It was so in tents

As I was reading the news the other day, I came across an article about the semi-anarchy that is Egypt today. In it, there was mention of Bedouin tribes...

"...and the abduction of another officer by Bedouin tribes in the Sinai."
[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/world/middleeast/13egypt.html]

"That's interesting," thought I. You see, in this most modern world in which we live, there are still people functioning much like they did in the Stone Age. Or at least, the Iron Age. As alluring as living in a tent in the desert must be, I find it odd. I suppose I should. After all, I grew up living in houses. Solid roofs, doors, walls of at least 8" thickness... indoor plumbing. Tents were temporary... something that usually indicated camping. Or a natural disaster.

I imagine that living in a tent would be fine in a benign enough environment. I live in a benign environment. But I wouldn't live here in a tent. I spent a couple of weeks living in a tent when I was 10. My mother, thinking she was doing me a favor, sent me off to a summer camp near Ocala, FL. Looking back, it was more likely she was doing herself a favor. The tents were large constructions of canvas and wood. A large wood foundation, like a deck, with two poles holding up a large canvas tarp as the roof. The "walls" were also canvas tarp and mostly rolled up. They could be rolled down and secured at the bottom in the event of a rainstorm. They looked a bit like this:
Only they were olive drab and likely to be Army Surplus. (not my tent --->)

And we slept on cots which were covered with mosquito netting. The netting barely slowed them down. It's hard to see that netting as useful when there were large holes in it. You fell asleep communing with nature. The staccato sounds of crickets, the buzzing of the mosquitoes, the rattle of certain snake tails, the grunts of alligators, and all the little rude noises the bodies of young boys produce. There was no air conditioning, you had only the breeze off the lake to cool you off. There was no heat either but you don't miss that when the low temp of the night is 80 F.

We never did roll the walls down. It didn't matter. There were no strong rainstorms in that two weeks. It did rain and that's when we found the roof leaked a bit. Solution? Move the bunks.

I would have not survived long in the Stone Age.