“The
Requirements for a Camp.
Each person should be supplied with a good, big-bladed jack-knife; a
woodsman, or what is about the same thing, a person with good common-sense, can
supply himself with food and shelter, with no other ready-made tool than a good
strong knife.
Salt, pepper and sugar, must be put on the list, then flour
in a sack, oatmeal, cornmeal, rice and lard; crackers, beans, coffee in tin,
tea in bag, cocoa, condensed milk in cans, evaporated cream in cans, butter in
pail, pickles, dried fruit in bags, a bag of potatoes, molasses, pork, boneless
bacon, and, if you are fond of it, a few jars of orange marmalade; sal-soda for
sweetening “dubs,” and ginger for medicinal purposes; several cakes of common
soap for dish-washing, some dishtowels, and some soap for toilet purposes; also
a tin coffee-pot, a long-handled frying-pan, a small griddle, a nest of tin
pails, the smallest capable of holding a quart or less, and the largest a
gallon or more; two or three paper pails or water-buckets, two or three iron
kitchen spoons and forks, and a camp boiler, a firkin and a wooden spoon, also
a strong axe and a hatchet.”
The Jack of All Trades, New Ideas for American Boys, by D.
C. Beard, 1900.
"no other tool than a . . . knife"? And a woodsman is just someone with common sense? Anybody who follows this writer's "woodcraft" advice is going to need rescued, pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were kids, my parents almost always ate "on the road" when we went on vacation. They had purchased a kit which sounds very much like the one described here. The outermost part was a large bucket, which probably held a gallon. Inside, four metal plates went on the bottom, with four metal cups, which were slightly V-shaped so they all nested together, and then a couple of smaller pots. The lid to this kit had a slot on one side, and there was a handle which tucked inside, so you could use the lid as a frying pan. One of the other interior items may have also made a smaller skillet.
ReplyDeleteWe had a Coleman stove and lantern and collapsible toaster, which I still use if the power goes out. My mom also had a folding oven, but we only used it a couple of times, as it was more trouble than it was worth. This was the days before pop-open biscuits, and by the time my mom got them made, collecting all the ingredients, and the oven took for-bloody-ever to get hot (you sat it on top of one of the stove burners) it was easier to eat toast and jelly.
And a HEAVY metal ice chest to go with all this. Yeesh. Hadn't thought of all that in years!
I found this when looking up what a camp boiler was. It's a picture of vintage camping gear, including cloth buckets. Who knew?
ReplyDeletehttp://rebloggy.com/post/vintage-outdoors-camping-lantern-camp-ax-sleeping-bag-stove-gear-compass-obi-hac/37737458356
My dad was and still is a huge fan of the National Parks System. In fact the only private campground we would stay at was in Provincetown, MA. We had the metal ice chest, Coleman stove & heater & lantern and metal water jug. Four daughters who liked to try and murder each other on a daily basis, meant all knives were kept in Dad's suitcase. No toast when camping - eggs & bacon.
ReplyDeleteOh, Sam, there were only two of us, and it wasn't much better! That may account for my mother's hard and fast rule that we were NEVER allowed to touch each other. I swear, if one of us had fallen in the deep end of the pool, the other would have gone for an adult rather than attempt to rescue her sister.
ReplyDeleteBunnykins can you imagine what that weighed?
ReplyDeleteLady Anne - my sister Jenny was the one to push the drowner into the pool and then cry foul that someone "hit her first". Let's just say my dad's dumb idea of all 4 of us in 2 sets of bunkbeds lasted all of 3 nights. Night 1 - all shoes and Lincoln logs were removed. Day 2 - bottoms of upper bunks were screwed down to prevent ejection issues. Day 3 - all books and toys were removed. Day 4 - 1 set of beds and kids were removed. And NO ONE called an adult for anything! That got everyone in deep trouble.
ReplyDeleteSam, when I was still at home, my sister would con me into climbing up to get some forbidden treat - cookies from on top of the fridge, etc. - because I was so much bigger and taller. (Five year difference in our ages.)When I was in the most incriminating position possible, she'd start to jump and down whining "Look out, look out! Don't fall and get hurt", which of course brought mum running, and we'd both get it.
ReplyDeleteAnd neither of us ever wised up.
Thank goodness for GLAMPING! I camp with a 2 room tent, two folding cots with self inflating mattresses, sheets, blankets and pillows for the cots, carpets for the floor of the tent, a folding table for my propane cookstove and eating, a big folding chair and a smaller one, and a footlocker full of dishes, glasses, silverware, table textiles and cooking utensils. AND a nice sized cooler.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, this all fits into a hatchback compact car.
A tribute to plastics!
ReplyDeleteI do comfort camping now (we have a blow up mattress on a cot because I have trouble getting up from the ground), but when I was a kid...
ReplyDeleteWith five kids, on a navy lt.'s pay in the 70's, camping was the cheapest entertainment around (followed closely by the drive-in movies). In 1973 my Dad got transferred, from the west coast to the east, and we camped all the way across. From San Diego to Brooklyn, five kids, Mom and Dad, and a dog, in a station wagon with the snail storage holder on top; tent, sleeping bags and coleman stove stored neatly in it, and a little frig plugged into the cigarette lighter at my Mom's feet. The memories that trip made stay with all of us even thirty some years later.