Campfire Marshmallows and Memories

It's been a lovely summer day, filled with warm sunshine, swimming and beach fun, some boating and canoeing. The only thing needed to make it complete is a campfire. Thanks to all of the rain that has fallen in the last month, we are able to have fires in the fire pits. The smell of the smoke and the sound of the conversation and laughter with a circle of friends is a comforting thing. What a great way to make memories! And really, that is what we should be doing as much as possible...having good times with family and friends to build a trove of memories.

As I was looking at the photos to include with this post, I was doing some reminiscing myself. A long long time ago, my family would often go camping in the summer. Holiday weekends were a favorite time to load the trailer and take off for some lake or state park here in northern Minnesota. One campfire incident at a campground in Brainard ended up becoming a family legend, one of those stories that has often been repeated. My younger brother and sister were sitting by the campfire, toasting marshmallows. As youngun's are wont to do, my brother was waving his stick around at one point, with no marshmallow, but a bit of hot coal on the end. He turned quickly and accidentally caught the stick's end right at the corner of my sister's eye. Fortunately, it only caused a very small burn, but it was traumatic nonetheless. Nancy was only about four at the time, but she knew enough about manners to spout off to everyone that Alan "didn't even say sorry or thank you or nothing!" and she was quite indignant about it.

I also remembered many campfires from my Girl Scout camp counseling days. Once a week, we could requisition the fixings for s'mores to have with the campers. We would prepare the candy bars and graham crackers into little "kits", ready and waiting for the roasted marshmallow to be sandwiched in between. After everyone had one, we would put all of the campers to bed, and then gather at the fire to eat the leftovers. We may or may not have rationed the campers in order to have our own fair share...just sayin'. We also came up with lots of wonderful additions to the basic recipe. A little peanut butter on the graham cracker or a few raspberries tucked in to the hot marshmallow are two of my personal favorites. Another good one--and healthy, too!--is to substitute apple slices for the crackers. Can s'mores and healthy even be used in the same sentence?

In the winter, when I walk the familiar paths, all covered in snow, I often pass the campfire rings. They look lonely and abandoned at that time of the year. It's sad. But at the same time, I know that they are in a resting period, so to speak. Soon the calendar pages will turn until before I know it, the fires are burning, the stumps are filled, and folks are laughing and having a good time. I like that full-circle thing.