Buying Frenzy

This is the first in a series of undetermined length - a sort of scrapbook of memories from Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.

Now is the time that all good womyn go shopping for camping gear. For the last 13 years, Stonetree and I have made at least one, generally more, purchases from the local or corporate sporting good store. Frankly I forget last year's purchase, but the last big investment was the Canvas Mansion - the 3 room tent large enough for the family of 3 with an active 4yo. There have been about three different sets of chairs, culminating in the waterproof Thermarest chairs which also double nicely for a changing area for the 4 1/2 month old infant--or at least a place to keep him dry in the middle of a torrential Friday night storm. Seems like we've purchased about five different sets of table service ranging from Grannyware to Tupperware. Then there's the waterproofing gear - the stuff sacks, backpack covers, tarps, and ever-so-attractive ponchos and plastic pants.

Gear is serious stuff at Festival. No one like dykes can pull off loading in fully stocked kitchens, air beds and screened-in lounge areas--all successfully hauled in on wagons or carts over woodchipped paths for a mile or so. Stonetree and I were on the minimalist end of the scale. We enjoyed hiking in our gear for the first five years in Solanas Ferns. (The story of our first hike in is best saved for a future post.) Even when Mr. Man came along, we had probably the least amount of gear of Spouts families.

This year there is no gear shopping for us. Mr. Man is 4 and we're missing the $900 it would take to get us there. Womyn, including many of our friends and aquaintances, are busy buying, shopping, packing and preparing for a week in the woods with nakedness, sweat and music. They are going Home and we are staying home. Some of this is our choosing, some of this is financial and some of this happened by default and lack of planning. We are alone again. Not that it hasn't happened before, at Festival even--the feeling that somehow there aren't many folks or families who live quite like we do or see the world from our angle.