MAY LONG WEEK END IN CANADA.

      This weekend is a long weekend in Canada, At one time it was called Victoria Day weekend where it was meant to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday.  Now Queen Victoria died long before I was born so that makes it a long time ago. Now we simply call it the May long weekend. 

      It's the first long weekend in Canada when we can actually get outside and enjoy activities. So it's the first weekend of camping.

     At one time in my life, the May long weekend was one that we made sure we were out. Now many times there is very inclement weather for this weekend. When I was younger we tented. With my little kids we had a small holiday trailer. I have camped in the snow on a May long weekend...more than once! Camping became a little loonier than I wanted to experience...much alcohol and partying. So the May Long Weekend camping experience in campgrounds ended.

     We then latched on to a piece of recreational property and spent some pleasant  May weekends weekends in our patch of trees by the lake. There were some good times but when the kids grew up and left , we gave up the camping.

    Now there are two unforgettable May long weekends for me. First, I got married on May 21, 1966 which that year was a long weekend. Second, the next year, 1967,  May weekend , we had to go camping. So we took our tent and camping gear and headed to a northern lake and campground. We'd never been to Grieg  lake before. When we got there we were impressed by the beauty and quietness. In fact, it was so quiet that we were the only campers. The weather was perfect for a long weekend. The lake was about 2 mi long and half a mile wide. We rented a canoe and had a great time on the lake. For the whole weekend we were the only campers. 

   That was the best long May weekend camping that I ever had.

    

SOMETIMES OUR LITTLE KIDS EMBARRASS US!

      I listen to a noon radio talk show most of the time. This week one of the topics was about how our kids have embarrassed us. I had an instant idea but didn't phone in. Instead ,I thought I'd tell my readers the story.

    I have to set things up for the story. Early 1970's. (Wow that seems like a long time ago.) We wore huge bell bottom pants that had large patterns and wild colors. Remember the leisure suits? My son was 3 1/2 years old.

     We were camping. I took him to the campground bathroom. My son pointed to a cubicle and said, "Dad, there's a clown in there." I tried to ignore him and distract his attention. He got more excited than ever and was jumping up and down because there was a clown in one of the cubicles. Since we were standing waiting for a cubicle to be available I couldn't hide. What my son saw was the bottom of a pair of trousers and big shoes. The pant cuffs were huge. The green plaid pattern was gigantic...something like what a clown would wear. 

    The guy emerged from the cubicle and my son was  jumping up and down saying, " There he is Dad. There's the clown." 

    Now I must admit the guy could have been taken for a clown. He was young and obese so the bell bottoms were larger than ever. I don't think the guy caught on that he was being called a clown. 

    When we got back to our camper my son told his Mom that he had seen a clown.

    It was embarrassing but fun once it was over.

On Losing a Longtime Friend

     Yesterday I said goodbye to a friend of forty years. The parting had been coming for a few years and finally it happened. Yes, I sold my old travel trailer yesterday!

     I bought my 16 ft travel trailer in 1969. It was the same day that I picked up my new son from the adoption agency. So as the saying goes if walls could talk this little trailer had a million stories to tell.

    We had been campers as a couple. We wanted to keep on camping but with little kids we needed something that had more protection and conveniences. In the trailer we would be dry, warm and have all kinds of space to bring along necessities. So supplies and clothing were much easier to handle. 

    We didn't travel extensively but did get far from home once and made many short local hops. Mostly the trailer sheltered us at a lake lot that we bought. The lot, development, lake and beach provided the kids with all kinds of places to play and explore. We have many stories to share. When my daughter was six , she accidentally stepped on a wasp ground nest. As the wasps came up and started stinging her she froze and howled. We could hear her from 400 m away. It wasn't a funny story but just one of the many adventures. Most adventures were of the happy type. Many hours were spent sitting at the table playing games. When we cleaned the trailer out we found the old games and left them there.
  
     We advertised the trailer for several months. There were many inquiries and some people seemed really interested. The last caller seemed really interested. He came to look at it and I'm sure had made up his mind before he came as he had the money in his pocket. What's more he had two boys who were five and six. These little guys were just bug eyed over the trailer. They took it home and slept in it the first night.

"Out of the garage the old girl's easin."

"Out to the road she bounces"

Out of the gate so slowly

"The last time ever I saw her." I get tears looking at this shot!

    So it was with some mixed feelings that I parted with my old friend. But the writing was on the wall. I had not used it for seven years and I was not ever going to use it again.

    So goodbye old friend with some sadness and a lot of happy times.

A Story in my Treasures

        Today I am selling a Coleman Camp stove and lantern. I am trying to get rid of some of my "stuff" that I haven't used for a long time. I haven't used these two articles since sometime in the late 1980's. I have had these two items since 1965. As I part with them I think about some parts of my life.

       In 1965 I was a young teacher at Inuvik NWT and then, as now, was very much an outdoors person. In the summer of 1965 I went to Saskatoon, Sask. to take a summer school course. As soon as I got there I bought the Coleman Camp stove and lantern. I parcelled them up and immediately sent them on their way to catch the barge to Inuvik. Air freight was very expensive so heavier things were sent in by river barge.

      Inuvik is situated on the Mackenzie delta and is a boaters paradise as there are thousands of kilometers of channels on the delta. I had a small boat and motor and with my purchase of stove and lamp was ready to explore the Mackenzie delta. My friend had a tent and provided moral support.

    So my stove and lantern went with me on fishing expeditions and goose hunts. They also travelled on the Arctic ocean to Tuktoyaktuk. The big adventure they took me on was to travel by boat up the Mackenzie river from Tuktoyaktuk to Hay River , a distance of 1800 kms(1100 miles).

    In 1969 I became a southerner again and so my stove and lamp became part of my car camping experience. The first apartment I rented I had to use my camping equipment for two weeks as I was waiting for my furniture to come from storage. We spent most of this time camping.

    Later we bought a small 16 foot holiday trailer. We found that it was easier to use the Coleman stove and cook outside rather than the small trailer stove.

     So these two items remind me of my camping experiences and the stages I went through. Having had these two old items for 46 years covers a good portion of one's life and as a result they are full of good memories.