On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

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Are you one of those lucky families who had a summer home or a cottage when you were growing up? I used to get invited to friends and relatives summer places when I was a kid – I always envied these lucky people. Some of these places have been handed down over generations. My family finally bought a place in Wareham in the 70’s – I went down a few times with the family and also with some college buddies, but mostly I just held wild parties at our house in Somerville while my parents went to the Cape every weekend. It was Camelot!

After losing some family members and seeing that interest in the cottage was waning, Dad sold it. Now that I have kids, I wish he had kept it. I have a cousin who has a beautiful house on Mousam Lake in Maine that he has let us use in the past. For the most part we just stayed in motels when we wanted to get away – but all that changed a few weeks ago, when my pal invited us up to his trailer in a campground on a quaint pond in New Hampshire. My kids didn’t want to go – God forbid I tear them away from the computer. We drove for just about an hour and we were introduced to the fun filled world of RV (recreational vehicle) camping! I hadn’t seen that many trees since I went to Camp Massasoit with the Boy Scouts.

My friend’s trailer is pretty big, with an attached, screened in porch complete with lighted palm trees, neon beer signs and a plasma TV – it is truly luxury camping. He bought his at the end of last season and they go up every weekend. His in-laws also purchased a trailer up there. We had one heck of a barbecue and there were fun filled activities for the kids – the same kids who didn’t want to go in the first place, who didn’t want to leave.

After a great day, I went home and searched on Craigslist and found a small trailer for sale at the same campground as my friend. I made sure I ran it by the kids: ‚Äúnow you want us to get our own trailer, right? Are you sure you want to come up here every weekend and camp? You don’t think you’ll get sick of it do you?‚Äù They were gung-ho.

Throwing caution to the wind and living up to my lack of financial sensibility, I bought it. Three days after first experiencing the world of RV’s, I joined in – and I was in up to my eyeballs. Hey, it’s for the kids, and life’s too short, and all that stuff – and oh yea, I really love it. It came at a perfect time because my kids were getting sick of going up to Old Orchard Beach, where we have been renting motel rooms for the last ten years.

The campground is open until October 15th and is right over the border in New Hampshire, so now every Friday (and sometimes just Saturday to Sunday) we escape the ‘Ville and head up north. My veteran camping friends showed me the ropes like how to turn on the water and the propane gas (and off too, thank God). My buddy drives up after work on Friday and leaves early Monday morning to go back – his wife brings the kids up after school.

I was all psyched up and ready to become a true camper – but, since we have been going up for the past few weekends, I figured something out. I now have a smaller place, in a different state, which I am doing the same thing in. I am cooking, cleaning, breaking up fights and picking up after two slobby sons. The only thing that is different is I now do it with the smell of a campfire, and pine needles, and among chipmunks and mosquitoes. The first couple of weeks I was scratching like Amy Winehouse when she runs out of weed. I have been bringing stuff up over the past few weeks like blankets and any old lounge chairs I can find around – I picked up a lot of ‚Äúend of season clearance‚Äù stuff for next year. I have enough mosquito repellent for a small army. As always my timing stinks because the season is practically over, but we will make the most of it. I actually hung the old sign up that use to grace the front of my folk’s old place down the Cape. The wood burned sign that I had made for them says ‚ÄúThe Del Pontes, Fred and Gerry."