40 years ago today I was 6 1/2 years old & went with my father & my brother on a Boy Scout trip. This trip was to a place called Camp Eastman in west central Illinois and it was to the Klondike Derby. It was a pretty memorable trip for me & I want to share it with you.
The Klondike Derby was an outing where several Boy Scouts troops from all over Iowa, Illinois & Missouri come to learn survival skills in the extreme temperatures. Each scout would earn specific outdoor merit badges, learn some valuable skills, freeze their ass off & learn to truly appreciate sleeping in their beds at home. A special Klondike Derby patch was even given to each scout surviving the night in a tent (without giving up & having to bunk inside the warm mess hall). The patch was worn with pride the following Summer at a week-long scout camp also held at Camp Eastman. There were even contests & prizes for starting a fire the fastest & putting your tent up in the least amount of time (like I said valuable skills)!
The weekend I went it was 35 degrees outside & there was 2 feet of snow on the ground. Did I mention we all slept in sleeping bags outside in tents?
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We were outside, it was cold, there was snow, we only had snow suits, long underwear, hats, fire, kerosene lamps & stoves... There were no poly-blend-heat-securing-bodysuits or electric socks or hand/foot/butt warming pads back in the 70's!
I was cold in the beginning, it was cold in the middle & it was even colder at the end!
I remember that weekend so vividly because it was so damn cold outside I burnt a hole in my boot trying to keep my feet warm by the fire. That was a BIG deal because I was 7 & my mom would kill my father if I was injured in any way. There was even talk of calling home (from the rangers cabin containing the only telephone) & having my mom come get me early. Several tiny frozen tears were shed because I wanted to stay with the big boys & I remained at camp!
The only way I was able to stay was because of a man named Jim Rendina (the Scoutmaster of my brother's troop & a family friend). Jim took 1 empty bread bag, doubled it over & stuck it inside my boot. He then took another bread bag & put my foot & part of my leg inside it. He did these two things to insure the snow wouldn't get inside the hole in my boot, melt & make my socks wet (which could lead to frostbite). I walked around for another day wearing an ugly green rubber boot with a multicolored wonder bread bag sticking out of the hole. But my foot remained dry & (for the lack of a better word) warm.
The only reason I mention this time from my childhood is because I recently had a similar situation where I had to "rough" it & tonight my son Finnegan & I are going to be "roughing-it" as well.
Above I put the terms rough & roughing-it in quotes because 40 years of my life have changed my definition of the words.
Last weekend I spent a few days at a friends lake home & when we arrived the heating system for the house was malfunctioning. That night we all had to hunker down in one large room that was heated via radiant heat. Luckily the room was perfect for the situation, it had several bunk beds (kids on top, adults on bottom), a big sectional couch (more adults) & the biggest damn residential flatscreen TV money can buy (Direct TV with 200+ channels).
I don't want to scare you, but I need to mention one other circumstance...
The wifi at their lake home was broken...
This was truly the modern day version of "roughing-it"!
Luckily the next morning the HVAC system was repaired & the rest of the 5-bedroom house was fully functional for the remainder of our stay. It was a really great family weekend where much wine & spirits were consumed & far too much food was shoveled in by all in attendance. Football games were watched, stories were told (exaggerated a bit)... board games were played, children were chased by The Claw & even a few dance-offs were won by your's truly.
The lake house Klondike weekend was survived!
I'm also reminded of the 1977 Klondike Derby because tonight I'm tasked with being a chaperone for my son's gymnastics team "Lock-In". A few fathers and I will be watching-over a group of 40 boys who probably won't sleep more than about an hour the entire night. They will all have access to the mats, pits, rings & climbing rope & im hopeful all will survive without great injury.
The funny part of this "Lock-In" is each child will bring a sleeping bag, a backpack full of drinks & snacks, an iPad & a comfy pillow. The coaches even suggested the chaperones could bring blow-up mattresses if they'd like & reminded us wifi will be made available if we need to work or stream music or live TV.
I sure hope Finn & I can survive 8 hours inside a 72 degree gym including several 6 x 20 foot 12-inch thick crash mats & only 5,000 square feet of padded (and bouncy) flooring.
We only have wifi, iPads, Nintendo DS, snacks, drinks, streaming music & television, air-mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows & mobile phones to protect & entertain us!
From burning my boot in a campfire & a wonder bread bag on my foot to sleeping on a couch & complaining about the slow speed of public wifi in a little over 40 years...
Roughing it!
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