Memorial Day - Camping

Packing the Xterra....Getting ready for the first camping trip I have been on in about 30 years!

We travelled to Barnwell State Park which is mid state about 90 miles from Beaufort. My co-worker/friend, Rob, his wife Theresa and 3 children, joined us there to celebrate the holiday. The weather was great. There were no biting bugs or fish.


The park was built during the depression era with swimming/fishing lake. The original buildings still exist. The camp ground is small with about 30 campsites. Not many people were there so it was very quiet and peaceful. At night the weather was cool enough to require a campfire and the days just right with no humidity hoovering a little above 80 degrees.


The boys had a great time wandering through the woods finding caterpillars, spiders, baby frogs and fire wood. We rented a tent, camp stove, a cooler, cots and other required items from the military. Saturday night I cooked chicken and mixed vegetables on the fire. With smores for dessert. Rob fixed pancakes and sausage for breakfast the next morning....Sunday was spent in expectation of the large catch of fish we were going to cook for dinner....we ending up eating hamburgers, hushpuppies and fried onions......LOL They teased me that I planned all the meals around Vidalia Onions! I did!


Each night ended around the campfire with no other lights in camp just watching the fire die down and watching Lightning Bugs. I havent seen so many lightning bugs since I was a child.....Rob being from Pennsylvania asked me what I called lightning bugs growing up in MS....I said lightning bugs.....Rob stated that since I am from Mississippi and based on previous "what do you call this conversations" he just knew I would call them something like Torch Chiggers not lightning bugs...LOL you cant expect much more from Rob.....he is from Pennsylvania.....and doesnt understand the difference between choking and strangling as in "that water strangled me" versus "I choked on a chicken bone"......LMAO....I could go on and on but then we would lose focus on the wonderful camping trip!!!! sooooooooo from that point on the boys called the lightning bugs..... Torch Chiggers....



Micah anxiously awaiting our departure.




The Nash-Timmer Camp Site


On the left, Former Girl Scout Campfire Builder Gura aka Theresa Merchant. Johnny, Micah and David "patiently" await smores.




The boys quickly became a renegade group that no longer understood the English language......for example....dont run thru camp, dont play in the fire, dont wrestle in the tents......hmmmm,"dont" seems to be the word that was continuously misinterpreted....cause they ran thru camp, played in the fire, and wrestled in the tents........

At eleven months old, Rebekah, was alots of things, the youngest camper, the rock eater, and the kind of baby that makes you wish you had half a dozen just like her....all smiles, giggles and cuddles! She was content the whole trip!

Rob doing research for the next Beaufort County Comp Plan Element.........it is a "work thang".....and if you dont understand, I would have to kill you if I told you!

The boys looking for frogs at the dam overflow.


Jon forcing Micah to leave the frog search area...notice Micah's feet...those are his socks....the mud sucked his shoes off... but he did have a handful of smothered baby frogs....

The End

P.S.

Florence McElroy Nash 1914 to 2008

My Grandmother died a little over a week ago at 93.5 years of age. This picture was taken at her 93rd birthday party. She was the last of her family to die. Grandmother was 4'11" and 90 +/- pounds all her life....tiny thing with auburn hair and blue eyes. She had four children, the oldest being my Daddy.

Grandmother divorced in the late fifties which was a great embarrassment to her and society in general during those days. She started working in a garment factory and soon became a supervisor. The women talked trash and overall were rough. Grandmomma was not use to women like that..... She did so much with so little. She worked at the dime store for many years and then managed a little drop your laundry off business later on. After she retired, she spent about 20 years doing volunteer work at the nursing home and hospital.

In January, 2008, her children had to make a decision they had done their best to keep from happening. It was time to go to the nursing home....no longer was it safe for her to live alone. Grandmother had lived in the same house for over 40 years.....her house, with her little bit of money and putting her youngest son through college.....in a time when Southern women were totally dependant on men - she bought her own house and paid for it.

It was always so much fun to visit Grandmother as children.....dress up, bubbles, giggling, sitting on her screened in porch watching the neighbors, listening to her childhood stories.....The day after her funeral, we all met at her house to begin the process of cleaning and sorting. I cringed every time we decided something would go to Goodwill....One of my favorite pastimes is visiting Goodwill or Salvation Army hunting for treasures.....I will not be able to visit them for a long time as my heart hurts just knowing there are a dead loved one's household wares are what I am picking over.......I did bring home a few treasures......corningware casserole dishes, mixiing bowl, spoon, potato masher....a cornbread skillet, her sewing machine,.....tonight when I made dinner, I used her casserole dish, the mixing bowl and spoon.....it felt good, like holding a piece of her in my hand.