Corn syrup, sugar, starch, gelatin. Doesn’t sound that fascinating does it? But whip those ingredients into a 1 inch cylinder (better yet, just buy a bag of marshmallows), poke a stick through one, and suspend it over a heat source, and you have a marvel of camp lore.
Long before s’mores became the preferred camper’s sweet tooth fix was the marvel of the marshmallow.
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Funny how even people who are afraid of most bugs seem to like ladybugs. My youngest, Eric, is a typical rambunctious 6 year old boy, but becomes a quivering mass at the site of a mosquito or fly, and scrambles to get as far away from it as he can. But put a ladybug in front of him, and he is quickly engaged in watching it, with a smile on his face.
In the mid-1970’s, I was on a burro pack trip in July in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. About 5 other girls and I covered 8-10 miles a day on foot for 10 days, with our trusty, if stubborn pack animals hauling our equipment and food. Even in those days, it was a rarity to experience a pack saddle, especially for over a week at a time. It rained reliably each afternoon, usually for 3 or 4 hours.
Some 5 days into our journey, we arrived at our campsite (really a sloping field with only landowner’s permission and a nearby spring to establish it) and unloaded our gear. The ground was soggy, but it had stopped raining. Per our routine, we tossed up the pup tents (canvas, 4ft wooden poles at each end, and no floor) and quickly stowed our personal equipment inside. Then it was off to collect wood for a fire for supper and care for the burros. Probably 2 hours later, we returned to our our tent to unroll our sleeping bags.
What a surprise awaited us.
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