One of the high adventures when I was growing up was to “sleep out.” Sleeping out amounted to sleeping outside the house with my brothers or a bunch of friends. Maybe the reason it was so special was because I didn’t get to do it very often.
In the summer time when the weather was good. Mom and Dad would sometimes let us boys sleep out on the porch or on the wagon. We had a large flat bed wagon that we hauled wood and other things on, and we also had a bunch of old mattresses as well. If we asked nicely, Mom would let us put the mattresses on the wagon and then sleep out there at night. It was a real adventure. Laying on you back looking up into the night sky was quite impressive. The skies over Heber were crystal clear most of the time and the stars were bright. Most nights we could see lots of falling stars.
Sometimes, for special occasions, we could invite our friends to sleep out with us on the wagon. Usually if that happened, it involved an activity for the entire evening. It generally included a bonfire with hot dogs followed by games like kick-the-can, hide-and-seek, run-sheep-run and others. We usually had some quiet games and ended with some ghost stories and sometimes roasting of marshmallows for dessert. We could play for hours because bonfires were a common entertainment in those days so we knew lots of games to play in the dark or near dark. When the fire started to burn down low, Mom would come out and tell us it was time for bed. We would climb onto the wagon and climb into the beds made on the mattresses. Sometime we just slid into bedrolls but whatever type of bed we had, it was fun.
There was always a little goofing off for a while and then we would settle down and just watch the stars together until everyone went to sleep. It was a quiet time with something pretty awesome to share. If we got too loud, Mom or Dad would come to the back door and speak to us and we would settle down. If we slept out, we usually also woke up early. Everyone would get up and make the beds and then head for home. Later on when we got the shop built, we used to sleep out in the top of the shop every night. Charlie Reidhead slept up there with me all the time and sometimes others of our friends would join us as well.
Sometimes Mom and Dad would let us take the tractor and wagon and drive out of town a ways. We would find a quiet place in the forest and sleep there. A few times Mom and Dad also slept out with us but most of the time it was just us boys or us and some friends. I suppose parents today would be aghast at would we did when I was a kid, but our parents didn’t seem to worry too much about us. We were very familiar with the places around Heber and there was nothing and no one to bother us. There was always a group of us and we were perfectly safe. Those were good and uncomplicated times and I still remember how much fun it was to “sleep out.”