Rosa wants to go camping

Rosa imagining what it would be like to go camping

“What are you doing little one?”

“Colouring in a Junior Ranger colouring book, mummy.”

“Oh, I see. Where did you get that from?”

Rosa stopped and looked up at her mother with a crayon in her hand. “We had a Park Ranger come to school today and she talked about all the things there are to see and do in a national park.” Rosa smiled at her mother and then blurted out the sentence Sybil never thought she would hear from one of her children. “Can we go camping one day mummy in a national park?”

Sybil nearly dropped her ice cream bowl. George smiled and looked up from the newspaper he was reading. Julia let out a sharp laugh, while Timmy giggled and Brenda remained fast asleep in her cot in Rosa’s room. “That’s a great idea!” Julia picked up on what Rosa had mentioned. “Yes, mama, let’s go camping and I can make dinner on a campfire.”

“And I can roast marshmallows on a campfire,” added Rosa getting overly excited.

Sybil knew she had to stop the conversation in its tracks, before it got completely out of hand. “Wait!” she shouted loudly enough for Melody who was having one of her many cat naps of the day, to believe the nest was under attack by one of the many lurking seagulls and jumped up in the air, landing on her paws ready to strike out. When she realised it was only Sybil, she groaned and laid back down in the sand beneath the nest. “Wait!” repeated Sybil, now that she had the attention of everyone on the deck. “Little one,” she continued, “Jews do not go camping, unless it’s catered. Always remember that. After all, you keep reminding us you’re a JAP, and a JAP never goes camping.”

“Melanie Krupnick went camping,” replied Julia a little disappointed she wasn’t going to be able to cook over a campfire.

“No!” replied Sybil adamantly. “Melanie did not go camping in the sense of the word camping. She went to a Jewish camp and that’s very different.”

“How?” asked Rosa believing her mother was making stuff up.

“Well, the difference between what the Park Ranger told you and what Melanie Krupnick went to, is like the difference between staying in a Motel 6 and a Marriott Courtyard.”

Nope. That didn’t end anything as none of the children had ever stayed in either one of those places. “Well, let me tell you this. When I was very young I was sent to a camp near Lake Parsippany in New jersey and there they had catered lunches and dinners, and the people working in the camp were talented singers like Simon and Garfunkel.” Sybil smiled believing she had made her point very forcefully and that there wouldn’t be a Blau family get together at a park in the Shenandoah Mountains or the Smokey Ridge Mountains. But she was wrong, as usual.

George had to have his say. “I think it could be a lot of fun and maybe at the campsite there would be talented singers working…...”

“Like Reba Macintyre,” interrupted Julia, “or Johnny Cash.”

Nope! That didn’t do it either. No one outside of Julia liked Country and Western music and Sybil hated Julia calling her mama. Rosa went back to her colouring book. And everyone went back to what they were doing before.

Rosa stopped a minute later, “but what happens when I turn in my colouring book and I win first prize? Then I have to go to a ranger station to pick up my gold medal.” Everyone stopped doing what they had gone back to doing and looked at Rosa. “Well, that’s what the Park Ranger told us. She said that whoever wins, will get a gold medal from the President.” They kept staring at Rosa. She backed down, slightly. “At least from the Park Ranger in charge mummy, daddy.”

Julia started up again. “Oh, that’s great. Yes mama, let’s go shopping for stuff for the camp.”

“I could lay outside and watch the stars,” added Timmy, thereby making Sybil groan out loudly. She had the awful feeling she was being swept away by a wave of camping delight she couldn’t stop.

“I have an idea,” she said finally believing she may have made the right decision. “I’ll call your grandparents and see if they can suggest a camp we can go to, so at least I know it will be catered and the food will be delivered every morning from Kings Supermarkets.”

Nope! that didn’t work either. In fact, Sybil began to relive her past glory as a JAP being brought up in the Millburn NJ area, while the others went back to doing what they were doing earlier. Going to a camp which wasn’t really a camp but a home away from home for rich kids didn’t strike anybody except Sybil as fun, even if the camp counsellors turned out to be future Simon and Garfunkel.

“What’s for dinner?” asked Rosa much to Sybil’s dismay.

“Well, Rosa,” replied Julia, “I was going to make Spaghetti Bolognese, but instead I think I’ll make sausages and peppers on the grill.”

“Oh cool!” shouted Timmy taking his eyes off the moon which had just begun to rise. “In fact,” he continued, “I have a great idea. Why don’t we go down to the beach and light a campfire and cook over it?” Everyone, including Sybil, surprisingly jumped at that compromise.

“But,” interjected Rosa, “we don’t have a tent.”

“We don’t need one,” the rest said in unison.

“We have our nest right here. So, after we’ve had dinner and roasted marshmallows then we can come back up here,” Sybil couldn’t believe she had said that. They stopped when they heard Brenda calling for Rosa. “I’ve got it,” added Sybil getting up from her deck chair and heading indoors. “Brenda has to be taught that I’m her mother, not Rosa,” and with that she opened the sliding glass doors and disappeared inside.

George went back to reading his paper. Timmy looked up at the moon, and Julia went into the kitchen. And Rosa? Well Rosa went back to colouring her Junior Ranger colouring book, believing that when she was done and won the gold medal, she would be heading to a camping site not too far from where she lived, where the President would give her the gold medal. And then she sighed. Or at least she could roast marshmallows on an open fire on the beach that evening.

Sybil came back outside holding Brenda who upon seeing Rosa, pointed to her, “mama!” she shouted.

Sybil nearly dropped Brenda on the deck but instead plopped her on a chair and walked over to the railing, “I think we will have to wait to make a campfire because the tide is coming in and I would hate to have the fire keep going out. See, a camp near Lake Parsippany is far away from the beach and all of you can go there next summer.” Nope, that didn’t work. No one was excited at that prospect. Sybil had completely missed the meaning of the discussion and so as always, she offered to go and help Julia cook dinner, but that didn’t last long because Julia kicked her mother out of the kitchen.