Sleeping Bag Metamorphosis
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205491698″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /] “After a summer of bussing tables and lifeguarding, I had saved up enough and I was finally going to get it. My ticket to anywhere I wanted to be,” writes Anya Miller. “I was a little worried about the money, but I was in complete realization that anything I actually wanted to do in life – literally, anything – depended on it.” Today, Anya shares the story of her first sleeping bag, and the person she became with the help of the women’s medium, right-hand zip cocoon. When you can sleep anywhere, you can go anywhere.
Cover art by Anya Miller.
Music: Little Wooden Church by The Trumpeteers • Surfin’ Tucson by Angie and the Carwrecks • Clover by Little Glass Men • Mindless Radio by Connect and FTdub
Tracks provided by Mevio’s Music Alley and Free Music Archive.
Anya, I listened to this with my eyes closed and I was swept away into your reflections on your life. It brought back my own memories too. We had those same stinky, and heavy sleeping bags when we were kids. We used them in Boy Scout camping trips. They had paint by number looking, repetitive animal prints on the inside flannel. It was like you were sleeping in a discarded Schmidt beer can. Mine, if I remember correctly had mountain lions as the pattern. Yea. Cool. Pick an animal that is nocturnal — Has wild predatorry instincts and is terrifying to children, print it super big and as a step and repeat pattern that you crawl into, then make them sleep out in the woods with other defenseless children and a couple of drunk Dads with BB guns. I’m normal — now.
Thanks for the ride! I look forward to more of these!
— D. Bates
Thanks David! Hilarious that your childhood sleeping bag had a predatory pattern. #thanksforthenightmaresmom
🙂 A
Damn! Great story. Well told. Bravo.
Thanks Tim! Totally appreciate it.
🙂 A
So beautiful! Your story truly resonated with me. I grew up in a family where camping was sleeping in a hotel facing the woods. I fell in love with outdoor adventures in college and my first piece of gear was a Sierra Designs sleeping bag. My mind is full of moments all over the map where I said to myself “I love waking up like this!” Now I have the privilege of being a mom to 3 awesome kids with their own sleeping bags and my husband and I have been trying to instill in them: “When you can sleep anywhere, you can go anywhere.”
Hi Anya,
I couldn’t agree more – this brings back so many memories of the anticipation that getting my first sleeping bag brought. That first one went camping, climbing and sailed across the Atlantic. Now I’m not sure how many generations of bag down the line I am, and I must have a wardrobe of four bags, but the excitement and sense of adventure just packing a sleeping bag brings out is still there.
Thanks so much for writing a love letter to a sleeping bag- so overdue!
Cheers,
Tom
I relate to the connection Anya has with her bag. I have taken mine to 4 continents on climbing trips, and have been sleeping with it even at home for years now. My sister got me a “snuggie” AKA “couch surfer” so I can just wear a sleeping bag with a hood around the house! They are great! I highly recommend them to anyone who loves their bag 🙂
Annie Semmelroth
http://www.stone-adventures.com
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Hi there just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading correctly.
I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue.
I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same
results.