Next month our ward will be having it’s Annual Commemorative Aaronic – wait – Annual Aaronic Campout – no – our Annual Commemoration – ah never mind
Fathers and Sons Campout.
This year marks my 20th consecutive year, which took twenty years of creative scheduling. My boys and I have some great memories from these campouts – one that stands out is that when my eldest turned two, we made a grand ceremony of him throwing his binkie into the fire – because if he was old enough to camp, he was old enough to go binkie-free.
He was so little, and so brave. I remember him approaching the fire, with a concerned look on his face. With no coaxing, he dropped the pinkie into the flames. “Goodbye binkie,” he said. And it was gone. He never looked back, and remains binkie-free to this day. His wife can thank me later.
The assumed purpose of the Father and Sons Campout is to create an opportunity for boys to be with their dads, and to commemorate the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. And while these are elevated purposes, to the boys, the purpose is different:
Pyro Time. It is the time for little boys to learn how to play with fire and burn stuff. This has been a traditional pursuit among most men and boys for generations. Oh, the stories we could tell, but won’t, because there might be young mothers reading.
One of the other grand traditions of the F&S Campout is that when the men and boys return home, they stink. I know “stink” is a harsh word, but it is the correct word. Camping smells are not for the faint of heart.
When we return home, the smelly clothes go straight into the washroom. If somehow, they breach this “safe zone”, within minutes the entire house will smell like a campfire. It is remarkable how smoke can travel, and here and linger. Especially cigarette smoke. I can merely walk past a person smoking, and then smell like a smoker the rest of the day. Because of my religion, and societal shift, I am rarely around cigarette smoke anymore. At the rate the country is changing, I figure my kids will grow up more familiar with pot smoke that tobacco smoke. But…I digress…
All of this brings me to my point: I live in an almost smoke-free world. Not just tobacco, but campfire smoke as well. The only time I deal with smoke is when I go camping, burn stuff in my yard, or make a fire in my fireplace. (Which is illegal most of the time.)
You are probably thinking that it is no big deal, and you may be right, but I will press forward. It was only about 100 years ago that gas and electric stoves began making inroads into regular Americans kitchens. That is my Grampa’s era.
Before that, people had wood or coal burning stoves, and open-hearths, or just plain fires – back to the beginning of time.
Someone forwarded me your blog (about the Mother’s Day thing…Wives being liers and stuff). I haven’t laughed and cried so much all in the same 5 minutes. New follower here!
Ok, I have to tell you about a classic F&S campout that my husband and sons went on. The people in charge decided that they needed to reenact the story from the Old Testament where Elijah challenged the priests of Baal and called down the fires from heaven. So they shot a bottle rocket type thing onto a pile of sticks to set them on fire. The rocket caught the sticks on fire and then bounced off in another direction. The EQ president had to go track it down before they caught the entire campsite on fire!
In honor of this blog I set off all of the smoke alarms in the house by having a fire in my oven. I think I should give up cooking.
So many thoughts, so little time! Actually, there’s not that many:
1. I love campfire smells. Of course, yes, once we walk into our homes… but anyway, campfire is not only the smell of fire, but it is the smell of family time, creation, stars, and hiking. Camping has got to be our favorite family activity and we always look forward to campfire smell!
2. Our ward goes in August on the Fathers/Sons. Not sure why, but I sure appreciate the timing! It rarely conflicts with anything else (and yes, I know, it’s not on the anniversary of the AP and all that, but still…). They started doing it this way a few years ago and the numbers have gone WAY up.
3. I have two daughters ages 12 and 10 and then four boys (8, 6, 3, 1). I LOVE Fathers/Sons (although this year might be too soon for baby) because it means Girl’s Night for us!
4. Normal to us is kind of sissy when you think about it. I’ve found that a lot of things in our country, although good and fine, comes from ignorance and ingratitude compared to how the rest of the world lives. In fact, we are going dry camping (no water, no toilets) with our kids next month to show them the importance of “how to deal.”
My Dad’s family had a cabin that was furnished with the castoffs of all the siblings. We cooked and heated our water with my aunt’s old wood/coal range. I had watched my father start the fire in this old stove dozens of times. Once when I was the first one awake, I decided to surprise hime and have the fire started when he awakened. Unfortunately, I had never noticed how he set the dampers to help the fire draw and burn properly.
When My Dad woke up, he said, “Whiy is it so smoky in here?” He quickly set the dampers properly and the fire started to burn better and the smoke quit pouring out of the various orifices in the range.
From that time on, I confined my fire building to the fireplace.
Wood cook stoves – My dad’s family had a cabin that was furnished with castoffs from each of his siblings. Our method of cooking and heating water was one of my aunt’s old wood/coal range. I had seen my father start fires in this relic many times and one morning, I woke up first and thought I start the fire for breakfast. Unfortunately I had not observed how my Dad set the two dampers that helped to control the burning. I din’t notice, but when my father woke up he said, “Why is it so smoky in here?”
He got up immediately and set the dampers properly, which also helped the fire burn better. Needless to say, I stuck to the fireplace from then on.
It truly amazes me that you take such mundane happenings and make them so interesting plus tying the past in with the present. I said as much to my husband and he said that you must not have anything else to do. I think it’s simply one of your God given talents and you share.
This smoke thing reminded me of the Kirtland Temple and the recesses that they made in the ceiling to help contain the smoke from the lamps. I thought it very inventive.
Thanks you! Believe me, I have plenty to do. Ask you hubby what he was doing at 6:30 this morning…
I have yet to visit the Kirtland temple. It is on my short list of places I want to go.
Kirtland Temple is OK and informative. Go across the street to the Newell K Whitney store and it will burn itself into your heart!
My brother in law was just cleaning soot out of the ceiling of the Salt Lake temple celestial room last year. For the first time in a hundred years. So awesome! And so much more awesome to have electricity!
Also I am grateful for modern cooking since fires used to be a main killer of housewives back in the day. Long skirts + fireplace = no bueno.
Wash room for the clothes?? Are you kidding? I hosed off my husband and son in the DRIVEWAY. I think if moms knew what went on during F/S campouts, they would faint. Our son is 27 and I STILL don’t want to know.
I’ve learned just enough about what goes on to lay awake for most of the night praying none of the boys fell in the fire or drowned in the lake. I’m trusting the memories that create the HUGE smiles and eyes sparkling with excitement are worth sleepless nights. They L O V E going to Fathers and Sons and talk about it all year…just have to breathe and not think about what they’re up to. 🙂
My EC found a great way to get out of a Father Son Campout– have emergency surgery the morning of the campout. And he was in charge. And it was the first time all 5 boys were going, so I was supposed to have the weekend off. That changed.
They always got the camp prepped for Girls Camp, doing service.
Now we live out west and the FS campouts are not in May, the commemorative month.
How sad that he had to bail!
Whoa whoa whoa….you mean to tell me that the whole point behind the Father’s and Son’s campout is to celebrate the Aaronic Priesthood?
HUH.
Had.no.idea.
One more reason for me to NEVER have the priesthood. I don’t like camping so much
Wuss.
Having spent a lot of time at Yw Girls’ camp with no showers, I learned that campfire smoke smell can mask no-shower smell.
And a tidbit for anyone who has a daughter or son getting married. DO NOT get married in the middle of May unless you want to spend many of your anniversaries separately. The weekend closest to my anniversary was usually F/S campout. I sacrificed so my son could have the experience with dad. Maybe he’ll thank me later.
since moving from Zion (Las Vegas) to semi-zion (Washington) I am very sad to say that none of the menfolk of my family have participated, talked about, or even hinted about F/S campouts. So…what’s up? No gen’l authority banned it? Not too close to Mothers’ Day? Just wondering, or is it a Washington thing, too much rain in May? hmm next Bishops’ interview I’ll try to figure this out. Now that I have grandsons’ and sons in law I’d like to see this still happening for my sugarbear who would love to smell like camp.
We do have F/S campouts here in Washington. They are usually held during the summer. Try checking your Stake Calender- it should be posted. Great memory makers- those campouts.
We live in Provo and our Stake doesn’t do F/S campout. Some years there is a lame breakfast in Provo Canyon.
We find that smoky smell nearly every week in the winter when we burn a fire in our log burning fireplace. And in the summer when we use our fire pit in the back yard.
But cigarette smoke? Ick. My first trip to Japan (over 20 years ago), I opened my suitcase upon returning home. The office I visited in Japan was still a “smoking” facility (my office in the US was not), and everything in my bag smelled of cigarette smoke. My lovely wife nearly fainted at the smell.
I second the firepit, Paul. We use ours all the time.
I can always tell that winter is here by the layer of smoke that hangs over my little part of the world from wood stoves. Like clockwork, at 4:30 in the afternoon, every day until about May 1. Sooo glad I don’t have one-isn’t this why we were saved for this the last dispensation?
Is it sad that I’ve got five older brothers (no sisters) and I never knew that there was an actual purpose for a regular father/son campout? Commemorating the Aaronic Priesthood? Really? I had no idea. Shows how far a lot of “traditions” have come. Or maybe it just shows the lack of faith in my family. Either way, it’s semi-comforting to know how that tradition started, regardless of how it’s executed today.
Most aspects of the way we live here really are the aberration, and not the norm….
I like the smell of campfire smoke. It can linger with its happy memories. Grime everywhere and the smell of the great unwashed, not so much!
What is normal anyway? Normalcy is subjective.
I remember and actually enjoyed going to a few mother/daughter campouts. I’ve always loved the smell of campfires and wish it were in candle form since we don’t have a fireplace or live the woods, but weirdly enough, would probably not want the smell on me 24/7. Was your “I am not waxing nostalgic for this era” a pun for the Shakespeare bit?
As a side note, have you ever heard of Disqus? It’s an awesome comment widget that will let people know when someone has replied to their comment. Sometimes people will reply to my comments, but I don’t realize it until I check…usually days later.
Thanks for the post!