By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 9, 2023 | It was to be a two-week camping trip to Scandinavia in the summer of 1959. My mother in law had arrived in Germany, where my wife and I were stationed in the military.
We packed a ’57 black Volkswagen Bug to the gills, with the camping gear and luggage taking up the front boot and every bit of the back seat that my mother in law didn’t occupy.
We drove north out of Germany to our first night’s camp just across the border in Denmark. We found a beautiful campground, set up the tent, and had a nice meal which we cooked over an open fire. Then pulling out our sleeping bags for the night, the sleep was perfect in the slightly-cool fresh air.
The next morning, two happenings. First, we purchased wonderful Danish fresh pastries at the campground store for breakfast. I can nearly taste them now. Boy! were they just-made-fresh and delicious!
Then my mother in law announced in no uncertain terms: “This is my last night camping!” She didn’t like the sleeping bag, air mattress, communal bath house and primitive way of grooming.
In Copenhagen the next night, finding a room in a hotel was no problem. But when we crossed the Baltic Sea into Sweden, we were in the countryside as another night approached. I got on a coin telephone seeking a room for the night for my mother in law. Finally there was a room, but the Swedish proprietor spoke no English. Somehow in stammering German, we worked out an agreement for the room.
For the next few days, as we drove through Sweden and to Stockholm, each afternoon my order of business was to find a hotel for the lady who didn’t like sleeping outdoors.
Eventually leaving Stockholm, we headed west to Oslo. It was a long drive. As we neared Oslo, it was obvious that a weather front was moving in, with heavy clouds to the west. It was getting late, and darker and darker, and rain was headed our way soon.
Finally, we found a campground, as the clouds rolled in. Time we nailed the spikes securely into the ground and pitched the tent, a heavy rain pounded us in the tent, as we weathered the storm. After about an hour or less, the rain passed, we built a campfire and warmed two cans of Dinty Moore’s beef stew for our meal. It was by then rather late, maybe 9 p.m., and man alive! That was the best beef stew that I have ever had!
After Oslo for a few nights, and renting more rooms, it was time to return to Germany. That last night was to be on a ferry across the strait to Denmark. My wife and I, as well as my mother in law, had overnight cabins on the ferry that last night out. The next day we returned to our duty station in Giessen, Germany.
That ferry trip was the last of 14 nights away. I rented a room for my mother in law on all but three nights, the second night, that night as the rains came in Oslo and the last night on the ship. But what a great vacation it was, seeing three of the Scandinavian countries…..up close, at least, for those of us tenting. I still vividly remember those details after all these years.
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