Campin'

click images to enlarge














Left to right: Not sure who the two kids (partially seen on the far left) are. Followed by my Mom, Nora McKellar, Susan McKellar (roasting marshmallows) and Fred McKellar.














Same group, but it looks like Linda Payne has joined the party!















I'm not sure who some of these people are. I do recognize Lee Payne sitting in the chair, however - along with Susan, Nora, my Mom, Linda Payne and Ranger.














My Mom at camp. Not sure whose Red Dale rig that is. The tent was ours, before we got our camper.














A closer view and Ranger, too!














The beginning of a new adventure. Not our truck. Noble's, maybe?














Nora McKellar and my Mom (Penny)














Nora McKellar rubbing lotion on someone's foot. Mosquito dope, maybe? I think that's Linda Payne on the right (in profile)














A picnic at the Salcha River with Jim and Michelle Ozimkoski, I believe.













Another view.














Goofy exposure here, but that's our Dodge Ramcharger in front of our Taurus camper, with the McKellar's Prowler camper next to it. My Dad traded in for the Ramcharger after arriving in Alaska in 1974 with a Dodge Scamp, a small car which was deemed "unfit" for the wilds of Alaska. Note the "bay window" on the rear half of the Ramcharger. That was actually quite nice as you could take in a lot of scenery in the back seat!














Poor Ranger. Towards the end, he was up to five packs of Marlboros a day.

Googly Eyed Yarnball Things

This is a random memory but I remember making these googly eyed yarnball things at the McKellar household during the holidays one year. Mrs. McKellar (Nora) showed us how to put these together. The McKellars had a Siamese cat - Coco - that loved to bat these things around.

Greg sent me an email recently and he mentioned my mom's "memorable" spaghetti dinners.
"It's funny", Greg wrote, "the things that really stick with you over the years." (Hey wait a minute....what exactly did he mean by that?)

Greg's right. I told him that I recalled the gumbo dinners at the McKellars in the winter, which is probably not such an odd thing to remember, I suppose, since gumbo was pretty exotic for us Aldens at the time. The McKellars hail from Louisiana and the gumbo (like my mom's spaghetti) was incredible. There are several reasons why a visit to Louisiana is up there on my Bucket List, and good food is one of them.

I also remember the huge stack of Richie Rich comic books Doug and I had amassed, and pressing silly putty into the comic books, lifting the putty, and reading a carbon copy of the comic that way.

And wasn't there something about a baby alligator the McKellars bought as a gag gift for Lee Payne because (in part) he was a dentist? Or did I dream this up after eating too much gumbo?