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Many of my favorite childhood memories come from time spent outside. As a kid, I spent many of my summer days outside. Some of my most favorite memories are times that my family and I filled up our Coleman ice chest with all kind of goodies and headed out for a picnic.
Sometimes we would go to a state park and sometimes we would just go to the local park. Either way, it was something I always looked forward to. We always kept ice blocks in the freezer, ready to go. I would help Mom pack the Coleman cooler with the ice blocks. Then we would carefully add the hamburgers, and hot dogs. Many times we would use the cold pop cans to also help keep things cool. We would put in the mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, and relish.
When everything was ready, we would get in the car and take off. After we finally found the perfect spot, we would unload the car and put everything on the picnic table. Dad would get the grill lit and start cooking the hamburgers and hot dogs. It was so much fun! It is my opinion that there is nothing better than a hamburger or hot dog cooked out on the grill.
I remember one year when I was still quite small, we went on a camping trip with some family friends. It was so much fun! I don’t remember much about all the supplies that were brought with us. I do remember the Coleman camping stove we had. We were glad to have it too, because I believed it rained on that trip.
Now that I am older, I do a lot of traveling. There have been times when I have taken the little cooler we have and put it in the car to keep drinks in. It sure is handier to have that cooler with me, than to stop every little while to buy another bottle of soda or water! And that little camping cooler fits perfectly on the floor in front of the passenger seat in my car!
To me, the saddest time of all those trips was the time when we had to repack everything into the cooler, load it back into the car, and head for home. But I always knew there would be another picnic on another day. There is one thing I wish I could have learned from Mom – how to pack the cooler! It was amazing to me to watch Mom pack everything into the cooler just right. I don’t know how she did it, but everything always fit perfectly. When I try to pack the cooler, I have to struggle to get things in there just right. Sometimes it takes two or three tries to get everything in there without squishing everything and still have the lid close! Who knows?? Maybe in the years to come I will finally learn the art of packing a cooler!
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