We're Camping Tonight....

Tents and tenting. With the little, lightweight tents that actually are warm and dry, these relics of youth and centuries gone by seem so out of touch.  There is however a certain chilling mystique about tents, tent poles, flaps drawn and soldiers inside...nothing I would like to endure but the simple shelter against the backdrop of war (Civil in this case) reduces a tent to the barest of cold comforts.

I grew up in rural Ohio (very early on) and there was always a tent on the nearby vacant lot if, at age 6, you dared.  That was an era of scary movies featuring giant ants and spiders, abominable snowmen and flying saucers so a night outside was sleeping with one eye open.

One of our "best buys" was a tent for the back yard summertime so when the grand kids showed up they could make it a playhouse.  Too cold now so we found it set up perfectly on the sun porch to the same effect.

A few years back I got involved with a music group that played some of the old civil war songs for Ken Burn's Series on the war. One of the songs can be found below. We are tenting tonight....