48 States in search of Home

[alanmcorcoran]

Camping gear is a lot like exercise equipment. Lots of it is bought, used once, and then relegated to the attic, basement or the garage for the mandatory three year aging period before it is sold on eBay or at the yard sale for pennies on the dollar. Best to cruise the affluent neighborhoods where they could afford to splurge on the good stuff.

You can get a pretty slick looking tent for $60 or $70 bucks, but, the seams may leak, the D-rings may bend or break, the zippers may jam, the stakes may bend, the floors may tear, the stake loops might come off (taking a piece of the tent fabric with it), the vents rot, the snaps rust, the walls may leak or weep, and the poles may snap. Or the whole thing might blow away just after you step out to take a leak.

I don't know what military surplus is like these days, but back when I was in the Boy Scouts we were donated surplus Army tents. These things were like canvas bomb shelters. They weighed tons, were a bitch to set up, stank of mildew and leaked like sieves. A wonder we prevailed in WWII. Good old American crap if you ask me. But on a nice summer evening, you could set up a table inside with a mini bar, hang a bare bulb and play cards, smoke (mostly) cigarettes and get generally polluted on various bottles of booze pilfered from our parent's liquor cabinets. (Do people even have "liquor cabinets" anymore?) Good times.