Curious on the social aspect of rv'ing

pk1023 wrote:
For the most part everyone seemed very nice. We were setup and my boys (6 and 8 at the time) were playing catch with a baseball and mitts behind our unit. They must have wandered over behind the elderly gentleman's 5'er behind us at some point.

My parents had the rule that we were to welcome anyone who approached our site (and get one of them quickly) but we were to wait to be invited on to anyone's site if they were outside and if they were inside and we needed to go on their site, we were to knock on the door to ask permission to retrieve whatever.

The first time I saw the inside of a camper (a 60's Airstream) was after I knocked on the door to ask permission to crawl under the camper to retrieve our kick ball. The lady was nice and very appreciative of my asking. I was afraid she would be upset, but the ball had gently rolled underneath and hadn't hurt anything!

pk1023 wrote:
Yeah, it's all about reading people and finding out what they want from the interaction with you.

Two years ago we took an awful trip to Caboose Lake in Resselear, IN for Memorial Day. It was COLD and rainy almost from the moment we pulled in.

For the most part everyone seemed very nice. We were setup and my boys (6 and 8 at the time) were playing catch with a baseball and mitts behind our unit. They must have wandered over behind the elderly gentleman's 5'er behind us at some point.

I am on the other side of the camper and I hear him starting to holler at the boys. I walk over to see what is going on... He THEN with me present yells at my children not to play ball on his site and to "get back on their own side"

I consider myself to be a bit of a pushover and not one to fight most of the time. BUT, there's something about my kids! I puffed up quickly and stood between him and them. I MADE IT CLEAR he was not to speak to my children! He said they might hit his camper with their ball...

I asked if he HAD heard or seen them hit his camper. He said no.

I politely (as much as I could) told him NOT to speak to my boys. If he has a problem with them, he can find me and I will handle it.

Before everybody gets up in arms. I believe that ANY adult has the right to scold any child if the child is about to harm himself, others or property that doesn't belong to him.

BUT YOU DO NOT parent my children. I DO THAT. We don't spare the staff in my house, I will deliver whatever punishment is needed. BUT, I WILL NOT accept someone else passing judgement on them. It's confusing for them and not that old man's place.

Sufficed to say, at 6 feet to his 5'5" or so, he got the message. We didn't see him the rest of the trip! :)

He had every right to tell your kids to play on there own site. People have a lot of money invested in there rigs. I had a situation when someone didn't care about the boundary for their kids. They were just playing catch too. No problem until one missed the ball and it ended up in the side of my brand new dually denting it. The owner could have cared less and said they were just playing, accidents happen.

He too puffed his chest and was all arrogant about my telling his kids to move on. His departure at the hands of the campground came next or he would have been talking to the police.

If you see us sitting at the fire or just lounging about.....stop in and say hello. If the awning lights are bouncing....just go on by.:E


One night the awning lights went out, and I congratulated my self for unplugging them.:B The next morning the neighbor confessed to unplugging them.:R:o

Thank you all for your opinions. All good ones and I agree with all of you.

If it looks like someone could use a hand or a tool or anything else I can offer them, I offer it. I meet people in the eyes and say, "Hello," and sometimes folks look away and ignore me and sometimes they don't. I open the door for anyone I can (man/woman/older/younger) and work to treat everyone like I want to be treated. That said, I don't bug people and I look for non-verbal clues as to how comfortable or uncomfortable someone is with the social aspects.

I have been camping all my life and have met many wonderfull people the thing i like about camping is you never know who is going to be next to you till you get their. I am a person of color some people chat others stay away. We like nice quiet camp grounds and we get that most of the time but sometimes there are large groups or just loud people just go with it meet and greet and enjoy RVING:)

Mr. Camper wrote:

Dog Folks wrote:
We watch the chair position at each site. If the people there are facing the street and return your wave, they are usually wiling to chat.

If they keep their chairs or picnic table facing away from the street, we leave them alone unless invited.

Most are friendly.

Personally I have had more social contact and interaction in a month than I did in a year at my regular house.

This is pretty close to what we do. If we are "walking" around the park we'll say 'Hello' and stop to talk if invited. If we are sitting ouside it's an invitation to bring a chair over and talk. It will greatly help you if you bring a treat for our two fuzzy kids. If you smoke or drink, stop and chat for a minute but leave when you need to drink or smoke.

Very similar to our philosophy. When we take walks around the park we typically find most people friendly. But you have to know when to wrap it up and move on.... it's like the old saying, "Always leave them wanting more".

I also give the other person the opportunity to start the conversation. A polite "hello" or sincere compliment will almost always get one in return, but if someone is truly looking to engage in a conversation they will undoubtedly follow-up with a conversation starter. You never know why someone is camping (we like state parks and COE parks) they may be there to get completely away from people and are not afforded the luxury of being able to boon-dock.

Doug

Dog Folks wrote:
We watch the chair position at each site. If the people there are facing the street and return your wave, they are usually wiling to chat.

If they keep their chairs or picnic table facing away from the street, we leave them alone unless invited.

Most are friendly.

Personally I have had more social contact and interaction in a month than I did in a year at my regular house.

This is pretty close to what we do. If we are "walking" around the park we'll say 'Hello' and stop to talk if invited. If we are sitting ouside it's an invitation to bring a chair over and talk. It will greatly help you if you bring a treat for our two fuzzy kids. If you smoke or drink, stop and chat for a minute but leave when you need to drink or smoke.

Dog Folks wrote:
We watch the chair position at each site. If the people there are facing the street and return your wave, they are usually wiling to chat.

If they keep their chairs or picnic table facing away from the street, we leave them alone unless invited.

Most are friendly.

Personally I have had more social contact and interaction in a month than I did in a year at my regular house.

Agree, and if you see them working on something around the RV, I always ask if they need any help---I offer to hold their chips or open a drink, hand them a tool and provide all the advice they could ever tolerate ;)

Yeah, it's all about reading people and finding out what they want from the interaction with you.

Two years ago we took an awful trip to Caboose Lake in Resselear, IN for Memorial Day. It was COLD and rainy almost from the moment we pulled in.

For the most part everyone seemed very nice. We were setup and my boys (6 and 8 at the time) were playing catch with a baseball and mitts behind our unit. They must have wandered over behind the elderly gentleman's 5'er behind us at some point.

I am on the other side of the camper and I hear him starting to holler at the boys. I walk over to see what is going on... He THEN with me present yells at my children not to play ball on his site and to "get back on their own side"

I consider myself to be a bit of a pushover and not one to fight most of the time. BUT, there's something about my kids! I puffed up quickly and stood between him and them. I MADE IT CLEAR he was not to speak to my children! He said they might hit his camper with their ball...

I asked if he HAD heard or seen them hit his camper. He said no.

I politely (as much as I could) told him NOT to speak to my boys. If he has a problem with them, he can find me and I will handle it.

Before everybody gets up in arms. I believe that ANY adult has the right to scold any child if the child is about to harm himself, others or property that doesn't belong to him.

BUT YOU DO NOT parent my children. I DO THAT. We don't spare the staff in my house, I will deliver whatever punishment is needed. BUT, I WILL NOT accept someone else passing judgement on them. It's confusing for them and not that old man's place.

Sufficed to say, at 6 feet to his 5'5" or so, he got the message. We didn't see him the rest of the trip! :)