Thinking about camping and campers, I thought of Roy Bedichek.
For years, he guided the University Scholastic League, an organization that encourages competitions for high-school students in Texas. Today, the league is known for trying to govern high school football. But it also encourages students to develop skills in music, drama and debate.
Bedichek had to travel the state, getting the competitions organized and resolving disputes. He camped on his travels, shunning hotels.
Rodney J. Kidd, Bedichek’s associate at the University Interscholastic League, traveled with him and left a lovely account. Bedichek had camping spots all over the state. The backseat of his car would come out and in would go camping gear: two small mattresses, a 5-gallon can of water, cooking gear and a nature library.
People do many things when they camp. I think Bedichek was after three things:
• He wanted to be close to nature. He wanted to wake up at 4 a.m. and look for the morning star, rather than for the light switch in a hotel room.
• He wanted to tend to his own needs. He liked to cook over an open fire.
• He liked the solitude — the quiet that a person needs to think and read.
• Source: Rodney J. Kidd’s essay “Out-of-Doors Hotel” is in Three Men in Texas, edited by Ronnie Duggar; The University of Texas Press, 1967. His description of Bedichek’s camping techniques begins on p. 27.
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