in vaudeville. The odds are he didn't, but I can easily imagine him doing "Slowly I turned...."

To see other vintage camping snapshots click on "camping" in the labels below.


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CAMPING without too much labor

How fast could this camper put their campsite together?


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I'm hoping to do some camping later in the year. I wouldn't even think about camping on this busy weekend. If the campground is full of people, the road home sure would be backed up. I prefer to camp in the offseason when kids are back in school and things are a bit more quiet. With luck I'll head north to Oregon. If I'm really really lucky I'll find a day to go to Powell's Bookstore in Portland. My heart beats a little faster just thinking about it.

Trailer CAMPING

I sure would like to see inside this trailer.


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CAMPING with a wood nymph

If you go out in the woods today be careful of the wood nymphs.

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CAMPING

I have memories of camping in Yosemite and Sequoia as a child. Somewhere there are old 8mm movies of me in my cowboy boots, flannel lined jeans, and striped t-shirt running amongst the redwoods with a little red headed girl. I have no idea who the little girl was, just someone camped near us who became my friend while we were camping. She’ll never see the old footage of herself jumping up and down from behind a tree stump.


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These days I still love camping but admit I want to do it from an RV. I can’t sleep on the ground anymore and I like being able to go inside at night and not have to worry about bugs. I’ve got enough bugs here at home; I don’t need more bugs on the road. Plus, and it's a HUGE plus...I like having a bathroom just a few feet away. Get old and you'll understand.

I’m hoping to do some camping later in the year, perhaps by a lake in the Trinity Alps in the fall. That would be nice. Fall colors, warm days, cool nights, and a campfire with the smoke spiraling towards the tree tops into the dark starry sky. Yeah, I’d like to go camping.

Plus, maybe I wouldn't hear so many darn coyotes at night if I went camping.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

ERNIE'S family goes camping

Though I still have many Ernie photos stashed away I don’t think I’ll ever find another one at the antique store. That saddens me. I enjoy coming upon new parts of Ernie’s life.

Here is an aspect I had not expected. Ernie and family went camping. This is his wife and young daughter. I’d say the wife was pregnant with child number two, Ernie’s son.



I will occasionally add more photos online to the Ernie collection. To see more from Ernie’s life click on “Ernie” in the labels below.

SUMMERTIME: Part 6

Summertime is camping in the redwoods with family beneath thousand year old trees.

Tomorrow: wait and see