Someone take me camping!
Aug. 8th, 2011 04:40 pmWhen I was a kid, my grandparents had a camper outside of Jackson, and I spent pretty much every summer there. They had picked their lot based on the fact that there was a little playground right next to it. For some reason, I thought that the campground had closed-- I recall driving around in the area maybe 6-10 years ago and being very sad because I'd found the entrance to the park but it was all grown over and fallen into disuse. (Perhaps it was a particularly vivid dream, because I do not know when I would have had such an opportunity.)
But http://www.greenwoodacrescampground.com informs me that the campground is still very much open (though Google satellite view indicates that there are zero campers in the area formerly occupied by my grandparents and their crew).
Right now, I am awash in memories. I look at their sitemap, and I can trace my way from our lot (7th St lot 48! Though they've renumbered a little, and now it's lot 51) to the Rec Center where they had video games and pool tables and foosball tables and a little candy store and big huge 4-person swings outside which were just awesome to ride in, but no one ever wanted to be the one to push. I remember that in front of the Rec Center was a little zoo, and I bet that it's not there any more. Even in the span of time that I was there, the zoo was cut back substantially -- at one time, there were peacocks and goats and monkeys and a couple of donkeys that gave rides on the weekends and I want to say there was something on the other side of the monkeys but I'm blanking on what it was. By the time I became a teenager and Too Old For The Campground Now(tm), it was down to just the goats. From the looks of it from Google Maps, the whole area is a putt-putt course or something now.
As a side note, talking about the zoo reminds me of when M and I were very young, and she got stung by a bee while we were looking at the monkeys.
Wendal, who ran the place, got an idea into his head at one point, and for a few years there was a drive-thru "African Safari"-style zoo up near the entrance next to the golf course. I remember a lot of people expressing concern because they had a real live rhino, and the zoo was separated from the campground by just a chain-link fence. (I assume, knowing what I know of zoo design now, that the rhino had its own area that kept it confined without looking like it was keeping it confined.) That style of zoo was very popular for a little bit, and then people stopped going to them because they were going to whatever the next entertainment trend was instead. After a couple of years, the animals were sold off to real zoos (that is what I tell myself, anyway) and the zoo was abandoned.
I remember that Grandma saw a human-interest news report about a woman who had had a heart attack while driving, and her kid took over driving and got her to the hospital in time to save her life. Though I was 14 and pretty close to being able to take driver's training, Grandma decided that I should learn to drive Right Then, so she took me to the abandoned drive-thru zoo and taught me how to drive there. The only time I actually met Wendal, it was because he drove his pickup over to find out why the hell there was a car driving erratically around his abandoned zoo. Once Grandma explained, he beamed a big smile at me and told us to go right on ahead.
I remember that it wasn't too long after that, a year tops, before we heard the awful news that Wendal had been killed in a car accident.
I remember Mary walking down the street yelling "Barbara, I need things!". Mary and Barb lived on the same block in Garden City, and had lots in the campground just a few spaces from each other. I often wonder about the story behind the "I need things!" call, which Mary made at least once a month and generally more like once a week. Did Barb borrow things from her when they were home? Did Mary once walk over to Barb & Will's at an inopportune time, and now they used the announcement as a warning system?
I remember when Mom bought a trailer across the campground street from Grandma & Grandpa. As an adult, I realize she did it as an "I give up" thing, because I was supposed to spend weekends with Mom but often wanted to go up to the camper, and I feel kinda bad about that. I still tended to sleep at Grandma & Grandpa's, though. I also remember when a skunk nested under Mom's deck... which she found out about because she tore the deck down. Mom was sensible and backed off, and we sat and watched Mama Skunk ferry her babies one by one over to an old sewer pipe that was no longer in use.
I have pictures of birthday parties held at the campground, one on Mom'a patio and one on Grandma & Grandpa's. I can't identify most of the people in the pictures, but I know that for at least one of the parties, two of my cousins came up to the campground for the weekend for it.
I remember spending inordinate amounts of time at the playground next to Grandma & Grandpa's camper. I loved the swings the best, but as I got older I tended to take a more protective attitude towards a number of younger children, and I probably spent more time pushing the swings for littler kids than I did swinging on them myself. There were one or two little kids who would actually come over to the trailer and ask me to come out and push them if I wasn't out there already. I also remember complicated games on the slide, in which one person would sit on the bars on the top and act as a "gatekeeper". It was rarely mean-spirited-- sometimes it was a safety measure, because other games on the slide involved climbing up the slide part, and it was the gatekeeper's job to make sure there were no collisions.
My only broken bones happened on the swings, too. One of the cloth seats had rotted, and as I got higher and started pumping in earnest to go faster, the swing tore and I went sailing. I tried to "catch myself" when I landed (nearly everyone does), and landed on my left hand, breaking the ring and little fingers. The hospital gave me these little foam-padded metal splints but didn't actually secure them... and I was only 8 or 10 years old. Those little splints were off my fingers and I was playing with them, flexing them back and forth, by the time we were out of the parking lot. The ring and little fingers on my left hand are crooked to this day. Also, I'm just a little bit afraid of swingsets.
I remember going to The Parlour for ice cream, and it's still there so I'll be needing ice cream on my camping trip too. The pictures on the website are too bright-- the walls were a darker color back then, and the red wooden posts used to be green. The ice cream used to be awesome, and I'm hoping that hasn't changed. They still offer their 21-scoop massive sundae, so some things definitely haven't changed.
I also remember a water display thingy, and I don't remember the name of it but Google is my friend, and a bit of searching turned up The Cascades. I remember that we would sometimes make a special trip over to Jackson in order to see the Cascades, and that it was something I usually did with Mom instead of with Grandma & Grandpa or a large group. Mom and I liked the lights and the sound of the falling water; everyone else tended to call it boring or "but we've seen that!" as if you could get tired of it. Maybe you can, and maybe Adult-Me could, but Kid-Me thought it was the most amazing thing ever.
I remember swimming in the lake and the pool, both of which are pretty much "how I learned to swim." I was never much of a beach rat, but I had no problem being in the lake for hours. I remember that there was a floating raft out in the lake, providing for jumping/diving purposes. I also remember not liking to get up on it, because the lake was named "Goose Lake" for a reason. Ewwwwwwww.
I specifically remember one time in my middle-school years when I had a friend come out to the campground for a weekend. D and I had gone to the beach, and Grandma decided it was time for us to come back, so she sent Mom to go get us. But Mom decided that laying on the beach and soaking up some sun sounded nice, so instead of bringing us right back the way Grandma wanted, Mom stayed out with us. D was fine with this concept and laid out with Mom, but I was starting to feel the sunburn I had gotten and spent most of the time creating forts out of towels so that I could keep the sun off of me. I spent that night being uncomfortable because everywhere a piece of bedding touched me hurt, but D was absolutely miserable because she was red from head to toe. She couldn't get comfortable, and she didn't want to move to try a different position because movement hurt. In retrospect, she probably should have been taken to the hospital due to the severity of her burn, but... what can I say, it was a different time. Grandma was piiiiiiiiiiiiissed at Mom over the whole matter for a long time, though.
There's more (oh dear God yes, there's more) but I'm tired of typing, and these typed-up memories are just the ones that are coherent enough to write down-- there's tens of thousands of half-second snippets floating around in my head too. I desperately want to go back to the campground and the surrounding area, even though rationally I know it will never be as good as I remember. It can't be, because so many of the people surrounding me then are gone.
Incidentally: there's a contact form on the website, so I sent in a query asking what their policy on non-camping visitors are. If it's just plain not allowed, then I'll probably borrow a tent and make a reservation, but leave instead of actually camping.
But http://www.greenwoodacrescampground.com informs me that the campground is still very much open (though Google satellite view indicates that there are zero campers in the area formerly occupied by my grandparents and their crew).
Right now, I am awash in memories. I look at their sitemap, and I can trace my way from our lot (7th St lot 48! Though they've renumbered a little, and now it's lot 51) to the Rec Center where they had video games and pool tables and foosball tables and a little candy store and big huge 4-person swings outside which were just awesome to ride in, but no one ever wanted to be the one to push. I remember that in front of the Rec Center was a little zoo, and I bet that it's not there any more. Even in the span of time that I was there, the zoo was cut back substantially -- at one time, there were peacocks and goats and monkeys and a couple of donkeys that gave rides on the weekends and I want to say there was something on the other side of the monkeys but I'm blanking on what it was. By the time I became a teenager and Too Old For The Campground Now(tm), it was down to just the goats. From the looks of it from Google Maps, the whole area is a putt-putt course or something now.
As a side note, talking about the zoo reminds me of when M and I were very young, and she got stung by a bee while we were looking at the monkeys.
Wendal, who ran the place, got an idea into his head at one point, and for a few years there was a drive-thru "African Safari"-style zoo up near the entrance next to the golf course. I remember a lot of people expressing concern because they had a real live rhino, and the zoo was separated from the campground by just a chain-link fence. (I assume, knowing what I know of zoo design now, that the rhino had its own area that kept it confined without looking like it was keeping it confined.) That style of zoo was very popular for a little bit, and then people stopped going to them because they were going to whatever the next entertainment trend was instead. After a couple of years, the animals were sold off to real zoos (that is what I tell myself, anyway) and the zoo was abandoned.
I remember that Grandma saw a human-interest news report about a woman who had had a heart attack while driving, and her kid took over driving and got her to the hospital in time to save her life. Though I was 14 and pretty close to being able to take driver's training, Grandma decided that I should learn to drive Right Then, so she took me to the abandoned drive-thru zoo and taught me how to drive there. The only time I actually met Wendal, it was because he drove his pickup over to find out why the hell there was a car driving erratically around his abandoned zoo. Once Grandma explained, he beamed a big smile at me and told us to go right on ahead.
I remember that it wasn't too long after that, a year tops, before we heard the awful news that Wendal had been killed in a car accident.
I remember Mary walking down the street yelling "Barbara, I need things!". Mary and Barb lived on the same block in Garden City, and had lots in the campground just a few spaces from each other. I often wonder about the story behind the "I need things!" call, which Mary made at least once a month and generally more like once a week. Did Barb borrow things from her when they were home? Did Mary once walk over to Barb & Will's at an inopportune time, and now they used the announcement as a warning system?
I remember when Mom bought a trailer across the campground street from Grandma & Grandpa. As an adult, I realize she did it as an "I give up" thing, because I was supposed to spend weekends with Mom but often wanted to go up to the camper, and I feel kinda bad about that. I still tended to sleep at Grandma & Grandpa's, though. I also remember when a skunk nested under Mom's deck... which she found out about because she tore the deck down. Mom was sensible and backed off, and we sat and watched Mama Skunk ferry her babies one by one over to an old sewer pipe that was no longer in use.
I have pictures of birthday parties held at the campground, one on Mom'a patio and one on Grandma & Grandpa's. I can't identify most of the people in the pictures, but I know that for at least one of the parties, two of my cousins came up to the campground for the weekend for it.
I remember spending inordinate amounts of time at the playground next to Grandma & Grandpa's camper. I loved the swings the best, but as I got older I tended to take a more protective attitude towards a number of younger children, and I probably spent more time pushing the swings for littler kids than I did swinging on them myself. There were one or two little kids who would actually come over to the trailer and ask me to come out and push them if I wasn't out there already. I also remember complicated games on the slide, in which one person would sit on the bars on the top and act as a "gatekeeper". It was rarely mean-spirited-- sometimes it was a safety measure, because other games on the slide involved climbing up the slide part, and it was the gatekeeper's job to make sure there were no collisions.
My only broken bones happened on the swings, too. One of the cloth seats had rotted, and as I got higher and started pumping in earnest to go faster, the swing tore and I went sailing. I tried to "catch myself" when I landed (nearly everyone does), and landed on my left hand, breaking the ring and little fingers. The hospital gave me these little foam-padded metal splints but didn't actually secure them... and I was only 8 or 10 years old. Those little splints were off my fingers and I was playing with them, flexing them back and forth, by the time we were out of the parking lot. The ring and little fingers on my left hand are crooked to this day. Also, I'm just a little bit afraid of swingsets.
I remember going to The Parlour for ice cream, and it's still there so I'll be needing ice cream on my camping trip too. The pictures on the website are too bright-- the walls were a darker color back then, and the red wooden posts used to be green. The ice cream used to be awesome, and I'm hoping that hasn't changed. They still offer their 21-scoop massive sundae, so some things definitely haven't changed.
I also remember a water display thingy, and I don't remember the name of it but Google is my friend, and a bit of searching turned up The Cascades. I remember that we would sometimes make a special trip over to Jackson in order to see the Cascades, and that it was something I usually did with Mom instead of with Grandma & Grandpa or a large group. Mom and I liked the lights and the sound of the falling water; everyone else tended to call it boring or "but we've seen that!" as if you could get tired of it. Maybe you can, and maybe Adult-Me could, but Kid-Me thought it was the most amazing thing ever.
I remember swimming in the lake and the pool, both of which are pretty much "how I learned to swim." I was never much of a beach rat, but I had no problem being in the lake for hours. I remember that there was a floating raft out in the lake, providing for jumping/diving purposes. I also remember not liking to get up on it, because the lake was named "Goose Lake" for a reason. Ewwwwwwww.
I specifically remember one time in my middle-school years when I had a friend come out to the campground for a weekend. D and I had gone to the beach, and Grandma decided it was time for us to come back, so she sent Mom to go get us. But Mom decided that laying on the beach and soaking up some sun sounded nice, so instead of bringing us right back the way Grandma wanted, Mom stayed out with us. D was fine with this concept and laid out with Mom, but I was starting to feel the sunburn I had gotten and spent most of the time creating forts out of towels so that I could keep the sun off of me. I spent that night being uncomfortable because everywhere a piece of bedding touched me hurt, but D was absolutely miserable because she was red from head to toe. She couldn't get comfortable, and she didn't want to move to try a different position because movement hurt. In retrospect, she probably should have been taken to the hospital due to the severity of her burn, but... what can I say, it was a different time. Grandma was piiiiiiiiiiiiissed at Mom over the whole matter for a long time, though.
There's more (oh dear God yes, there's more) but I'm tired of typing, and these typed-up memories are just the ones that are coherent enough to write down-- there's tens of thousands of half-second snippets floating around in my head too. I desperately want to go back to the campground and the surrounding area, even though rationally I know it will never be as good as I remember. It can't be, because so many of the people surrounding me then are gone.
Incidentally: there's a contact form on the website, so I sent in a query asking what their policy on non-camping visitors are. If it's just plain not allowed, then I'll probably borrow a tent and make a reservation, but leave instead of actually camping.