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[Camp Comic] Friday, August 14, 2015 - Campfire Stories #2
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
[Camp Comic] Friday, August 14, 2015 - Campfire Stories #2
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Then again, this is more effective than any lecture or ad about the dangers of heavy drinking.
Are you pressing charges? Is it too late to do so?
Lol
Ok so I had this exact thought, too.
Only it was drunk guy is going to pee on their tent.
I give myself partial credit for drunk and light beer is basically piss water.
Amen to that, brutha.
From the last Kickstarter update:
I'm pretty sure they're going to mix in some Camp W in with these.
These don't require as much time to create as a standard strip. It lets them get out content (which I'm enjoying a lot). And it's an interesting interaction with fans that breaks up the flow.
I'm not sure, but I think Katie and Adam have other jobs that pay their bills. They do not have unlimited time to make camp W and due to some unforeseen problems with the book, they're focus what extra time on it.
For what it's worth, one of the KS question regarding this update was will we still get Camp W updates during this? And the answer was yes.
Those of us who did, can just laugh--because we all have similar tales(which grow in the telling) of redneck adult incompetence and/or fantastically risky (and stupid) adolescent behavior. But we survived!
(of course, the ones that didn't aren't around to complain about it.)
Let me show you my drunken redneck relative scars.
Many of them are mental.
I wrote the story and this is absolutely true. This was a pretty normal thing, as the "camp" we were at was 1.5 hours from the nearest hospital that we knew about and it was in reality a piece of land my uncle purchased in the middle of fucking nowhere. Dirt roads for miles fucking nowhere. My whole family was (and are still for the most part) a big bunch of rednecks and this was kind of totally normal.
My father grew up on a farm, along with his brother and two sisters. When my grandfather got too old to do work around the farm, my uncle took over the farm and all related farming duties. The farm had a machine shop which my uncle (and grandfather before him) used to maintain the tractors and all kinds of other farm equipment, welding equipment being commonly used. So one 4th of July, my dad, aunts, and my uncle get to talking about how epic their 4th of July celebrations were as kids, and how far the roman candles would shoot back then, etc. And it gets mentioned about how grandpa used to make oxy-acetylene ballons and detonate them.
Now, a little backstory to illustrate how apt my grandfather was when it came to safety: my uncle is missing parts of most of his fingers, (some gone entirely) because when he was a child my grandfather had him clearing a jam from a combine, forgot he was there and fired it up. My father has a steel plate in his head from where a horse kicked him and knocked out a chunk of his skull when he was 10 years old or so. (Grandpa expected him to handle the horses) This is a man though who had fought in Okinawa and experienced all the extreme horrors there, so anything short of death was to be sucked up and gotten over.
So, making oxy-acetylene balloons was not out of character. If you don't know what oxy-acetylene is, let me fill you in: it's a mix of oxygen and acetylene (a highly combustible gas) that is used for welding, which was why a canister of it was present in the farm's machine shop. Normally, it only is emitted from the tip of a welding rod to make a very hot flame. If you put it in a balloon, however, the mix of oxygen and a highly combustible gas makes it quite literally a fuel-air explosive. Balloon bombs, if you will. These would be tied off, with a strip of paper tied to them, which was then lit, while the person would run like hell. When the fire burned up close to the balloon... think of it like a big firecracker, only the slightest spark or flame touching the balloon would cause an explosion powerful enough to rattle windows 150 yards away.
Of course, us kids beg our uncle to make them. And he does, for the better part of an hour. I even got to set a few off, under the watchful eye of my dad and uncle. So, a fond memory of my childhood is watching and participating in the detonation of unstable homemade fuel-air explosives-with adult supervision to make sure we were doing it "safely", of course.
Bad stuff happens. It just does. People make mistakes. We're alive and laughing at it and bonding over stories like this helps.
Once you see the paragraph-long responses you know something's up without having to read them
I thought the story was dark, but relatable and funny. Humor like this will always breed controversy.
I'm now an IT professional in a large city. I can tell you I'm glad I wasn't raised like you bunch of New Age triggered kids. If you can't shrug off a deep flesh wound with a "Meh" I feel bad for you.
Abuse? Accidents happen. My brother once broke my head open. I once broke his arm. My uncle once gave me a concussion.
Life goes on. Don't be a puss. My body is covered in scars from accidents caused by myself and others. They are just badass stories to tell.
Friend of mine once sliced his leg deep with a chainsaw. The pictures are grotesque. Now that shit was nuts.
Sorry you have so many scars because your family didn't care enough to learn basic safety. I hope you will teach others to learn from yours and their mistakes instead of basking in them.
I grew up in the city, but did 8 years of scouting, and am quite handy around the house and car, too. Safety is important.
The kind of stuff you talk about is completely different. A parent or relative who'd get so drunk they just let a child get wounded, break a leg, or get knocked unconscious through trauma? That's not an accident. That's neglect and straight messed up, and these people should not be parents or guardians of any sort--at least through the lens of my family's mores. It's not harmless and it's not funny to them--especially since they're from a culture that doesn't get dark/tragicomic humor.
My parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents are pretty damned traditional. I'm from a different era and generation; I run into conflict with them quite a bit. They are too extreme, too old school (though maybe these attitudes paid off in the tough world they lived through.) They think that you build strong character in kids from examples of dedication and sacrifice. So of course, as the protector, you are entitled to absolute respect. But what the hell does it say about you if you stand by when a kid gets grievously injured, permanently disabled, disfigured, or killed? What the hell is the point?
When I was a toddler, my grandmother was ironing. I guess I was crawling around whatever cramped ass tenement apartment we were living in Brooklyn. The iron toppled over and burned part my leg--probably 2nd degree burn. She was really upset. It wasn't a big deal; it's just a minor scar and I don't remember. But they tell me she carried a bit of guilt about that until she passed away two decades later. Her last words to me were, "Take care of your brothers."
Anyway, this comment is way too long and damn it, it comes across as a bit heavier than I intended! I started off wanting to spout off examples of my parents/uncles/aunts being overprotective to break up a false dichotomy.
Like I said, I don't completely share my family's values. I'm probably in the Sheltered Privileged New Age or whatever you want call them camp. Main thing is I'm mostly glad that people who went through all sorts of BS as kids--like the characters in the comic or these Campfire Stories--survived, overcame, and came out decent or cool people. (I also hope the irresponsible adults learned and became better people too... though I am less hopeful on that end.)
I like that these comics touch on these dark topics while still keeping comedy in the picture. And the debate/different perspectives is a good thing, even if you went through unsheltered "hick" childhood, once broke open your brother's skull, and was knocked out by your uncle and still think all these were harmless/possibly good things!
Stay the HELL away from my cousins/kids/nieces/nephews, though.
It's been a while since I've gotten rather angry at a story such as this. Kind of makes you want to smack some sense into some adults...even if it's a bit late.
I was able to learn things for myself. I was allowed to injure myself as any child should. It allowed me to be a strong individual instead of an adult that tries to make others feel bad about themselves and their childhood. "because your family didn't care enough to learn basic safety." What an incredibly douchebag thing to say to someone.
I would never claim your family didn't care about you. I don't know you. It is very clear what you are attempting to do. I feel bad for you. I'm sorry that you see everything clouded in so much darkness. I feel bad that you feel in order to justify your opinions you feel you need to put others down.
How about we just leave it as "some of us had more cautious parenting, some of us had looser parenting, and we all mostly turned out okay".
No Miller light 4 U