Camping

Let me draw you a picture of a perfect time in my life.

Imagine a chilly early fall night. Air's crisp. The trees are of gorgeous colors of reds, yellows, browns, and greens. The leaves are falling off. The clean air going into your lungs. You are at a camp ground in the middle of nowhere with tons of trees surrounding all sides of you, 2 lakes, and good times. There's a beige camper with a white golf cart to it's left. There's a stone pathway coming from the camper to this fire pit. A few lawn chairs are to the left and a reddish burgundy (not quite burgundy and not quite red) old wooden swing to your right. Grandma's cooking you can smell from a dinner you had earlier that day. Your about 6 or 7. Grandpa is getting wood for the fire that is burning that lovely campfire smell. You are sitting on the swing with your siblings, cooking marshmallows, and giggling at each other (or picking on each other). Making ridiculous comments about the acorns that are lying on the fire pit and poking each other with sticks because you can. You try to take the tops of the acorn's off and never can successfully do so. You hear loud music from up the dirt road a bunch of teenagers throwing a party and you wonder what it's like being 18 or 19 years old. You hear the occasional golf cart drive by and the smell of the gas is intoxicating around you but you love it. You watch the warm bright fire burn the wood. Your grandparents walk over to you and enjoy some time with you. They're the ones that show you what camping is really about. Laughter consumes your body from something ridiculous. You speak of silliness.

It's bedtime. Grandpa assures you that the fire will burn out over night. You walk up to the camper. Grandma already has the couch pulled out into a bed and has the bed made. You leave your shoes outside of the door because shoes are not permitted in the camper. You walk into the beige camper and there it is waiting for you. To your left is a television and in the little wall is a bookcase full of books (Grandma loved her books! She actually wrote one but never got it published before she passed). If you walk in and turn left there was this old standard camper like dining area and to the left was a stove, a fridge, and a counter. That was grandma's territory. You dont mess with the griddle either. lol. MMM. She's been gone for 12 years and to this day I can still taste her home cooking and still smell the smells that came from her kitchen. To the left of the kitchen was a small bedroom with a closet and a bed. Simple. White with flower print and a window. An alarm clock. I always thought that was funny. I still do. To the right of the kitchen was a bathroom. The coolest toilet I thought I had ever seen. lol. Oh it's funny to reminise. A little shower and a sink. You flushed the toilet with your foot. Oh that was hilarious.

So you'd curl up in the blankets and fall asleep. At that very moment... everything was perfect.

You'd wake up in the morning. Grandma was cooking (usually what woke us up) eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and toast. Orange juice (no pulp for me, another had pulp i believe) filling the glasses. She always made the perfect toast. I know that sounds weird but Grandma had the touch! Always scrambled eggs. I used to like them back then! MMM. She was amazing. We'd eat, hang out and then go to the lake to go swim. She never float. Grandpa never came. He hated the water (due to WWII-- being stuck in the middle of an ocean for a few hours will do that to someone I supposed). She'd get her book and lay her towel out on the sand. We would all run into the water and have fun. I was never much of a swimmer. The lifeguard would go on break and we'd play in the sand. Grandma would go in a little bit. She tried teaching us all how to float. She was a floater. I was more like a lead balloon. lol. We'd come back after a few hours on the golf cart and we'd always stop and visit some people on the way back. I still remember. I used to think some of the campers were so essentric. Grandpa was roasting up some hot dogs and we'd eat lunch! OMG! YUMM! Later, we'd beg my grandparents to take us around the campgrounds (We had to stay in the 'woodlands' area, never permitted unless we were with them to go further) and she would. We were off! The petting zoo was a stop always when they had animals in it. The hill down from the petting zoo was quite scary at the age of 6 or 7. lol. SO much fun. More visiting. More exploring! Always a great time.

I gotta jump off because of the time but those were the days. I miss those days but carry them in my back pocket. It was nice to reminise. I dont think about it often enough. *Sighs* Hopefully I will have good dreams. The campfire isnt from those times obviously but what a perfect pic for this blog. I miss my grandma every day and I am worried about my grandpa but its memories like that that always are embedded in my mind and I love them dearly. A perfect memory stuck in time :)