doogles » March 16th, 2020, 4:14 pm wrote:Serpent, you must have been 'posh' campers to have a spade and a bucket. We had to
carry almost everything. Our limit was tin plates, a billy, frypan, knives and forks, and a tomahawk, canned food and bread. We made billy tea and passed around the billy in turns to drink. As the canned food was used, we converted the empty cans into a 'cup' for each of us. We had to catch fish and yabbies to supplement our supplies.
Not posh - regimented. Prepared, helpful, alert, clean, courteous and reverent. And very, very fire-conscious. We had to carry everything, too, in back-packs, with extra stuff lashed to the outside. One kid would have the little camping spade, another would bring a hatchet; one had the canvas bucket; one had the cook-pot; we each brought our own set of tin plate, cup and utensils, flashlight, matches, spare socks and shorts, dry packaged food (oatmeal, yech! Mac&cheese, yay!) bedroll on top. Scout knife on a lanyard. If there was an actual tent, the scoutmaster would carry it and help set it up.
I wasn't crazy about those weekends, really: too much drill. But later, when I went camping with family, the discipline resurfaced - I was a veritable
bear on fire safety, including the unbreakable rule of a spade and an water next to the fire at all time; bank it up solid for the night, bury it completely and stomp on its grave when you leave.
As you can see, we didn't have decent backpacks or hiking gear.
We were lucky in that sense. Between the Army Surplus store and dear old Honest Ed's in Toronto, people of modest means - which we certainly were! - could outfit their kids pretty well.
This photograph was taken on a gravel road. We drove along it 60 years later and discovered it was 7 km from the railway station to our camping spot. We would have been 12 to 14 years old. It was 1945. None of our families had cars.
Ah! Different times. My scouting days didn't start till 1958 - prosperous times.
(You all look viable enough.)