Farming and Camping

Looking back when I was a bit younger, say a day or two, I recall my grandparents camping. The had a little trailer at a camp site with other trailers there. Theirs was called the Pondorosa. They had built a covered porch and that made the little trailer seem a bit larger.

When they camped, they would get up in the morning, and my grandfather would go down to the farm and milk the cows. My grandmother would prepare the dog dishes for all the dogs. Each wold get a special meal depending on if they were showing them or they were breeding them or whatever their circumstance was.

We would run between chores milking the cows and putting out the dog dishes, depending on who got grabbed by my grandmother. We preferred helping in the barn, not so much that we enjoyed milking the cows but we preferred my grandfathers company.

After chores and breakfast we wold all head up to the lake about a forty five minute drive. Of course as kids our mission would e to get to the beach as soon as possible but there were always more chores to be done. We would also be looking for my cousins, they camped there as well. And they lived in the same house as my grandparents on the side dependency. It had walls inside so inside you could not get from their part to the main part. Well you could through some closed and locked doors but it was not allowed.

Once we were all settled and swimming was done and dinner time came around, my grandfather wold drive back to the farm to m ilk the cows, and once again we would feed the dogs special meals and put them in the barn for the night. There were usually 15-20 dogs at any given time so it was quite the chore.

Looking back it amazes me that they were dedicated to camping. It took a lot of work and coordination to be able to go to the camp and yet have to run back to the farm twice a day for the chores. The chores weren't the only issue, see my grandfather also drove a cattle truck. he would head to the auction houses to get the cattle and bring to the slaughter house.

Our name for him was Apa, and for my grandmother it was Mimi. She did not want to be called a grandmother and we were not allowed to refer to her as such. She was Mimi, and to her friends and adults it was always Charlotte. My grandfather was always Apa, it was  a name my mother gave him when she was a little girl, so the story goes, and it seemed to pass along to us when we arrived on the scene.  Apa was a derivative of his name being Abram, and she wanting to call him Pa.

While Mimi despised being a grandmother and all that it entailed Apa was on the opposite end of that. he seemed to revel in the role as grandfather and was always spending time with us kids. He wold teach us and play with us while he got the farm work done. He seemed to have endless patience with us, while Mimi was always short and didn't have the patience for us or the time.

This all comes to my mind in today's world, we camp and we live and we socialize and life goes on. However I find it a struggle to simply hold a household and make it to camp with one child! How did they do it, and seemed to do it without complaint. They were a different generation our grandparents, they went through the great war and the great depression. As farmers here in this part of the country they held their own whereas many did not.

I suppose they put it in perspective, and saw a bigger picture and knew what hard times were. we think we do, but I suspect true hard times would put us in a position whereby we sink or swim and maybe give us a better sense of life.