Some of the photos were of us kids inside the old log cabin that we used to spend our summers in. One of the things that I loved about that cabin was the feeling that you got when you were inside – it really felt like it was an authentic old log cabin. There were only three rooms – a small galley style kitchen, a small bathroom with a shower (no tub) and a large multi-function room. We used that large room to eat, play, and sleep. It was furnished with rustic log furniture that looked like Adirondack chairs made with whole logs. I was really quite sad when my parents sold that cabin; I loved that place.

I think that the fire pits are cute, and when I think of the memories of my own childhood of roasting marshmallows around a camp fire, I think about how cool it would be to have a fire pit to roast marshmallows on again. But then reality hits me and I realize that as awesome as it would look, my “real” family would probably never use it; my “real” family is a bunch of technogeeks that don’t like going outside for any reason at all. I love my family, truly I do, but I sometimes wish that we could have some “old fashioned” family fun together.

My father used to love watching the Monty Python’s Flying Circus television show back in the ’70s and ’80s, and whenever I watch any Monty Python flick I think of my father. When I watch them I get a melancholy, bittersweet feeling. I miss him. I hope you enjoy this short video of one of my favorite parts of the film – the taunting of the French Knight.

Wouldn’t you know it that the night before Easter several members of my family called me up and asked me what they were supposed to bring to the Easter dinner that they were SURE I was holding! After all, I’ve held it every year for the past five years, of course I would have it this year too!

Can you say EEK! Well, the house was not decorated for any festivities at all; it wasn’t even cleaned “company clean.” And we made a mad dash to the grocery store and bought a larger ham and we ended up having a family Easter dinner at our house after all! It’s good to see family get together, whether the house is clean and neat or not. And it was good that no one in the family made any big deal over the cleanliness (or lack thereof) and clutter in the house. And you know what? That’s a GOOD thing!

At least now I don’t feel quite so bad when I ask people to repeat themselves – the doctor has given me a very good reason for not being able to hear very well!

Well, that was all before the cable television service had to digitize all of their stations and charge the customers for the receiver boxes. Suddenly keeping cable television was more expensive than switching to the satellite bundles offered at dx3. At first we thought that only a couple of the channels were converting and we lost those channels for a couple of months. I really didn’t care since I didn’t watch much television anyway. But then one day in the middle of a television program the screen was scrambled and it was scrambled on all of the stations, on all of the televisions. A phone call to the cable television office revealed that we were going to have to pay a lot of extra money than before just to keep the same service we had. I asked for a discount and they refused. Now it was making financial sense to switch to a satellite television service. So I switched. I can’t afford to have all of the televisions hooked up like I did before, but my monthly bill is not any larger. When I finally did switch I told my sister that I finally gave in to her nagging and I had better not hear a single complaint from her about reception problems!

I was only nine years old at the time, and I guess I really didn’t care too much, as long as I had my two sisters with me. It was a co-ed camp and we all slept on the floor of a really big tent, with a flap that separated the boys from the girls. The camp was being run by a husband and wife team and they also slept in the tent, but they had an air mattress to sleep on!

We swam and bathed in a nearby stream, had to use outhouses, and tried our hands at archery. There was one day when we were led around on a small pony. I remember that there was a building that was the food hall and we were served three meals a day. To be perfectly honest I really don’t remember very much about that camp other than the fact that I really hated sleeping on the wood floor with only a sleeping bag for cushioning!

When my sons were younger I sent away for Camp Information for the various nearby camps to see if I could find one that they would enjoy attending. I was hoping to find a fun camp that would provide them with some positive experiences in their youth. When I talked with them about it they were adamant that they only wanted to go to day camp so that they could come home every night. They were having trouble with bullying and did not want to chance having bully problems at sleepaway camp as well. I really can’t say that I blame them for that, so we settled for day camp for their summers.