The Studio

Some family stories just stick with you no matter how young you were when they happened.  One such story in my family involves camping…which we did a lot of while I was growing up.  The story I refer to involves when we switched from tent camping to a trailer.  I don’t recall the year but I was young…maybe 6 or so so it had to be the late 1960’s and my mom, brother, sister, an aunt and uncle went to Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach FL and set up our campsites.  It was a Friday and my dad had to work and was coming down to meet us after work.  Just before he was to arrive a terrible storm blew in….seems like it may have been a small hurricane or at least that is how the story goes….and there was my mom holding on to my young sister as well as a tent pole while Brother held a pole and so did I.  We were practically flapping in the wind!  It passed quickly but not before the tent was gone….except for the three poles we  were holding.  About that time my dad rolls in on his motorcycle (which he had rode through the storm) and my mother greets him by putting us kids in the station wagon and driving all the way home.  I don’t ever remember seeing her that mad ever again.  That is the week we bought a camper and upgraded our camping experience.  It seems like something was said like “if you want to camp it is not going to happen in a tent ever again!”  The view you see in this photos is the very campsite where the incident occurred.  I was small but I remember it well.  It’s been fun coming back to the park to see what has changed and what is exactly the same!