The Power of One Writer
Back Yards, Ethiopia and Children's Books

More about camping

How fun and funny to think so much about camping on this snowy weekend.  When I was writing Lanie’s story, I asked people for interesting camping disasters.  My favorite stories came from my sister Jan who does a lot of backpacking and told me about a time when deer were running around the campground with long johns dangling from their mouths and also waking up to see a deer tongue inside her tent licking her water bottle. 

Debbie’s comment of the coffee cups all lined up (from the last post) made me think about this picture, which my siblings and I came upon while we were sorting pictures for Dad’s memorial.  My dad always had his great organizational plans for our camping!  (I’m the teenager in the left corner on this one.)

A Facebook conversation with an old friend made me dig this picture out–because he’s in it.  This is Chebera, another beautiful and remote place in Ethiopia that, along with Maji, was a place that shaped our family.

4 thoughts on “More about camping”

  1. It’s very clear that your dad had organizational fever!

    Once, while camping on Assateague Island (on Maryland’s Eastern Shore), we were awakened by the wild ponies wanting a midnight snack. They snuffled against our tent, possibly smelling the half-eaten apple my son had fallen asleep holding. We pried it from his fingers and tossed it out the tent flap! There was much pony rejoicing!

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  2. I have to say, for some reason one of my most vivid memories of camping with our family was you making chocolate pudding out of the box in a big metal bucket with a lid. Whenever Sean and I go to a Chinese buffet, I always get chocolate pudding and every single time, I tell him it’s because it makes me think of you. The funny thing is, you probably only ever made that chocolate pudding once, but it’s stuck in my mind.

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