I remember I would drape a bedsheets over an umbrella to make a makeshift tent in my living room and sleep inside just to feel like I was /out/
My family couldn't afford camping stuff back then, but I slept like a baby in my tent.
What /out/ related memories do you guys cherish most?
>This is OC but I liked it and pasta'd it so I wouldn't have to retype it if I felt like sharing again.
I live in a rural town, it's all woods and farmland. The tallest hill in town has been a farm since around 1690. It's behind my parents' woods. They own several acres of forest (with the neighbors all owning several acres as well) and this large hilltop field abuts the back of all of our land, with a stone wall separating it from the forest. I think it's about 25 acres cleared. The farm itself is long gone but a farmer still owns the land and comes and hays it once or twice a year.
>>715843
My childhood was filled with adventures in the woods, and when we were old enough to explore all the way back to the field it was like a rite of passage. That old stone wall, laying there in the shadows, overgrown, covered in vines. It's hard to even see out into the field during summer because the brambles and vines are so thick at the edge. Old trees of cider apples grow feral in the thicket beyond the wall, too deep to even sample an apple. This is what made the field itself so great. It was hard to get to, and when you did, the world opened-up into what seemed like an endless green pasture with the biggest sky you could ever get to see in New England. The view from the top was amazing, especially for a kid. The slope down the opposite side would grow acres of milkweed in the fall and we'd spend the day out there having wars with milkweed pods, throwing them at each other until someone got the juice and their eye and cried.
>>715845
I move a lot as an adult. In one city or another, around the US and overseas, but every few years I come back when I'm between things - jobs, moves, etc. I get back into camping and enjoying the woods before my family sells the property. I still walk out on nice days and follow the stonewall, fight through the prickers and walk around the field and enjoy the view from the top. Even as an adult I throw a few milkweed pods, despite the fact there's nobody there to thrown them at. I still love the vines, the sky, the forbidden apples.
>>715846
A couple weeks ago (now a few months) a tractor appeared in the field. So did a few large dump trucks. I took a walk out to snoop around the wall and take a look. The field has been marked-out with dozens of pink survey ribbons. The corner of the field near where the road passes was getting dug-up, and they were laying a large gravel driveway leading in from the street. For sure it's been sold and a cul-de-sac neighborhood is going in. Probably at least 10 shitty mcmansions full of yuppy perverts and immigrants and their kids could fit in there. Not only will it ruin the field, but then my woods would become someone else's back yard. The stone wall wouldn't stop them. It's horrible.
>>715848
Well, /out/, after much research and coming up with nothing, I asked one of our town selectmen. The farmer sold the land alright - to another farmer. He's putting in an orchard. No houses, no neigborhoods, no immigrants, no perverts. Just apples and bees and a gigantic blue sky. Feelsfuckinggoodman.
About 2 summers ago I did a 3 day hike through GSM national park with my dad. As is to be expected, it rained a lot. Most of the trip really. But on the last day we took a detour to a place called Mount Camerer, which had an old fire lookout tower. So just as we got up there the sun came out. We had an awesome view up there. Then we went inside and made tea and ate tins of kippered herring and crackers. It was pretty great.
>>715853
sounds pretty great, brah.
back when i was some faggot in boyscouts i went on a backpacking trip in new mexico, at a place called philmont. climbing mt. baldy was pretty mad, pic related (not my picture, just a google image. but it looked exactly the same)
>>715849
I have to tell you anon, my heart was twinging as I read your posts. I can't tell you what a relief it was to hear things turned out all right. I have had too many of my childhood haunts defiled by development over the years. It is at the point now where I almost don't dare to revisit any I haven't been back to since I was a kid.
I have had the fortune of growing up in a rural area and being able to remain here in adulthood living in the family home which I inherited. For people that move often or live in an urban setting it is difficult to convey the deep-seated contentment of having deep roots. The intimate familiarity with the land around you, and sense of extended family from ones fellow neighbors and townsfolk is something I find beyond measure.
One of my favorite places as a child was a forest a few kilometers from my house. A short ride on my bike would bring me to an overgrown track leading into the forest. Following it led to an overgrown orchard dozing in the sun, with an old homesteaders house standing at the edge. Pressing on the track ended and one would find themselves in a dim and solemn cedar forest. Each tree was a giant, the branches beginning far above. Underfoot was a soft carpet of fallen needles with not a hint of underbrush. It was almost park-like and I would walk there surrounded by bird song before returning to the sunny orchard.
I wish I could go there again but it is all long gone, logged, bulldozed, and covered in gravel. Standing there now it is hard to imagine that it was ever any other way. At least I can still walk there in my memories until time takes those too.
