The family was on their first camping trip to Yosemite. They didn’t have a lot of money themselves, but Grandma had given them $200 for the trip. They packed the car full of sleeping bags, an ice chest, a box with kitchen supplies, toiletries, and personal clothing.
Dad’s ship hadn’t come in yet, so they couldn’t go out to eat at fancy places or buy many souvenirs. The whole family looked around the Ahwahnee Hotel with stars in their eyes. “Some other time,” Dad promised, and he meant it. Kristie and her little sister spent a lot of time playing cards in the tent cabin they had rented for the weekend. But Dad and Mom snuck out after they thought the girls were asleep to go get a drink at the fancy bar.
Kristie took that as her cue to leave her little sleeping sister alone and go out to meet her new friend across the way. The girl was of a similar age and she was interesting to Kristie who liked meeting new and different kinds of people. She didn’t even think about the bears or raccoons roaming the camp ground. The two girls sat outside near the fire talking and burning little sticks and twigs in the embers. This was first time Kristie heard about diabetes.
The girl confessed that she had the disease. She had to take shots everyday and test her blood with a sticker. She showed Kristie under her arms where crusty inflamed sores resided. The girls wanted to play, but Kristie’s mom had taken one look at the ratted hair and unkempt condition of the little waif and forbade any further contact. This wasn’t enough of a warning for Kristie, hence the sneaking out.
Of course, her little rat sister woke up, saw that Kristie was gone, and told the parents the next day. Kristie confessed to hanging out with the forbidden friend and related the story about the girl’s diabetes to her concerned parents. While Mother showed some empathy, Kristie admitted that she had misbehaved, and Dad ordered her to stay in the tent the rest of the day. It was overcast anyway, so she read a book by herself while the rest of the family went on a hike. Besides that, she hated hiking.
The tent cabins were unimpressive with two double metal-framed beds that squeaked whenever you moved. Dad hung a blanket up between the beds to give the impression of privacy. As precocious as she was, she knew something was going on – sort of…. Something was going on, she knew that. But she didn’t know exactly what it was.
Before bed that night, Mom took the girls behind the blanket. She set up some hand towels, a bar of soap, three wash cloths, and an old metal dish pan filled with warm water on a wobbly card table. ‘We’re going to take a PTA bath,” Mom explained.
‘What does PTA mean?” both the girls asked.
“It stands for pussy, tits, and ass!” They all laughed. She rarely spoke in this rough indelicate way. They thought it was funny, but Dad didn’t like it. He thought it showed a lack of intelligence. “Find another way to express yourself,” he always said. Sometimes he lost his sense of humor.
Mother continued giving directions about the correct way to proceed with the bath. “First soap up your wash cloth,” she began. “Then start at the top and wash your face, ears, neck, armpits, arms, and titties.” She smiled as she said this as an act of defiance and titillation directed at Father.
“Then rinse off and re-soap the cloth for the second part which is legs and pussy.” She was still at it and they all laughed out loud as they heard Father leave the tent in a huff. “Then rinse, re-soap and wash the ass and the feet.”
Kristie wondered, ” Why should you do the feet last and not the ass?” Mother didn’t have a good answer for that one except to say something about “tender mucous membranes” which sounded disgusting. Kristie didn’t ask any more questions.
Later that night well after her sister fell asleep next to her, Kristie heard a lot of squeaking of the bed springs on the other side of the blanket. The next morning Dad was in a great mood and offered to take them to the buffet where they could eat anything they wanted!
They had been surviving on cold cereal, cheese sandwiches, beans, and hot dogs. This was a real treat! Kristie got her own tray and loaded it up with olives, waffles, strawberries, and sausage. She hadn’t realized that she was supposed to take a plate first, so all the food was sitting literally on the tray itself. She didn’t care. This was fun! When she found out they could go back for more, she got some scrambled eggs, a sweet roll, and a cup of coffee with cream and sugar. Now this was living!
As they packed the car to prepare to leave, Mother made up a special package. She packed up all the left over food: a half jar of peanut butter, a half loaf of bread, a can of beans, some apples, a few hot dogs, and left over buns. She also threw in some of the clothes the girls didn’t need or wear on the trip. She asked Dad for $5. He gave it to her reluctantly. Then she walked over to the forbidden friend’s tent cabin. She handed the bag over to the haggard looking mother. Kristie overheard her say something about, “…apologies, and best of luck.”
Kristie was not told until many years later that her great grandfather had been a diabetic. Her grandfather, two of her great aunts, and an uncle also had the disease. Her uncle died of complications from the disease when he developed a sore on his foot that resulted in amputation. The doctors never did get it all and he died of gangrene…. The writing was on the wall. It was in her genes. She would most likely become a diabetic too.
(First published 4/8/13)
