I grew up in a family that loved the outdoors. We camped, we hiked, we went to the beach, the mountains, a local lake… anyplace that we could enjoy the great outdoors.
We spent a lot of our weekends hiking and fishing. There are a lot of things that we did a bit differently back then. To begin with, we didn’t have the latest and greatest in fishing tackle and gear.
Our rods were made up of two or three sections and when they weren’t assembled, we held them together with rubber bands, not in handy little plastic protective cases. This also meant that they weren’t necessarily all together when we grabbed them. More than once, it made for a bit of last minute scrambling. Our reels usually required a few minutes of attention to get the tangles out and everything set up. We put weights on our lines using our teeth and tied hooks with clumsy knots.
Why in the world would we pay for something we can get for free? That was the philosophy of my dad and uncle, and meant that me, my brother and cousin were out in the yard at night after having the sprinkler on all evening so that we could get night crawlers. It was a fun job for a kid, and did teach us that we could provide for ourselves… we didn’t always have to pay for things you could put forth effort to acquire.
We drove to trailheads late at night and slept in our cars with nothing more than a blanket and a wadded up coat for a pillow and leaning on each other.
Up at the crack of dawn, we did not eat some fancy nature trail bar thingy or drink a high energy drink. It was coffee from the thermos and maybe an apple or a candy bar… just something to get us going. We’d hike through dew soaked meadows and fight off mosquitoes the old-fashioned way – we’d SWAT ‘em. We’d spend the day fishing and would almost always come home with a mess of fresh mountain-lake fish. Limits were like 8 or 12 per person, so 5 or 6 of us would get quite a haul.
I don’t know – do kids still do these things today? It seemed like all my friends growing up fished, hunted, or did something outdoors most every weekend. It’s something the kids of today need to experience for themselves, and, NO, swinging around a Wii does not an outdoor experience make!
2 comments:
First off, LOVE the new look. I need one so badly and am so handicapped when it comes to design, HTML and for some reason I can't even get the free retro templates to download properly.
It's weird, I grew up loving the outdoors as well. We fished, we camped, I made snow forts, I loved sledding and ice skating on the pond. I went to sleep-away camp three summers in a row (a rite of passage for Long Island kids I swear!) ... I collected bugs in jars and even got busted for bringing said jar to second grade. As an adult, I loathe the outdoors. I hate bugs, I fear skunks and squirrels. What happened to me? It's so depressing. I prefer winter because I dread all of the outdoor BBQs and outings that come up in the spring and summer months. Oh boy, I feel a future blog post coming on thanks to you :)
Thanks for listening.
Hey, Ally -
Thanks for the comment on my Blogs new look. I'm pretty tech-challenged when it comes to this kind of stuff, too - but the "Blogger Team" sent this link http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2010/03/blogger-template-designer.html and it was pretty easy to follow. Give it a try! :)
I'll pray that you get over your fear of all things outdoors. There really is so much to love and appreciate in God's great creation that it always outweighs the risks out there, if you ask me. I always feel like a new man and that I've reconnected with nature after going on my annual week-long backpacking trip up in the Cascades here in beautiful Washington state. There's nothing like totally going without the everyday conveniences of life to really help you appreciate them more!
But - if that's not your cup of tea, there's nothing wrong with it. We're all wired differently and it takes all of us to make up the diverse fabric of life that we all enjoy (what am I - some type of philosopher?) Anyway - the bottom line is that we all need to enjoy and engage fully in the things we like to do. As long as we're not just "taking up space", we all matter and are important!
I'll be watching for your (positive outlook) outdoors blog entry! :)
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