The Tent Story

Ok, if anyone has read the comments from the Car History posts, there have been a few references to a certain tent story that involved my dad. Well, for the first time ever in written form, I will tell the story for any who are wondering.

So, anytime us guys wanted to have a little fun or sneak out, we would sleep in the tent. We would pack as many as six guys into my red pup tent that was made for 2. It made for some cramped sleeping. One weekend when we were in junior high, a few friends and I decided to sleep in the tent. We did it right though, extension cord out to the tent for TV and radio. Anyway, we decided this night that we wanted to sneak out and go into downtown Clarkston. We snuck into the garage and got the bikes out. I had 2 bikes and so did my sister, so we were all able to ride. I am not sure about which friends were there that night, except for one. Jamie Kennedy was riding my sister’s Huffy and he blew the rear tire crossing Dixie Hwy by McDonalds. As I remember it, we rode to downtown Clarkston, then to McDonalds and then home. The garage door was shut when we got back, so we snuck the bikes through the service door at the back of the garage. This was a feat because our riding lawnmower was parked in front of the door. We had to lift each and every bike over the lawnmower and then around the cars. We were trying to be very quiet because my parent’s bedroom was right above the garage. When we were done putting away the bikes, we snuck back around the front of the house. As we were passing by the front porch, I heard a voice. Could that be my dad? Then I saw him. He was standing on the front porch waiting for us. He wasn’t dressed in a robe, or shorts though. He was standing there in his underwear. I am not talking boxers, I am talking tighty whiteys!!! If I was my sister, I would have been embarrassed, but we are guys, so we just went back to the tent and laughed. The ordeal wasn’t over that night though. My dad said he would talk to us in the morning. That next morning, he grounded me and told my friends that they needed to come by the house for the next couple of weekends to do some yard work. If they didn’t show up, he was going to call their parents and let them know what had been going on during the backyard camping nights.

On a side note, we did get caught one other time. This night we snuck out to climb the power lines in the field next to Spring Lake. There is a subdivision where the field once was and Spring Lake is called something else, but anyway, we got halfway down the driveway when I heard my mom. “You boys get back in that tent!” She was watching us from her bathroom window. We just turned around and walked back to the tent.

My parents weren’t always on the winning end of the tent sneaking out battle. We were able to successfully sneak out a few times. One of the times we rolled my Lemans down the driveway and then far enough down the road to start it up without the parents hearing. That was fun.