Spring 2015
CAMP
by
Matthew T. Johnson
Tul-lock-chísh-ko, Drinks the Juice of the Stone, in Ballplayer's Dress (Choctaw) by George Catlin
I have been doing rendezvous and living history reenactments for around 30 years or more. I started
off going to them with my folks back when I was a little kid. As is customary at many rendezvous when
a trader gets there too early, they must park in line waiting their turn to go in and set up their campsite,
well, I'm not sure what the name of this rendezvous is but I found myself waiting in a long line to set up.
So seeing that the line was not really moving very fast—in fact I only saw one rig go in to camp
through the gates to set up—I figured I'd just park my rig and walk on in and visit a bit. Maybe see where
my camp site was going to be. Well as I walked past all the other rigs, I noticed a few friends, and heck
even my mom and dad there waiting in line, too, which was kinda odd cause they rarely do any events
any more. We visited a bit, even though they were a ways in front of me, though, like me, they were a
long way from the gate, so I told them, “My keys are in the rig if it needs to be moved,” and I walked
right on in to camp.
Now, I've been to some large events, but let me tell ya what, this one was huge! And to make it
more fun, there was paths winding down to a lake. The whole camp was a beautiful sight to see though
there were many sites still open and ready for campers. I noticed that a lot of the open campsites had
The Linnet's Wings