Detroit Is The New Hamptons: Backyard Camp Out!

Night before last, our building celebrated the Great American Backyard Camp Out, which is basically exactly what is says. It's a Backyard Camp Out, and it's Great.

I had suggested the idea two weeks prior at one of the many informal happy hours our building has over the summer, figuring we would never get permission to camp ourselves, let alone get the whole building out for camping, right here in sketchy, scary downtown Detroit.

I could not have been more wrong. Everybody freaked out, and started offering to help! By the time we were ready to camp on Friday, we had a popcorn maker, movie projector, killer sound system, giant BBQ, Porta-potty, two dozen folding chairs, a kit for smores, hot dogs, and enough booze to sink an oil tanker.

But best of all, we had permission, for one night only, to ignore the number one rule in our building

NO FISHING.

The first fish of the night. Stone was as thrilled as the kid.

Quite a few of the kids in our building had never, ever caught a fish before. Under the supervision of two increasingly tipsy fishing experts, most of the kids in attendance caught 2-3 fish. They were so excited!

One of hundreds of bluegill that were caught and released between 6 and 11 pm.

Our wonderful neighbor Paul managed to scare up a giant projector and a DVD player, Nikki donated Detroit's loudest sound system, and Nicole brought out a bunch of kids movies. we used my truck, an old bed sheet, and a shit-load of duct tape to make a screen.

Seriously, how versatile is my car?

Everybody got into the spirit of things. Old people, young people, married people, single people.

Our resident music teacher doing a sing along with the kids

Only like two people in the building already owned tents, everybody else went out and bought them. Watching the set up process in action was beyond hilarious. Detroiters are wonderful, capable people who cannot pitch a tent to save their lives. Pathetic, Y'all.