Camping

Dad always drove the station wagon towing the tent trailer on our epic cross-country camping trips. We'd be gone for so long that home looked different when we got back.  My favorite memories of these trips were some of the things we did to entertain ourselves in the evenings, accompanied by the hiss of the Coleman lantern in our home-away-from-home.  We liked to play blackjack using clothespins as chips.  Sometimes Mom would read us a story.  One time Mom did a shadow show on the curtain in the lantern light.  Then we'd fold the table down and break out all the sleeping bags.  We used every available space for sleeping all six of us.  Last of all, we'd watch the lantern go down, whisper and giggle for a while, and drift off to the sound of crickets, wind, silence.