Now that fall is here, my kids are ready to camp.
They like making fires, sleeping in tents and not having to bathe or brush their teeth.
It’s not that I don’t value personal hygiene. But after a day of running through the woods, there are usually more pressing matters, i.e., gathering wood, making s’mores and, of course, securing the camp against the nocturnal Swamp Ape attack.
My wife doesn’t understand such things. She thinks camping is anything short of the Ritz-Carlton.
She wonders why I don’t camp like Teddy Roosevelt, with a retinue of porters, fine white linens and cognac served in imported crystal.
For starters, I’m not the president of the United States, but when I am, I will make Camping 101 a required course in all elementary schools. Every student would be required to read Francis H. Buzzacott’s timeless text, “The Complete Sportsman’s Encyclopedia,” before he or she enters fifth grade.
First published in 1913, “Sportsman’s Encyclopedia” covers everything from how to set up a proper camp to tips on cleaning game. It is full of useful information, albeit, some outdated, but nonetheless, a must for every outdoor enthusiast.
Buzzacott, a hunter, trapper and guide for more than 40 years, lived in an era without high-tech gadgets and space-age materials. At the dawn of the 20th century, it was wool, buckskin and oilcloth that kept you dry. When Buzzacott got hungry, he killed something.
Take, for example, his recipe for the “Hunter’s and Fisherman’s Lunch.” You start with two flat stones and toss them into a raging fire. Then, when the embers glow, take a quail, snipe or trout (a sliver of bacon in each), and place them between the hot stones, cover with embers, then wait.
“O, ye epicures, who think nothing good unless served by a Delmonico or a Sherry, go ye into the mountains or trail, follow a brook for half a day, get wet, tired and hungry, sit down and eat these cooked on the spot, and learn the choice morsels of the hunter’s, trapper’s or fisherman’s art.”
The author would surely think that we modern campers are a whining, spoiled lot as we sit snuggly by the campfire eating our freeze-dried turkey tetrazzini and sipping electrolyte-enhanced energy drinks.
Buzzacott, like his contemporary, Samuel Clemens, a/k/a Mark Twain, knew the value of “roughing it.” Civilization will make you soft. Food somehow tastes better when you are wet, tired and hungry.
“Sportsman’s Encyclopedia” has been reprinted numerous times, most recently by the Lyons Press ($16.95).
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