Sometime over the winter after our first foray into camping the jeep type vehicle was converted into an ‘estate car’ or ‘shooting brake.’ The work was done mainly by a young man who ran his own garage in Bakewell – my father had met him during the war. The frame was wood – varnished light oak - & the metal panels were painted cream. I don’t suppose it would be legal these days.
We now had two tents – the full-size dark green coloured one for my parents & their camp beds, & a smaller pale green one – not large enough to stand up in – in which my sister & I slept side by side in our sleeping bags on a ground sheet. I still love the memory of the smell of rubberised backing, & the pervading smell of damp which we so often got even in summer.
Both those tents were bought from somewhere, but my parents were practical & resourceful people, & we acquired ingenious pieces of equipment to make the camp a home from home, & aided the military precision of packing it all into the estate car.
A flat piece of wood with flanges served as the lid for the orange box in which our kitchen equipment was packed; when the orange box was stood on its end after unpacking, the piece of wood fitted over the top to make a handy bedside table. The kitchen range consisted of two primus stoves inside biscuit tins (painted a cheerful red) with flaps cut in the side for ease of access to the pumping mechanism. We had canvas water buckets with rope handles, folding stools for the children & canvas armchairs for the grown ups.
And we had our own latrine tent. Made by my mother out of a double layer of heavy duty calico, water proofed with some kind of chemical which had to be renewed over the winter, it was a tall square column so you could stand up inside. It had an nifty double flap with ties, which could be secured from either inside or out – it had to be closed if unoccupied so the wind could not enter & blow it over or away.
It even had a seat – a standard loo seat which fitted over a folding wooden frame; my father had used his engineering ingenuity to meet the needs of his family of females.
The basic facility was simply a deep hole dug in to the ground, which we gradually refilled & covered over with a trowel from the pile of excavated earth.
We now had two tents – the full-size dark green coloured one for my parents & their camp beds, & a smaller pale green one – not large enough to stand up in – in which my sister & I slept side by side in our sleeping bags on a ground sheet. I still love the memory of the smell of rubberised backing, & the pervading smell of damp which we so often got even in summer.
Both those tents were bought from somewhere, but my parents were practical & resourceful people, & we acquired ingenious pieces of equipment to make the camp a home from home, & aided the military precision of packing it all into the estate car.
A flat piece of wood with flanges served as the lid for the orange box in which our kitchen equipment was packed; when the orange box was stood on its end after unpacking, the piece of wood fitted over the top to make a handy bedside table. The kitchen range consisted of two primus stoves inside biscuit tins (painted a cheerful red) with flaps cut in the side for ease of access to the pumping mechanism. We had canvas water buckets with rope handles, folding stools for the children & canvas armchairs for the grown ups.
And we had our own latrine tent. Made by my mother out of a double layer of heavy duty calico, water proofed with some kind of chemical which had to be renewed over the winter, it was a tall square column so you could stand up inside. It had an nifty double flap with ties, which could be secured from either inside or out – it had to be closed if unoccupied so the wind could not enter & blow it over or away.
It even had a seat – a standard loo seat which fitted over a folding wooden frame; my father had used his engineering ingenuity to meet the needs of his family of females.
The basic facility was simply a deep hole dug in to the ground, which we gradually refilled & covered over with a trowel from the pile of excavated earth.
Related post
Camping holidays
Camping holidays
