skamp, skamper, skampest
in keeping with the theme of strength and family, i thought i’d reflect on this past weekend, father’s day weekend.
a couple months ago, the boy and i booked a car rental to visit my folks. not knowing the weekend we chose was reserved for fathers at the time, my dad was elated we’d be down for the occasion. he made it perfectly clear that one thing he wanted to do for his “day” was to visit the property he and mom purchased about 50 miles outside of st. louis. it’s been called “the lot” and “skamperville,” but it’s really a private community in bonne terre, missouri, where varying sizes of land plots are for sale or already occupied.
naz and i didn’t know what to expect; we’d seen photos from a first generation digital camera that was soon to go on the fritz, but obviously we couldn’t get a sense of what this piece of land entailed.
as we wound around alternating dirt and gravel roads, crawling past others’ properties, admittedly, we were skeptical. some of the lots were just plots of land with a camper and pick-up truck. some people lived down here permanently, away from the chaos and highways and other civilization. but with each turn of the road and incline of a hill, our hopes fell just a bit. but we were here for dad, on father’s day, to visit his retreat, so we had to keep up appearances.
then finally, we settled on a little patch of land nestled back from the road, under trees with tiki torches encircling the area, a rock path leading to a firepit. a rather large shed and 70s style camper were tucked in the back, with a single row of while christmas lights connecting the two. everything was in its place. it was quaint, cute even. needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised.
dad was the first to his pride and joy as he defogged the area. we are, after all, in the woods. from there, we set up the area, got a tour of the facilities, and began to BBQ. plans to go swimming were derailed, unfortunately, as i had announced the previous morning that we actually needed to abbreviate our a trip for other reasons. but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the few hours down there, with shaun frolicking with another boxer, sissy “sunbathing” and dancing with gnomes with a friend of hers, and just relaxing and giggling in general.
but this wasn’t the end of our adventures. after leaving the cheapest vacation home ever (and i mean that in a good way), there was still much to be done. the time spent in bonne terre may have been cut short, but family time was not.
seemingly apropos of nothing, my great aunt is in the nursing home, living her final days (months or years, who knows) in a state of confusion. dad has done much for her since the passing of his father a couple years ago, including but not limited to packing up all her belongings, hiring movers, and arranging for public storage. knowing she isn’t getting better, dad knows he needs to sell all her worldly possessions to pay for any remaining funeral costs, hospital and hospice care.
mom told me my aunt had a sewing machine that was in good condition and some bedroom furniture as i told her months earlier of my quest for both. not getting my hopes up that my aunt has similar tastes to our own, i still wanted to check everything out. after maneuvering to the back of the storage shed, lo and behold, my great aunt had a lowboy and highboy of mid-century modern design—exactly what naz and i had been scouring craigslist for for months. and the sewing machine was a clean, all-mechanical device tucked inside a mid-century modern cabinet. sold!
we offered a pretty large sum for everything, including my dad delivering the items to us using his dad’s old truck. everything comes full circle. we got the furniture we wanted, it was kept in the family, my parents received some extra cash to help out my aunt, we didn’t have to resort to buying mass-produced subpar items for our bedroom, and in the end we got to spend more time with my family. dad’s suggestion: “let’s move it up tonight.” even more interesting was that my dad, mom, and sister all had monday off. it was meant to be.
it was a long day and a late night, but in the end, my dad announced that this was probably his favorite father’s day of all. probably because he got to do what he does best: spend time with his girls and offer help where it was needed. he’s always been good for that.
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reference to title: supposedly at one time, the maker of skamper campers had a smaller version called the skamp, then the largest version was named skampest. i haven’t been able to find information to corroborate this statement, though.