# Your Side of the Mountain: Describe your childhood dream of surviving in isolation **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 29, 2018, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-side-of-the-mountain-describe-your-childhood-dream-of-surviving-in-isolation/825297 "2018-11-29T22:55:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-side-of-the-mountain-describe-your-childhood-dream-of-surviving-in-isolation/825297/21 "2018-12-07T14:14:55Z")
I’ve been giving this some thought and have come to the surprising (to me anyway) conclusion that none of my childhood castaway/runaway/independent living dreams were about me by myself. My (older by 18 months) sister was ALWAYS included. And there was usually a horse, a dog and a cat for each of us. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-side-of-the-mountain-describe-your-childhood-dream-of-surviving-in-isolation/825297/22 "2018-12-08T14:05:06Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > … and a cabin on a lake. I guess I didn’t put any thought into how I was going to eat. Maybe I’d go to town now and again. You’d be in good company if you did. Thoreau went to his mother’s house for lunch every day. Purplehorseshoe, the OP did mention Hatchet though not by name: it’s part of Brian’s Saga. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-side-of-the-mountain-describe-your-childhood-dream-of-surviving-in-isolation/825297/23 "2018-12-10T13:58:01Z")
My side of the mountain was a book? :eek::eek::smack::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-side-of-the-mountain-describe-your-childhood-dream-of-surviving-in-isolation/825297/24 "2018-12-10T15:19:34Z")
Apologies for the hijack but I’ve always wondered something about _My Side of the Mountain_. Sam (the protagonist of the story) hollows out the trunk of a tree to make a cabin, one large enough that he can lay flat on a bed he builds and that can fit a clay fireplace he also builds. So just how big was the tree trunk? Where I grew up there were no old-growth forests left, so I haven’t seen many really big, really old trees. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-side-of-the-mountain-describe-your-childhood-dream-of-surviving-in-isolation/825297/25 "2018-12-11T00:07:13Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Apologies for the hijack but I’ve always wondered something about _My Side of the Mountain_. Sam (the protagonist of the story) hollows out the trunk of a tree to make a cabin, one large enough that he can lay flat on a bed he builds and that can fit a clay fireplace he also builds. So just how big was the tree trunk? Where I grew up there were no old-growth forests left, so I haven’t seen many really big, really old trees. Some cursory research turned up references to some big trees in Upstate NY. A tree big enough for a kid to lie down in doesn’t look like a stretch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-side-of-the-mountain-describe-your-childhood-dream-of-surviving-in-isolation/825297.md?page=1)