Sleeping Out
June 28th, 2008 | Filed under: Life
I guess if you camp now you are “sleeping out” but this term was not used to describe camping when I was young. Sleeping out meant exactly that- sleeping outside.
One particular time I slept out was when I was about 10 and my younger brother was about 7. We were going to be in a pup tent in our back yard. By this time in my life, my father had installed a beautiful picket fence that separated the lawn from the woods. The tent was just outside the fence on the woods side.
Pup tents are small little tents with short sides and only room for 2. We had a wood floor in our tent so we wouldn’t be sleeping on the damp ground and of course we had our sleeping bags. When darkness was approaching our parents settled us in the tent. We tied the flaps together and were ready for a wonderful nights rest in the outdoor air. We talked for a bit, shone our flashlight on the walls of the tent and eventually fell asleep.
And then we were awakened by the sound of a meow. This one meow was followed by several, followed by several more. Waking up from a sound sleep, outside in a tent by the sound of an animal made our imagination roar to life. And I do mean roar. I do not know how long it took for the meows to sound like mountain lions but that is exactly what we thought. What to do, what to do. The tent door was only a small flap held in place by two ties. Not enough to provide any protection. We must make a run for it. But the fence was to be navigated. We had to find the opening quickly and run for all we were worth. Now we knew the back door would be unlocked but we would have to climb the steps. And we knew the mountain lions would be in pursuit so we couldn’t err in navigating. We decided to go in the cellar door. It was a straight shot into the house. Except it was locked when we got there.
I don’t remember what we did then. I felt sheer terror, mountain lions were on my heels. I probably screamed and ran to the back door with my brother on my heels. (it was every man or kid for himself!) Or I may have pounded on the cellar door till it was opened by my parents. However we got in to the house is not clear in my memory but I slept the remainder of the night in my own bed where animals could not get me.
Now the next morning I did not expect to find a lion sitting on the doorstep waiting to devour me but I also didn’t expect to find what was there. Three little kittens were playing in the yard. I guess they were hanging around so we didn’t have the misguided notion of mountain lions in the backyard with us the next time we slept out.