Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1916, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “A new kitchen and dining room at the camp adds a little more worry and expense to the financial committee, but we are all very happy over the fact that the club really owns the home in the woods.” Moses was referring to the Fox Lake Camp used by members of the Palette & Chisel Club during the hot summer months. The group had started out with large tent in 1906. Moses personally donated a small structure for the land, effectively replacing the tent.
There is a point when “roughing it” loses a certain appeal; much has to do with one’s comfort and ability to sleep on the ground. When my husband and I were first married, we went on family canoeing trips to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. We portaged from lake to lake with our canoes and gear, setting up camp in a designated spot and cooking the fish we caught over a fire. During one trip, we joked that my dad had brought along a foam pad to sleep on. As active twenty-something, we didn’t find any discomfort sleeping on the ground, complete with all its branches and rocks. My dad was in his sixties and I look back in amazement that he was willing to sleep on the ground at all, even with a one-inch foam pad; heartier stock, I guess.
Moses had “roughed it” quite a bit in his youth, but in 1916 he was sixty years old, and camping in a tent was less appealing. It’s not that he had never camped outdoors or “roughed it” in the wilderness; he had on multiple sketching trips during his youth. In 1884, Moses and three other scenic artists traveled to the Rocky Mountains with minimal supplies, finding shelter wherever they could on their sketching trip. At the time he was twenty-eight years old and had never seen the mountains; it was all a big adventure. His traveling companions were John H. Young (26 yrs.), Edward A. Morange (19 yrs.), and Hardy C. Maratta (20 yrs.). The four artists travelled to Breckenridge and Moses recalled, “On our return trip we looked like a bunch of tramps, happy and ready for our old work.”
Of the camping near Breckenridge, Moses wrote, “We had the tent pitched very quickly, some pine boughs cut and laid for our spring bed, over which we laid our four army blankets, two over and two under us. The delicate odor from the pine was very refreshing. We must have made a mistake in cutting the boughs and twigs, for they were more like branches and trunks… As I was the fat one in my party I had more grooves in my back and arms, from the so-called pine twigs that composed our springs, than anyone in the party.”
Over two decades later Moses participated in early camping adventures with the Palette & Chisel club at Fox Lake. By 1906 “tent camping” was already losing its appeal. Moses wrote, “June 1st, I made my first trip to the Palette and Chisel Club camp at Fox Lake, Ill. Helped to put up the tent. A new experience for me, but I enjoyed it. I slept well on a cot. Made a few sketches. A very interesting place. I don’t like the cooking in the tent and there should be a floor in the tent. I saw a great many improvements that could be made in the outfit and I started something very soon.” By 1908, Moses wrote, “I bought the portable house that we built years ago and at that time we received $300.00 for it. I finally got it for $50.00, some bargain. It cost $25.00 to remove it and we will put it up at Fox Lake in the spring. It has been used in Forest Park all summer to show “The Day in the Alps.” The next year Moses wrote, “As we had put up the portable house in Fox Lake, I was better contented to go up. I gave the camp a portable kitchen and it was some class. I felt sure I would manage to get a camp outfit worth while and the boys all fell in line with me.”
So by 1916, when Moses wrote, “A new kitchen and dining room at the camp adds a little more worry and expense to the financial committee, but we are all very happy over the fact that the club really owns the home in the woods.” By this time, it was no longer camping; they were staying at a lake home. Understandably so, as Moses was now 60 years old, he had entered the same decade when my dad decided to use a foam pad while camping. I know that at this point in my life I have no intention of sleeping on the ground. Maybe I have become a little soft, too used to the modern luxuries of camping cots, air mattresses, and memory foam.
To be continued…
