Chapter 2
Ray, even in his very young years, was a natural leader. We as brothers and friends were excited just to be around him. He had a friendly outgoing nature but was never dominant as one in charge. Rather it was his ability to listen to those around him and make their ideas his own. He had the ability to make another person good idea a reality.
At camp, housing became the first priority with everyone working together. We chopped down a long slender sturdy pine tree and cleared it of all its branches; its length stretching some twenty feet. Each end of this main support beam were secured by a small but strong nylon rope some eight feet high on two trees separated by the same number of feet. This was repeated again on another two trees that were parallel to the first two but just five feet away. Small supporting limbs were now cut to form the ribs of the natural hut each separated from the other by a foot or less and angling off from the top supporting branch (eight foot high) to the ground below. This natural construction was repeated on the other side as well and across the top between the four trees. Thick brush was gathered next by all and laid flat against the ribs of the hut on each side and across the top. The final construction forming the natural siding was fifteen inches of thick pine needles packed from the bottom to the top of the ribs and across the top. As we all stood inside of our new natural but temporary home, we found that there was room for all and a comfortable place to sleep. Since none of us had sleeping bags, we continued to pack the dirt floor of our hut with a thick bed of straw and pine needles to act as our bedding. There was no need for blankets because of the warm summer nights.
Out side of our hut in a clear area and close to the water’s edge, Raymond constructed a fire pit of six feet in diameter by digging in to the ground to forming a large bowl having dirt sides and ringed with large stones around its exterior. All of us gathered fire wood of all sizes from the dead trees on the grounds which were plentiful in the forest around us. We stacked the kindling, drift wood and logs of various sizes in a pile close to the pit that brother Ray had made.
The work of setting up camp was now complete so we all took to fishing along the bank to acquire our evening meal. We gathered wiggly worms from under the dead leaves in the moist areas around the edges of the creek and were successful in catching a number of large bream. These were quickly cleaned and gutted and washed in the flowing waters of the creek. While we were catching fish, Ray was working on starting the fire from matches. On the bottom of the pit he laid a quantity of straw and pine needles, then a layer of very small kindling and brush on top. Finally, He took the medium and large logs we had gathered and formed the shape of a tee-pee around the edges of the pit. We all watched as he struck the match to light the straw and pine needles. Then with the side of his face close to the ground, he began to gently blowing on the burning embers to create a small blaze. It was not long before the rest of the dried wood erupted into a blazing fire. Ray made long supporting rods from green wooden sticks that formed a “Y” at the top and using a hatchet he sharpened their ends so that they could be easily be driven into the ground on each side of the fire pit. He then constructed another strong wooden stick that he placed across the fire and into the wooden supports on each side; onto which he placed a coffee pot filled with water and coffee grounds.
We then cut small and green long limbs about ¼” thick. These green wooded pieces were stripped clean of their bark to form shinny wooded rods with pointed ends forming long narrow needles of wood. In the process of gathering the wooded needle, we came across a thick thorny batch of ripe black berries which we quickly picked to fill close to several quart coffee cans. On our return, we threaded two prepared and cleaned bream onto these natural cooking utensils and held the raw fish over the sparkling hot fire to roast. It was not long before we had a tasty feast of cooked fish, enough for all to enjoy as well as having our fill of black berries sweetened by some sugar that we had brought with us.
After our meal, we sat like Indians around the fire pit and due to the heat of the dying day we stripped clean of our clothes save for our shorts chattering like a bunch of squirrels about anything that crossed our minds.
It was not long before night pushed the falling sun into the west and into the ground to disappear from view. The blazing fire became the only light we had to brighten our camp site. It was truly a memorable experience by all as we all sat quietly around the fire, enjoying the rural natural nightlife celebrating the changing of the guard. With the passing of the day to night, a completely new group of insects, birds and animals suddenly began awakening to its obscurity and shadows. With their choral renaissance, we heard for the first time, a crescendo of new songs filling the void left by their nosy daytime neighbors. The stillness of the night airs amplified their melody into surround sound filling the night from all directions. We felt for the first time the intense murkiness and darkness of the new night, as our eyes slowly adjusted to the absence of sunlight. Off to the East, the moon appeared full into the sky, beginning its celestial journey across the night sky while flooding the sky with its soft glow like a giant flood light. The rising moon soon provided a natural glow enough to dilute the surrounding darkness and form minuscule paths of light in between the trees around us.
We had become like our early ancestors of long ago that once had traveled across this land to live as were living now. Soon, real and fictionalized “ghost” stories began to haunt the minds of our small group; becoming reality in the words forming long stories with scary endings as we shared hot coffee between us around the blazing fire.
It was not long before we grew tired of the nightlife. Ray dampened the fire to just hot coals, and we moved inside our tent to close out the night with sleep and put to rest the constant noise of the choir of singing insects in the trees and woods about us.
(To be continued)
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