Aspen Beach

Over the years we spent a lot of time at Aspen Beach but I remember one year in particular.  I think it was 1969,  but Bob was not able to get away on holidays at the time so he towed the old 18 ft. travel trailer to the lake and left the family there while he headed back home to Calgary on Sunday night.  Our plans were to stay there for two weeks with him coming up on the weekend.

Aspen Beach was an amazing place, like camping in the middle of a sand box.  Kids would lose toys in the sand and other kids would be delighted to find the toys as they dug through the beautiful fine sand.  At one point my kids dug such a big hole that their father was surprised by it when he came to the lake and suggested a Volkswagen could get lost in something like that.  The first time we went to Aspen Beach we underestimated the amount of sand and our car and the trailer we were  towing  got stuck.  We had to find help to get out.

There were no designated camping spots, anywhere you could find to put your trailer was okay.  Eventually as the years went on that type of camping led to a wilder drinking crowd   invading the park and the campground had to be revamped to control the onslaught.   Numbered camping sites were initiated and group fire pits were established instead of fire pits beside every unit.   A second adjacent campground was also opened to help accommodate the large number of campers.   It was more orderly but not as much fun as the earlier days when most of the campers were young families like ourselves.

Back to the beginning though.  It cost $1.00 per night to camp and no hookups were available.  We were on a limited budget so had to watch our money carefully.  When Bob left me at the lake for two weeks I probably had less than ten dollars with me to buy bread and milk as needed but not much of anything else.  I remember giving each of the kids a nickel each day, to go to the nearby kiosk and buy ice cream or a popsicle.  Hard to believe that's what they cost in those days.  The huge  sandy beach led to the shallow lake where it was necessary to walk away out just to get one's knees wet.  We would head down to the beach to sit in the sun for a few hours, then back to the trailer to cook up some hot dogs or pork and beans for supper.   It was a wonderful setup.

We had bought the trailer in Saskatoon after a camping trip to the mountains with a 14 foot trailer that we rented.  It was a good way to holiday with a family and a trailer of our own became a priority.  When Bob left his job at Allan Potash  and we sold our house, we slept in the trailer at the grandparents  for a month before moving into our new home in Calgary in October 1969.  We used the trailer for a number of years before finally upgrading to a 24 foot trailer and a new vehicle.  

That two week camping trip was one of my favourites, as the kids dug in the sand I caught up on my reading and had a great holiday.  I think James went into kindergarten that fall and at Christmas drew a picture of a Christmas tree at the campground.  The teacher asked him what she should write under the picture and he said, "It's Christmas and they're still out camping."