Listen UP you young whippersnappers!

When we talk about "inexperienced campers" in today's backpacking world we really old timers (60+) kinda feel sorry for them because they have been "deprived" -

i.e. deprived of being a BoyScout in the '50s when we caried REAL framless packs, canvas Boy Scout Yucca Packs. And we slept in rectangular, kapok filled (yep!) sleeping bags that we ROLLED up, eventually pulling all that keen kapok filling to the foot of the bag. We laid that bag on a ground cloth. MATTRESSES? We didn't need no stinkin' mattresses!

So when we "senior backpackers" think of inexperienced campers we know what REAL inexperience is. Lordy, nobody back then had any real understanding of good equipment. Kelty and Camp Trails and Gerry and Holubar had to invent a lot of what we have now.

Inexperienced? We had lots and lots of "experience" in the '50s - just mostly the wrong experience. But here we are today, those of us that weren't carried away by the BIG mosquitos. And is it any wonder we survivors today drool over the fantastic backpacking items available to us. We old timer "survivors" are the backpackers with a valid reason for being addicted gearheads (as if a valid reason is needed).

Eric