My new $200 sleeping bag got me into a weird talk with a park ranger

Honestly, I was testing a fancy new zero-degree bag at Crater Lake last month, and a ranger named Dave saw me setting up. He walked over, looked at it, and said, 'You know, my grandpa just used three wool blankets and a tarp for 40 years.' It wasn't a dig, he was just so amazed by the gear. Has anyone else had a moment where your new stuff just seemed totally over the top to someone else?

3 comments

3 Comments

hollyjackson3mo ago

Three wool blankets and a tarp for 40 years" is sending me. Dave's grandpa was built different.

the_hugo3mo ago

That generation had a whole different idea of what "comfort" meant. You see it in old houses with tiny closets and one bathroom for six people. They just operated on a completely different scale.

river_adams251mo ago

Man my grandfather was exactly like that. He had a tiny closet in his old house maybe two feet wide and he acted like that was plenty of space. Growing up I thought all houses had just one bathroom and you just learned to schedule your morning or hold it. Remember visiting my cousins and all six of us kids sharing one tub of bathwater on Saturday nights. Nobody complained because that's just how it was. Three wool blankets and a tarp sounds about right for how they lived.