My childhood was spent in a typical classic suburban area from the 1950s and early 1960s. The neighborhood was filled with two-story and one-story houses, which are now referred to as single-family homes, neatly arranged along the streets. The uniformity of the houses and the perfectly aligned oak trees gave everything a sense of harmony and order. However, as time passed and families came and went (since we lived in a military town), much of that orderliness faded. Despite that, it was a wonderful place to live and grow up, and I have nothing but fond memories of it.
Growing up, my worldview was greatly influenced by television. Shows such as Davy Crockett, Sky King, Roy Rogers, and the weekend Tarzan movies painted a picture of a world filled with excitement and adventure beyond the confines of my suburban neighborhood. The idea of battling grizzly bears and out swimming crocodiles seemed thrilling, but also unattainable for a kid like me where streetlights illuminated the nights and neatly manicured lawns were the norm.
Imagination was key in helping me reach my goals. A simple rope hanging from a tree branch transformed into a tool for swinging over imaginary dangers, an old army pup tent set up in the backyard transported me to the untamed wilderness of the frontier, and a stick became a spear or a gun to fend off the lurking evils of the wild. Despite all these creative solutions, the one essential element for overcoming any obstacle was fire. However, despite what I had seen in movies and read in magazines like National Geographic, creating fire turned out to be more challenging than I had anticipated.
This is why, Burroughs' depiction of Carson Napier's struggles with starting a fire, in chapter four of Lost on Venus, really caught my attention, and gave me a good chuckle. It felt so relatable, making me wonder if the author had faced similar challenges in his own life.
My two greatest handicaps in this encounter with the primitive were lack of weapons and my inability to make fire. The latter was probably the worse, since, without a knife, fire was indispensable to the fashioning of weapons.
At every rest I experimented. Duare became inoculated with the virus of the quest, and fire became our sole aim. We talked about little else and were forever experimenting with different combinations of wood and with bits of rock that we picked up along the way.
All my life I had read of primitive men making fire in various ways, and I tried them all. I blistered my hands twirling firesticks. I knocked bits of flesh off my fingers striking pieces of stone together. At last I was on the point of giving up in disgust.
"I don't believe any one ever made fire," I grumbled.
- Lost on Venus, Chapter 4 - Fire
The circumstances are even more hilarious because, in the previous chapter, Carson saw the nobargans chief, his captor, start a fire using one of the most basic and widely recognized techniques.
This done, they commenced to move slowly about us in a rude circle, while near us, and also inside the circle, squatted a bull that was engaged in the business of making fire in the most primitive manner, twirling the end of a sharpened stick in a tinder-filled hole in a log.
- Lost on Venus, Chapter 3 - Cannibals
Truth is some characters like Daniel Boone and the Professor on Gilligan's Island make it look easy, the reality is that starting a fire is a much more difficult task. Most of us are more akin to Barney on the Andy Griffith Show when it comes to this skill. In the episode "Back to Nature," Andy, Barney, and Gomer take Opie and his friends camping. Barney and Gomer get lost in the wilderness, and despite Barney's boasting about his outdoor skills, he struggles to start a fire. If you ever watch the show, you’ll note that Barney is using the same method demonstrated by the nobargans chief in Lost on Venus.
Nowadays, it's so easy to just hop on Google and search for "How to start a fire in the wild?" and you'll be bombarded with a plethora of videos and webpages dedicated to wilderness survival. Of course, having an internet connection is crucial if you want to utilize this method to help you out in a sticky situation.
One webpage that caught my eye had a list of 15 Resourceful Ways to Start a Fire Outdoors. Some of the methods were pretty common knowledge, especially for us adults, but as kids, we might not have been familiar with them. One technique, using a magnifying glass to focus the sun's rays on a few leaves, became my go-to for starting fires and killing ants. Two fascinating methods mentioned in the blog included using a battery and steel wool, or a soda can and chocolate bar, to start a fire in the wild.
Today, when I go camping in my compact camper trailer, I always make sure to have a few items on hand in case I need to start a fire on the fly. This is because, as Carson learned while spending time with Durae in the wilderness, fire symbolizes warmth, protection, and sustenance. Out in nature, a fire is not just a nice thing to have around; it's a crucial tool for staying alive. Well, maybe second after Wal-Mart.
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