Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Shit My Dad Says - About Bushcraft and Car Camping

The Maine Outdoorsman's recent post Car Camping For Dummies  reminded me of this gentle piece of advice from one of my favourite outdoor writers:

“Leave the real wilderness out of account for the present; go to some pleasant woodland, within hail of civilization, and start an experimental camp, spending a good part of your time in learning how to wield an axe, how to build proper fires, how to cook good meals out of doors, and so forth. Be sure to get the privilege beforehand of cutting what wood you will need. It is worth paying some wood-geld that you may learn how to fell and hew. Here, with fair fishing and some small game hunting, you can have a jolly good time, and will be fitted for something more ambitious the next season.”
From CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT By H. Kephart


Which in turn reminded me of the forthright nature of the advice and commentary offered by Sam Halpern (Justin's dad) in the hilarious record of the trials and tribulations of child-parent relations 'Shit My Dad Says'


"I’m not sure you can call that roughing it, son… Well, for one, there was a fucking minivan parked forty feet from your sleeping bags.”


Sam Halpern is, without doubt, the least passive aggressive person in the world, and that makes him a great dad in my book.


SBW


PS Am I the only one having endless formatting errors in the new blogger layouts?

3 comments:

  1. Hippo
    Classic!

    There are of course three ages of man:

    1. My dad's better than your dad
    2. Dad you're full of shit
    And the final phase
    3. As my old dad used to say....

    We're all somewhere on that continuum

    SBW

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like I've hit stage three...

    My dad, if he was still alive, would say, of course: 'As my Dad used to say?? Bloody typical, not an original thought in your head!'

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave comments. I really enjoy hearing what readers think. The rules are the same as round my dinner table:

You're welcome to disagree, life would be way too boring if we all agreed with each other and we'd never learn anything.
I like to think that we're all grown up enough to argue every last point, right down to the bone, without bearing a grudge afterwards.



Come on in the waters lovely
SBW