Scouting, Volume 71, Number 1, January-February 1983 Page: 46
58, E1-E24, [16] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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I tell my neighbors, "If you see something
out of the ordinary, please call the police."
Joalene: We leave our dogs home so
someone comes in, feeds them, and
watches the house.
Mary: When you're travelling you become
very observant of the road, of the car, of
what's going on around you. I was driving
and heard this terrible noise in the car.
Another family was driving with us but in
another car. 1 got one of them to stop and
travel with us to listen to the noise. We
thought it was something wrong with the
car's transmission. We found that it was
aluminum soft drink cans sloshing around
in our ice chest.
Well, we laughed a lot about that. Now
we check inside the van before we ask for
help with funny noises.
Sue: I worry about mechanical break-
downs. On this trip we had to have our
carburetor rebuilt in Cheyenne, Wyo. We
spent three days there. Then 30 miles from
the New Mexico state line the tail pipe fell
off and burned a hole in the gas tank. We
were in a little town. 1 went into a Baptist
church that was having a prayer meeting
and said, "I need help." And people
helped. They sent us to a reputable repair
man.
Security in campgrounds can be a
problem. You must be careful nowadays.
Now, we've never had anything stolen, but
1 sometimes worry about some of the
characters in campgrounds.
Cor dell: In some places you have to worry
about the animals. We were next to an
open range and a whole herd of cattle
came over including two or three big bulls.
They wandered through camp. So you've
got to be careful about that sort of thing.
Sue: Sometimes the hours drag and the
kids grow restless. We have some games
we play that help pass the time. We have a
map of the United States taped on one of
the walls in our RV. As we travel through a
state, we put a certain color star on. We
also put a different color star on the states
whose license plates we spot.
Another game we play is called Spud
Magoo. You look for Volkswagen Beetles
and any color Beetle is known as a "spud"
and you get three points for spotting one.
If you see a red Volkswagen, it's called a
"Spud Magoo" and you get three addi-
tional points. The person with the greatest
number of points in some distance or time
wins.
We have a lot of alphabet games. I
choose a letter from the alphabet and keep
it in mind. Then the kids keep their eyes
peeled for billboards with words on them.
The first kid tries to spot the letter I'm
thinking of from words on the sign. If he
doesn't get it, someone else gets to guess
one letter from the next sign.
46
Cordell: We have magnetic homemade
cars that stick to the metal sides of the van.
The kids play with them. Then I also have
little packages gift wrapped with small
surprises inside. The kids open them up at
a certain time, or distance, or town.
Sue: Even though we'd been kidded about
our motor home, we can still enjoy family
camping. We don't cook inside. We cook
outside. We carry food to our stove in a
cooler. Unlike some people, we don't take
TV.
Scouting: What are the payoffs to family
camping?
Cordell: Usually every family in a camp-
ground is in the same boat. They're all
learning. It's kind of a teaching-learning
experience for all the kids because the
older boys usually know how to set up the
tents and the younger kids learn from
them.
I took a management seminar one time
and the lecturer asked, "How are you
growing? How are you expanding your
abilities?" He said, "The way to do this is
not to take your comfortable surroundings
with you everywhere you go. Once a day,
step out of your comfortable surroundings
into something that's uncomfortable. That
will cause you to take on other abilities." I
think family camping does this.
Joalene: The kids learn how to get things
done by getting organized. They are given
certain jobs which they know they must
do. Family camping enhances the Scout-
ing outdoor experience.
Phyllis: Family camping helps the overall
Cub Scouting family program. If the
family camps until the kids are through
their teens, they are going to do that the
rest of their lives. They are going to come
home when they are grown and say, "Hey,
Mom and Dad. let's go out camping," and
bring their children. You really get a
family feeling that you can't get any place
else.
Cordell: It used to be that if the outing was
near a fishing spot, the family fishermen
would have a great time but not every
member would. My wife might say, "It
isn't any fun for me to go camping. I don't
get anything out of camping. I have to
cook on this little stove I don't like. No one
helps me. I have to do the dishes myself."
We decided that wasn't the way to do it.
So now we get organized and make sure
the work is divided up so everyone has a
good time.
Mary: My household at home is very
active. I work two jobs and am extremely
busy in the Scout district.
On this trip we've found that we can do
without television, the telephone, the
dishwasher. We've done a lot of roughing
it. But the evenings have been very
relaxed, a lot quieter. It's so good to have a
break in the hectic routine.
Sue: Family camping is a chance for the
children to center oh being a brother and a
sister and knowing* how to relate to one
another than to complain, "He's picking
on me!" They become friends. I love to
watch my children camp out because they
are very happy to be just the two of them.
Now it's true that will last only a week
after they get home. But it does help
establish that real strong root system so
that when they grow up and move away,
they will still have that to remember.
Mary: That's important. You're building
memories. Your kids need to have
memories of the fun they had as a family.
Liz: The camping experience allowed us
all time to share one another and to
develop a closeness that we don't have
time to do in our busy lives. ■
Come here—I've found something to cure your hic-cups.
January-February 1983 Scouting
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 71, Number 1, January-February 1983, periodical, January 1983; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353567/m1/74/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.