Chamblee54

“Hey! New member here. I‘m going on the upcoming retreat in Tennessee, and am wondering if anyone has extra room in their tent for this newbie. Let me know. Looking forward to my first trip with the group.” This message came up on facebook the other day. As might have been expected, some of the replies were not supportive. Going on a camp out, without adequate equipment, is not a good look. The phrase “camping without a flashlight” comes to mind.
PG came into the discussion late, which is probably a good thing. A man who tells the truth should keep one foot in the saddle. Luther Mckinnon Whether or not you have a tent, you will need a tarp. It is almost certain to rain.
____ ___ I’m not making it to this one, but I’m new to this kind of camping (used to desert camping). I’m happy to break off another thread for any tips and whatnot, because I do (eventually – finance, time, and ability allowing) plan to make it. How do you keep your tent dry when it rains? Is there stuff in addition to a tarp? How is that used? Do you have links or articles you can refer to so those of us seasoned with camping can brush up on this environment?
Luther Mckinnon 1 – There is no level ground where you are going. Most places will be downhill in some way, and if it rains hard enough, all bets are off.
2 – Get a tarp that is bigger than your tent. 16′ x 20′ should do it. Get some plastic tent stakes, rope, string, and a couple of packs of bungee cords. Get something plastic to put under your tent, to keep the ground moisture out. A plastic dropcloth usually works.
3 – Set up your tent somewhere, and put the tarp over it, before you go to TN. You might make a few mistakes. There is a learning curve.
4 – Go to the short end of your tarp. Find the grommet in the middle. Tie a brightly colored string in this grommet. This way, you can tell easily which side is the shorter side, and which grommet is in the middle. You get tired of counting grommets.
5 – Set your tent up. put rocks around the corners of the area your tent will be setting. Go over this area, and remove all rocks and branches. There will probably be roots to work around.
6 – Spread the tarp over the tent. Take some bungee cords, and go from the front corner to a tree. There are lots and lots of trees. The idea is to have the front of your tarp sticking up a bit, so that the rain will slope down, and fall off the tarp. You do not want the rain to puddle.
7 – Go to the back of the tent, and stake the tarp down to the ground. You want to cover the entire tent, with a foot, or so, of overhang.
This is a facebook post, not an instruction manual. There is probably something left out. Someone will have another way to do all this. Camping methods are like opinions and assholes.
The thread mentioned a stash of tents in the barn. The last time PG was there, he had a faulty shock cord on his tent. He went looking through a medusa-like mass of shock cords. PG quickly gave up on finding anything usable. He did not look in the goat boutique.
A person going to the facility is likely to suffer culture shock the first time. The last thing this person needs is find a usable tent, in the caprine chaos of the barn. Walmart is an option. You might get lucky at a yard sale. Whatever you do, it is a good idea to set the tent up at home first. That way, if you have to struggle to understand the instructions, you can figure it out when you are not in an unfamiliar environment. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties & local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink by any woman. Many females use a date-rape-drug on the market called ‘Beer’.
The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, from taps, and in large kegs. ‘Beer’ is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them.
A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of ‘Beer’ and then simply ask him home for no-strings-attached sex. Men are rendered helpless against this approach. After several applications of ‘Beer’, men will often succumb to the desires to sleep with women to whom they would never normally be attracted. Men often awaken with only hazy memories of exactly what happened to them the night before, often with just a vague feeling that ‘something bad’ occurred.
At other times these unfortunate men are swindled out of their life’s savings, in a familiar scam known as ‘a relationship’. In extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer-term form of servitude and punishment referred to as ‘marriage’. Men are much more susceptible to this scam after ‘Beer’ is administered, and sex is offered by the predatory females. Many men cannot resist the temptation.
If you fall victim to this ‘Beer ‘ scam and the women administering it, there are male support groups where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter with similarly victimized men. For the support group nearest you, just look up ‘Golf Courses’ in the phone book.
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Gender modification, for contemporary society, is available by appointment.

The Left Ruins Everything is a recent offering from public nuisance Dennis Prager. It is a doozy. If you want to see the video, you can follow the link. Prager University (PU) has a transcript, and a study guide. The original concept of this post was to work with the study guide, and answer questions like “Why do you think that the Left destroyed the Boy Scouts?” Before we could get to those questions, there is an internet rumor to consider.
Did Dennis the Menace grow older, and become Dennis Prager? As some of you know, cartoonist Hank Ketcham really did have a son named Dennis. “The comic-strip Dennis was conceived … on an October afternoon in 1950, when Ketcham was finishing a drawing at his home studio in Carmel, Calif. The Ketchams’ son was supposed to be resting but instead had spent his naptime quietly dismantling his room — the bed, mattress, springs, dresser, drapes and curtain rods.”
“When the accidental load he carried in his underpants was added to his collection of plastic toys, cookie crumbs and a leftover peanut buter sandwich, it formed an unsuual mix,” Ketcham wrote in his autobiography. “Enough to drive an Irish mother to the brink.” Alice Ketcham stormed into his studio, fuming “Your son,” she declared, “is a menace!”
“But the years have not been as kind to Dennis, the cowlicked kid who innocently launched a cartoon empire. Now 46 (in 1993), he works as a tire retreader, living with his second wife, Janet, a part-time office cleaner, in a trailer park in Grove City, Ohio, just south of Columbus.
It is more than just geography and lifestyle, though, that distance father and son. For the past 28 years, they have barely seen each other and spoken only occasionally by phone. “I hear from Dennis about once a year, mostly when he needs money,” says Hank tersely. “I don’t want a closer relationship—nor do I want a confrontation.” “Dad can be like a stranger,” counters Dennis, who has never met his two half-siblings. …
” … Alice meanwhile, was “caught up in luncheons, teas and bouts with demon rum,” as Hank once said, and became an alcoholic. In 1959 she filed for divorce, and as her condition deteriorated, Dennis, then 12, was sent to a boarding school near Carmel. “I didn’t know what was going on,” says Dennis, “except that I felt Dad wanted me out of the way.” A few months after he left for school, his mother died from an accidental overdose of alcohol and barbiturates at the age of 41.”
“Shaken by his wife’s sudden death, Hank could not bring himself to break the news to Dennis over the phone. Nor could he even tell him in person—until shortly after Alice had been buried. “Mom had always been there when I needed her,” says Dennis. “I would have dealt with losing her a lot better had I been able to attend her funeral. …”
“…In 1966 he joined the Marines; during his subsequent year-long tour of duty in Vietnam, he says, “my grandmother and aunt sent me letters. But never Dad.” Hank insists he did write to his son. Discharged in 1970, Dennis underwent three months of counseling for post-traumatic stress syndrome at a VA hospital and drifted through a succession of jobs—ranch hand, poultry-farm worker, prison guard.”
Meanwhile, Dennis Prager was born August 2, 1948 into an Orthodox Jewish family in New York City. Through various twists and turns, he became a radio superstar. Mr. Prager, known for hawkish military opinions, apparently did not serve in the United States military. This contrasts to Dennis Ketcham’s service in Vietnam. In all probability, Dennis Prager is not Dennis the Menace.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the pictures in April, 1941. Ironing. Family on relief. Chicago, Illinois WPA (Work Projects Administration) work on playground on southside of Chicago, Illinois