We are a camping family.
It all began in a pop up camper for me, which I was told at age 4, by my Moo Moo, was the height of luxury camping. No tents for us! We were recreating in style in our soft sided pop up with the little propane stove.
My Moo Moo and Grandpa snored soundly in one of the pop-out canvas bunks and my parents comfortably rested on the opposite side of the camper, in the same style quarters. I was small enough to recline on the dinette bench. I marvel today at how many people co-slept in such a small space without incident or complaint.
We had an outside picnic table set up for breakfasts and dinners. Lunch was pretty much catch as catch can, which for me, included a lot of sticky penny candy purchased at the camp store.
Breakfast was cooked in part by my Grandpa who loved early morning bacon and in part by Moo Moo who loved (and God bless her, at age 93 still loves) cantaloupe. Moo Moo carved the mushy melon while Grandpa flipped the fatty meats and I read Mad magazine while trying to figure out why Spy vs Spy hated each other. Whether anything else was included in breakfast was a changing phenomenon. Sometimes mini boxes of corn flakes showed up; other times eggs; once in a blue moon, Bisquick pancakes (too many dishes to do with pancakes...).
One thing you could always count on were nightly campfire songs, led by my dear sweet Aunt Maureen. Aunt Maureen and Uncle Monte had their own camper on a site nearby and since I am missing her tonight I thought I would put together a list of my favorites. What she lacked in musicianship, Auntie Rene (pronounced REE NEE) more than made up for in enthusiasm. Dragging her red, white and blue webbed lawn chair, she would sit, putting her long dark hair in a ponytail held back by a fat, soft yarn tie, and, finally, exclaim that she was ready, followed by a giggle and a light slap of her hands on her thighs, indicating it was go- time.
Here you go, Godmother, I am dialing up the iPod and singing these with you tonight...
1. If I Had a Hammer by Peter, Paul and Mary
So this was not the one we started with most nights but this was tune I associate most with Aunt Rene. We all knew all the words to this song because of her...every last one. When we got to the parts about a hammer of justice and a bell of freedom, our campfire crew was all but hollering the lyrics. We loved the feelings brought about by singing out the love between my brothers and my sisters allllll over this land.
2. Dance With a Dolly with a Hole in her Stocking by Louis Prima
Ok, call us weird, but this was a campfire standard, too. I suppose it was because my Moo Moo and her four sisters would go out dancing at Myron and Ray's while my Grandpa was defending our world's oceans in WWII and this was one of the girls' favorite 1940's ditties. My Aunt and my baby cousin Stacey would bellow about how our knees keep a knocking and our toes keep a rocking and the hole in the stocking. I'm not sure all the kids knew the words to this but we definitely loved those lines in particular and we could clap and laugh just thinking about Moo Moo and our great aunts boogying to this.
3. Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles
This became a standard for us when my Aunt's fresh air fund kid Raymond arrived from the Bronx for the summer. Disembarking from the bus, the little 5 year old handed my Aunt his only piece of luggage which consisted of underwear (1 pair) in a smooshed paper lunch bag. Quickly, we learned he was terrified of cows but enthralled with camping. Upon asking Raymond what songs he liked to sing, so that he was comfortable on his first night away from home, he willingly and unabashedly chirped out Hit the Road Jack in perfect pitch. When he got to the no more part it sounded like no mow no mow no mow no mow so we all crooned it that way, too. Raymond's little brother Noodgie came the following summer and sang along.
4. Let it Be by the Beatles
Once the adults had imbibed sufficiently, this was the official go-to. Not only did they earnestly sing all the words but they bummed all the instrumental parts, too. It was less zippy than the others but it also gave all the little ones a chance to wind down after so much frivolity...and sugar.
Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum...bum...bummmmmmm.
5. The Rainbow Connection by Kermit and the Muppets
My cousin Cappy was a kid raised on the Muppet Show so naturally this became a campfire favorite. It really gels with our overall theme of the lovers, the dreamers, and me.
All of us under its spell...we know that it's probably magggggiiiiccccccc…..
6. Traditional American Indian Songs by Moo Moo
At some point in the evening, if the weather and company were right, Moo Moo would don her Indian headdress, yarn wig, enchanting maiden costume, red knee high socks (not sure what these were about, other than perhaps keeping her grandmotherly legs warm) and her Minnetonkas and whoop it up around the fire. She claimed she was chanting some traditional Blackfoot stuff and we honestly never knew if she was telling the truth about that or not but it felt good to honor our Adirondack ancestors. It felt real and right to sing about the buffalo and the earth and even though it was likely that all of this was pieced together from books or from television, we all grew up with big love and respect for what my Grandpa called "injuns". We love my cousin's hand drawn tribal art, my uncle's 6 foot wall-hung traditional shields, my other cousin's double necked wedding vase, and we have some hunting, gardening and storytelling traditions which are definitely passed down from or which honor Native American culture. I used to wear my Indian beaded necklace to school every day in kindergarten. One day one of the little beaded legs came unraveled and then he was legless and, because I didn't stop wearing him, he eventually became half torso-less, too. My parents got me another beaded necklace with a skirted squaw on it but I liked my chief dude better.
(PS I just found him on ebay...the exact one I had, as I was looking for a photo of him for this story. I think I need to buy him.)
7. God Bless America
Because he was a veteran, it was important for us to sing this with Grandpa and usually any campers within earshot would enthusiastically chime in. Grandpa would get pretty serious during the singing of this song, and we intuitively knew this was a time of reverence, not a time to be piercing a new marshmallow or taking a bathroom break or chasing Noodgie around getting him to finish putting on his calamine lotion and six million dollar man pajamas. It was a time to sing in the best tune you could manage with your chin held high and an eye on Grandpa as he silently poked the fire with one hand on his heart and the other hand on our broken hockey stick.
My family had so many special times and opportunities to gather together in song.
My Aunt and Grandpa are no longer with us but they live on in my love of music and the way it stems from these meaningful memories.
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