Come Share My Campfire-Chapter 1

I want to go traveling a bit, come journey with me and sit by my campfire, while I look back and maybe forward to tomorrow. Its getting close to the end of the day and I’m, kinda tired from the drive. I found the old camp stove and have Dad’s old coffee pot right here, give me a few and I’ll brew us up some. I got the tin cups and yep I have all the breakfast fixings, so tomorrow will be a nice wakening with fired taters and bacon sizzling away. So while you think about all that and maybe what you will share with me let me drag a few logs closer.
Isn’t this a great place, I love it here in the hills of North Carolina, Cherokee is a favorite of my past, many a weekend here with my family and I’ve had a longing to be here for awhile now, thanks for coming here with me. Sometimes we can find a new look on life if we can only see what we saw as a child, remember how fresh and good the world was back then. I hope that we can all meet again at one of your favorite places and learn things you experienced when you were a child.
I think I was bout seven when Dad first brought us here. He had a van like truck and Mom would load it on a Friday afternoon and in a few hours we would have a big campfire going. Mom would get the stove out and fry us some fish the boys had caught, as they loved fishing, we would have coleslaw she made at home with, (yep you guessed it) fried taters. Later she would pull out that Coconut cake with her famous white icing and boy you talk bout eating we sure could put it away. We never had paper plates and we would wash the dishes in the lake, then Mom would boil some water and scald them dishes for the morning.
After an evening of us kids playing and running back into the woods, Mom would call us and say time for bed and we would gripe and complain. Dad with his firm voice would say that’s enough now and off we would go finding our blanket and fighting over where each would sleep. I liked being by the fire, that way if a ghost or some critter was gonna come, he would stay away from the fire, I would laugh to myself and say, “just think one of them ghost might like my brothers” and I would fast fall asleep snuggled in my blanket on the ground by the fire.
The next morning aroma from the sizzling bacon would waken us and off to the lake for a quick dip to wash away our stink of the night. Mom had to cook a lot of bacon and she would always make our eggs in bacon grease, yummy, yummy was all I could ever say. Dad would take the boys and the guns and off into the woods, I would help Mom around the campfire and then we both went down to the lake to fish. Mom always had to bait my hook as I wouldn’t touch them big grunt worms as they would ooze all over your hand (yuk) Mom would easily catch them fish. Seems like the old tale “of throwing a fish back in would ruin your luck,” well that was me, but I never gave up trying.
Dad would bring the boys back and set up a place for target practice and we all tried our hand at shooting, I had gotten pretty good now and could almost hit the bulls eye Dad had made from an old cornflake box. Of course the boys were really good and Mom well she would only shoot one round and quit, she didn’t much like guns, boy us kids loved doing that. The boys had learned to shoot the thirty-ought-six not me, that thing had a kick that would knock you on your butt if you were that lucky and a sore shoulder to boot. We just had great times there, nothing ever planned just listen to Dad tell us some stories of his life and Mom well her early years were in an orphanage and she din’t like to talk bout them so we left her be on that. We would all swim in the lake and play around, me getting mad cause the boys would dunk me anytime they could and yes off I would go by myself to get away from them. I hated getting dunked and they knew it, I wonder now if they would still get me if they could.
I guess revisiting this place has let me see that I was a fighter and yes I was a tomboy and loved horsing around with the boys as long as they wouldn’t dunk me, I could handle all the other tough things they handed to me. Was this a conditioning for my later life? I think yes, I managed to be strong when needed and soft when it mattered most. I learned truth and family are my deepest values; of course God is my greatest achievement, meeting him there in those hills and seeing his beauty as a child touched in me that part which I rarely share with other folk. I was selfish in that, I knew he was mine even then and yes later I did walk away from him, but thanks for those hills and weekends I found my way back to him
There were many weekends spent roaming there and we would visit other places like Virginia, I reckon every child should be exposed to nature and family values; they are so easily instilled in a child when life is simple and pure. Where the world’s influence is left out and just wholesome goodness exist to pass on to children, I thank God for those endearing times and I hope you enjoyed my campfire, please share it again with me.
©Tobie Haga Roy