Things for campin'

In today's frantic world, it is often easy to forget the important things in life, Adam Thomas helps us remember the things we should never forget (when we go camping)



As soon as Davey proclaimed that his grandfather was the inventor of paper underpants, we knew that this trip would be mighty sweet. We all had sharp sticks and one of us had a brace of rabbits. They swung from the end of his bindle as we walked, looking for which field would be most accommodatin' for a few young gents short on money and down on their luck to pitch in for the night. After maybe half hours a-walkin, we found a real good one, mostly empty, flat and with a cove of trees in one corner where we could bed down; on account of it provided shelter and hid us some from whatever farmer owned these parts. There was even a good pile of firewood, dry as a bone and standing shoulder high. We felt as if the good ol lord done fixed up this field for us special. So we set about it, pitchin' the tents and building the fire a fore the night closed in. There was beer and the little one had a quart of whisky, which he done swigged on awhile he was workin'. We whistled and sung the same work songs that we sing out on the fields, or on the railroad, or quarry, factory or any of the other scraps of work that fellas like us pick up here and there, movin from place to place, as if they was dead leaves that got caught up in our boot laces. Some folk don’t like to sing work songs when they’re not a workin, but for me it always seemed to make that time all the more sweet; on account of it reminded me I weren’t at work, and I’d done chose to sing the songs; of my own volition, as it were, like a frog what jumps into a pond knowin' full well he can get out when he pleases. Right about then, after we was full up of rabbit and set down to stargazin' and the fire was lulling, i checked my list of things for campin:

1. Tent
2. A sharp stick
3. Beer
4. Vittles (camping word for food)
5. Know how
6. A good ol patch o lan’. Flat and mostly without stones. Sometimes you think there’s stones but really thems is just hard clods of mud. Remember to remove any hard clods of mud, they are as bad as stones.
7. Buddies
8. A spookelele
9. The love of a good woman
10. A sharp stick
11. Mule/ donkey: curmudgeonly, fat leggs
12. Stories about unusual horses with those growths they sometimes get that look a bit like you might eat em if you wanted, but then again maybe they'd just stir up the appetite without settin her back down again.

Yessir, this trip was gonna be mighty sweet.

Words: Adam Thomas