“Primitive”

On page B4 is a feature titled Out and About…Tugaloo Lake. This is a lake that my oldest son Taylor and I went camping at last weekend. As I indicate in the article, primitive means that your shelter is a tent and there is no electricity, water, bathrooms or anything remotely considered to be a modern convenience.

And of course without electricity, or a generator, that means no air conditioning or fans, which is tough for an old fat fellow like myself during the summer months. And I will acknowledge that my days of sleeping on the ground are long gone. An air mattress and air pump are at the top of my list of camping gear.

Every now and then folks will ask me why I still like to go on these trips. I must confess that on nights, like last Friday night, when I was sitting in my tent with a thunder storm brewing outside and the inside being somewhat of a sweat lodge, I even ask myself these questions.

But then the sun will come out the next morning, the sky turns blue and a beautiful day in the outdoors is had. The night comes and miraculously the humidity takes a short vacation. A camp fire is built along the edge of the river bank. A father and a son spend some down time along side a river’s edge with a camp fire. A working man gets away from all the phones, complaints, dead lines, projects and hassles that come with making a living.

It reminds me of the commercials. Like the one that says “It doesn’t get any better than this” or the one that list a price of various items and then on the last items list it as …priceless. We all need to find our ways to unwind, relax or just get away. And there are many different ways folks enjoy doing that. And roughing it is not the only way that I enjoy unwinding or relaxing.

But going on these periodic excursions of roughing it or primitive camping offer something to me that takes me back to my youth. That sense of getting outdoors, back to nature or that sense of exploration. I know that may sound silly to some folks but hey I’m a guy that loves to read about Lewis and Clark’s exploring the newly purchased Louisanna Territory in the early 1800’s. I am the guy, and apparently I’m not alone, that likes to watch all these survivor man shows even though about half of it is fake.

So if I take a trip every now and then that falls into the roughing it category, don’t think that I’ve lost my mind. Just know that for me, Simply Put, going primitive once in a while has it’s purpose for me.



From the Front Porch: Uncle Bob said he is ready to christen anyone a true genius who can adjust the thermostat to suit his wife.