A Word From Feral Teens
Posted at 5:20 AM on July 27, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(13 Comments)
Here's an e-mail that appeared over the weekend from perennial sophomore Bubby Spamden:
Hello Mr. C.,Just so you know, my big plans to be an internet sensation didn't pan out. I'm not getting married and my friends and I don't dance, and it looks like that's what you have to get some attention on You Tube this summer. Also, nobody picked up on my idea to turn the old analog broadcast spectrum over to teenagers and none of my other schemes for making money have come true either, so I've been getting together with my friends and working on camping skills instead.
Setting up a tent, keeping your food away from the bears and learning how to build a fire are all really good things to know. And today's youth would be smart to figure out how to live "off the land" anyway, since I kinda think there won't be any money or jobs or affordable houses or anything for us to use when your generation is finally done wrecking the economy. No disrespect, that's just the way it looks from around our campfire.
Anyway, now I'm thinking I should start a wilderness group for young people like me. We could call it something like "Feral Teens", you know? We'd be totally wild creatures, living like Thoreau - all simple and stuff and kinda removed from civilization but still close enough to, like, speak up about everything that's wrong with it.
And there is so much that's wrong, I don't even know where to begin. And not just war and discrimination and stuff, but even just the pointless day-to-day chores. I'm really, really liking the part of living in the woods where you eat with your hands all the time and you don't have to do dishes or dust cabinets or anything, cause all the food is cooked on sticks and the furniture is, like, still in its natural state. You can use an old stump for your dinner table and rather than clean it off when you're done, you can let it continue to rot. That's living the good life.
Just one problem - my cell phone reception is really lousy out in the forest, even the state parks where we've been having our retreats. And that's just not right! A great country like ours should have solid coverage in all of its officially owned wild areas, especially those where a guy might have to call someone to bring a fresh roll of TP out to the latrine. Do you think you can get Congressman Beechly to do some stuff to get the 3G network developed outside the cities? It would sure make it easier for me to text my friends about the awesomeness and beauty of the natural world.
And adding a few Starbucks to the state park system would be good too.
With free Wi-Fi, of course.Sincerely, your friend and real live Nature Boy,
Bubby
It's good to know Bubby is getting some fresh air this summer while he thinks about his future and the world he'd like to create. What would be your perfect camping experience?
Comments (13)
Good Morning, All! thanks, Dale, for sending along Bubby's communications. i'm glad he likes camping. for my part, he can have it. each time we set up our tent somewhere there would be a cloudburst. we decided that either we would stop camping or go into business - contracting in draught-stricken areas - putting up our tent wherever rain was needed.
but to be fair, we never bought good equipment to really give it a decent try.
Dale, like your comparison of August to the flourish, or dismount, at the end of summer. thanks as always
Free Range Film Festival was GREAT
Morning! I'm back from the wilds of St. Louis, where, I'm happy to report that Feral Teens are already making inroads (5 cousins all within 18 months of each other, all either 14 or 15!!!)
Barb, I could go into business w/ you. In fact, I'm thinking maybe I could get some rain here in the Twin Cities just by dragging the tent down from the attic! My daughter and I don't camp much, mostly because it's hard to arrange time away from dogs and cat. But we now have a HUGE tent (sleeps about 100 it feels like) so that when it rains we can get into the middle section and stay dry!
I think Bubby has the right idea. Learn to camp because with the economic problems the money for other types of vacations is harder to find. And, I think better cell phone service with some Starbuck service as well would be good.
I use to do camping when I was younger and it was partly because it was an inexpnsive vacation. Of course, by the time you count the camping equipment expense, we might not have saved much money. We did do some camping in the boundary canoe area which we enjoyed because we could use a canoe to get out into the wilderess where it was quiet and there were very few people.
I'm sorry if this gets poster twice. I'm having trouble with my computer
Many years of camping in my past -- here there and on both coasts. But perhaps the sweetest memory of camping was in high school with girl scouts somewhere in the north woods. One of the girl's brother took a liking to someone in the tent I shared (could he have been that nice to his sister?), cut down pine branches for us to sleep on....guess in the 50s we had to have boys along to show us how to camp.
There is a small "caravan" camped along ththe St. Louis River along I35 between Cloquet and Duluth. It's been there most of the summer...could it be Bubby and his friends?
thanks bubby for the posting, its pretty funny who gets their 15 minutes of fame these days. cute bit bit millions of hits? i guess the world need a smile in a time when they are so easily accessible.
camping with no phone remnds me that yellowstone is wonderful from the perspective that there was no service for cell phones and no tv or wi fi in the park last time i was there (3 or 4 years ago) you saw people trying all the time and i'm sure the cities ringing the parks were appreciative because the people in the internet cafes and just going out for phone access was pretty funny. it requires you to enjoy your family and the woods and the wonders of nature. no business urgencies on the hike to the waterfall. i think i like this. bubby may need to play to the escapist angle. get away and stay away until you decide to come back. no intrusions is pretty hot stuff in the world these days.
Good morning RH,
Bubby should hook up with Bart for cell signal access.
Bart and Bubby together...please invite me to that party!
I've got some people to thank this morning. Firstly, Dale, for getting the archived DC shows in place again, and also for playing Trampled by Turtles', Nobody Else, on July 10. That was the song I heard back in April that I failed to make a note of and was desperately seeking to hear again.
Secondly, Barb, for educating me about the Biggest Noodle award on the farm. I guess I knew that noodle and brain were synonyms, but wondered if it may have a different meaning in a POLE barn. Felt a little silly after reading your response, even noodleless I suppose, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on your interpretation and gender.
How nice to hear from Bubby! And what a great idea, though certainly not new. I was sent to camp as a youth. Watch out for tricks, Bubby! Did you know the wind dies down around sunset? After particualarly trying days, campers were packed into sailboats with box dinners for Sunset Sails. Good thing each boat had a good swimmer on it to swin the boat back to dock for bedtime!
Be careful out there Bubby!
We'll be headed off for our annual 7-10 day tent camping extravaganza on Friday. I did a fair amount of "car camping" (tent camping, but cars parked nearby) at WI & MN State Parks with Girl Scouts growing up and as a camp counselor in college, so I miss not being out there in the summer. I think at some point I'd like to go farther away from the car, but it's nice to have the gear we don't want in the tent nearby and stow the food in the car overnight instead of hanging it so bears and other critters can't get it.
I don't know that we've even seen half of the MN state parks, but we have been in parks all over the state and northern MN seems to be the favorite spot. If not a campsite on a lake or river, somewhere nearby is nice so we can walk to the water and hear loons and other birds at night and early morning. And tall trees are a must! We also like campsites that have a fair amount of understory between the sites so we don't have to look at our neighbors, if we have any. And we don't like to hear our neighbors, their generators, radios, tvs or RVs. People have many variations of roughing it. Electrical stuff (except for flashlights!) just doesn't belong on camping trips, in our family's opinion. I have a wee travel guitar that usually comes along with us and my son and I at least have a sing along. Last year he sang the CLV Chinese camp version of "Country Roads" as a I played. I'm sure the lyrics had nothing in common with the original, but it was a hoot!
oh, Kim - made me giggle to think about the camp workers sending the kids off for a sail so they can have a nice, long rest by the campfire while the kids are stuck out on the lake! ha, ha
and Donna, didn't want to make you feel silly. i'm sure most families have words that they have defined differently from what others would think. the other awards will not be as obscurely named. like "most improved," or "most studly: (one guess who will get that), or "easiest hooves to trim" or "best eater" and then of course, overall best goat of the year.
probably late September we will post the awards in the barn (it is a pole barn - to my sadness - wish we had a nice, old, real barn)
welcome back, Sherrilee!
My perfect camping experience includes a VW pop-top camper, basically a travelling bed. Open up the back window, snap the screen in. Of course, that camper died long ago, and I WANT ANOTHER ONE -- for one thing, when you visit just about anyone, you're welcome a lot longer if you bring your own bed.
Have fun, Amy! That's my favorite kind of setting, too, tall trees, lots of cover.
How 'bout a round of Kum-ba-ya, Dale, or someting similar...
Greetings Heartlanders! I come from a large family of scouts and scout leaders so we went camping a lot!! Never saw the inside of a motel until I was in my 20's. It's fun as a kid, but as an adult I find I need a flushing toilet, a luxurious air bed and a stand up tent just to be somewhat comfortable. And who can sleep with all the wildlife noise, wind blowing, etc.
Although the whole idea of being outdoors and camping is lovely,I can't sleep a wink usually as I'm a light sleeper. I admire Bubby for learning new skills outside, but you can't have everything with it (like cell reception!).
Joanne -- you made me laugh. I stayed at my sister's for a couple of nights last week. She lives in very small town in SW MO. Slept right under an open window and just couldn't get to sleep the first night. All the little peeping frogs and cicadas were so noisy. And this from a gal who lives under the MSP flight path on a busy street with cars/trucks in the cities! Felt very strange.
Growing up, our family spent a week many summers camped with our trailer or pickup camper at a RV resort on Pelican Lake near Brainerd. We love the lakes area there. Not rustic, but love the clear water and sandy beaches, and the call of the loons.
Our family doesn't have a camper or tent, but I do want my children to have the experience, so we have been renting a cabin at a resort on Lake Edward - will be there for a week later in August.
Have a good week everyone.
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