Sleeping in the Car

At some point, I decided it would be fun to have sleepovers in my family's car. Other friends would set up tents in their backyard. But I didn't have a tent. What I did have though, was a Taurus wagon.

In the wagon, you could fold down the back seats and close the rear-facing seats in the "way back" (as we called it) to create a flat area just big enough for two 12-year-olds in sleeping bags. I'm sure this is exactly what Ford had in mind when designing the car.

Sleeping in the car felt like an adventure even though the car was parked in our garage in the middle of suburbia all night. I don't remember how my friends reacted when I asked them (or told them?) to sleep in the garage instead of my bedroom. Maybe they thought it was different and exciting too... or maybe they went home and told their mothers, "I don't think I want to sleep at Krista's anymore." Well, I must have "camped out" in the car a dozen times with a handful of different friends before my mom stopped letting me for fear the car would combust in the middle of the night. And that was that.

Maybe I should have just asked for a tent for my birthday like my sister Kasey did a few years later. I'm sure she wanted it just for sleepovers. But my mom thought Kasey had a serious interest in actual camping and to foster her new hobby, bought her tons of camping supplies... lantern, camping stove, dishes, etc. in addition to the tent. It was so thoughtful of my mom, but that stuff has sat, unused, in our basement for almost ten years now. :( Kasey did use the tent a bunch of times though... in the backyard of course.