A Canadian Family

Plattsburgh, New York – Montreal’s Vacation Spot

Back in the mid 1950s thousands of campers from the Montreal area (including our family) treated Plattsburgh, New York as their prime vacation spot and there were several good reasons for this.

The first reason was geography. Most Canadians are settled in a narrow east/west ribbon along the Canadian/American border, so for many of us – especially in the 1950s before air travel was common – the easiest place to vacation was in the United States. Plattsburgh is just over an hour from Montreal so it was perfect for fullblown vacations but also for the daytrips or long weekends that were all that many low or middle-income Montrealers could afford.

The Theriault Kitchen Tent

The second thing that made Plattsburgh such an attrative vacation spot was the New York State Park system which offered large, inexpensive campsites in wooded settings. I think our family camped at Cumberland State Park.

Ours was the first Theriault generation to take regular vacations – and we certainly were the first to do modern leisure camping, so the first years were challenging as my parents learned how to erect tents (and these were heavy canvas tents) that would stay up in the wind and how to use Coleman lanterns and stoves.

The camping was actually my mother’s idea because after serving in WWII trenches, my father had sworn he would never go on another picnic or sleep anywhere but a warm bed. Ah – but love conquers all and he eventually gave in and became an avid camper!

This is a picture of the Theriault Kitchen Tent. My parents were very proud of this tent because they had designed it themselves and helped to make it at a canvas supply outlet in Plattsburgh, New York. My parents were very careful with money so what they did was buy the heavy tent canvas and netting, but then they rented the machines for the morning and did a lot of the machine stitching by themselves.

There’s a little story connected to this because while they worked my sister and I (3 & 5 yrs.old) wandered off down the street and a passing police car thought we were lost and picked us up. The reason they thought we were lost was that we looked confused when they talked to us – but the reason we were confused was that at the time we only spoke French! They brought us down to the police station and what I will always remember is how friendly the Plattsburgh police were, but also that, that this was the first time I ever tasted an Orange Crush.

To this day when I reach for an Orange Crush at the corner depanneur, I think of the Plattsburgh police!

Related Posts:

St.Armand Beach, Plattsburgh, N.Y. – coming soon!

Orange Crush Stuff!

An orange crush poem

An orange crush mystery

July 7, 2009 - Posted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault | . | camping, Canadian Genealogy Carnival, Orange Crush, Plattsburgh