Military Tents
by Rom Publius

I lived in a wall tent for 8 months in the early 1970's and didn't even have a stove in it and it was quite homelike. I had a dear aunt at the time who worried about me so much, my Aunt Gen. She was half Native American but I guess she worried I didn't have a clue perhaps. One day her husband, my Uncle Alvie showed up. He brought me something as a gift but I knew he was checking my tent/home out for Aunt Gen. Alvie grew up in the north woods at the beginning of the 20th century so he knew primitive very well. I showed him around and we sat and had tea (not a lady's tea party--men in the north
woods commonly drink tea). I think we played some cribbage too.

I had a carpeted floor and the walls were hung inside with colorful blanket material. You know, I don't think Alvie wanted to leave that day and my Aunt Gen never worried about me living there again. There's no reason why a larger wall tent can't be very house-like, comfortable, and even cozy. When I lived in my tent, about a dozen hippie tents formed a big circle around a central social area. It was like an atchen'tan or camp site, for example like a Gypsies' family unit of many tents might have camped in 100 or more years ago. It was really nice and furthermore we had modern conveniences. Many people hooked electricity up in their tents and some even hooked up running water. I persoanlly prided myself for not needing that and was quite comfortable with mantle lamps and if I was planning to winter over, I'd have gotten a stove for it too.