Camping Memories

This is the why I love to camp story. Camping was a big part of my growing up years. We started small with a tent, cots and not much else and took off for Morehead City and Bogue Inlet on weekends. These were beach campgrounds that had little shade but lots of fun for a little girl. We had movies of me and Scott jumping off of the sand dunes that we would watch over and over just so we could back them up and fly backwards to the top of the dune. One movie that was a favorite to watch showed Mom and Dad "wrestling" in the ocean with the waves coming at them. They were out far enough for the water to be chest high. We were so grossed out to find out that Dad was "making moves on Mom" and was trying to tug her bathing suit bottoms off to torture her and make her stay in the ocean while he waved her bathing suit around to embarrass her. The joke backfired on him when a large wave crashed over him when he wasn't looking and he wound up with a mouth full of water, upside down in the ocean with his butt and legs waving in the air. While we laughed and made fun of him when we were watching the movie, he would pretend to be annoyed and grumble about us enjoying watching him drown and that we were evil children. Making that movie go backward was hilarious.

This was where we spent a week with 3 of Dad's grown cousins. I don't think they had ever been to the beach before so it was a fun experience. One of the cousins worked at a dry cleaners with hot steam and the awful sunburn she had became a problem when she went back to work. Her stomach had become blistered and she got really sick. The part I remember about this week in particular was how painful the sunburns were for two of the cousins and me. Noxema's initial coolness was the only thing that helped but would soon start heating up and become miserable again. This was also the vacation when I stepped off of the step at home as we were packing the car - just as our neighbor's dog, Blackie, was chasing a cat and I broke my foot and was in a "jelly boot" for the entire week. I couldn't play on the beach and had to be carried everywhere. Let's see, can't play or have fun in any way, not mobile or able to even go to the bath house by myself, could only sit on a blanket while others had fun around me and get the worst sunburn of my life - oh, yeah - can you tell me WHY I remember this week with fondness? Me either.

Next memories will be about Lake Arrowhead, Buggs Island, the mountains and finally really camping.