The new camping facilities at Goose Creek State Park seem like a splendid addition to our area for those who like to enjoy the outdoors.

To long-time camping enthusiasts the cabins and showers-bathroom facility may seem a bit too creature-comfort for their more spartan purview of what camping is/should be about. That’s okay too. Whatever one’s preferences in this regard, the Park is one of Beaufort County’s outdoor jewels. Why, they even have RV sites too.

Oh, the memories I and many of the boys of my time have of our camping out experiences. It was at a time when Washington Park afforded wooded areas that gave us a sense of privacy and a real-deal roughing it feeling. We didn’t do it just some, we did it a lot. Some nights we would have our “health food” snacks at Jesse Buck’s store at the eastern edge of the Park, then head to our camp site. Such good memories. Such good friends.

Then, there were the Boy Scouts camping-out times. More supervised, more structured, more of us … but oh, how good it was. Weather cooperating, that is.

Finally, there was, for me, the last camping “step up”: the U.S. Army.

Now that, friends and neighbors, was truly the real deal. And then some. But did I enjoy it? Are you kidding me?

Rain. Snow. Inches and inches — feet — of it. Icy winds. Day and night. Little or no sleep. Cold? Good lord-a-mighty could it get cold. What you wouldn’t have given sometimes just to be warm for a couple of minutes. To sleep for a couple of hours. Trying to avoid frost bite. The inconvenience and awkwardness of “relieving” oneself in such an extreme environment. That’s when I decided hell was definitely not a fiery pit. No, sir. It was an arctic place, for sure.

Like I said in the beginning of this piece, the new camping facility at Goose Creek is a splendid addition to the out-of-doors recreational opportunities here in our county.

For my part, so as not to avail myself of such an opportunity, possibly taking the place of those who wish to do so, perhaps I should just let others do it.

Motel 6 would now be camping to me, and I’ll pass on that too.