Is Socializing a Dying Thing in the RV Community?

The incidents were not at a Rally. At Rally everyone that does attend them seems to be at their Sunday best.

patnchris wrote:
You can try that, but again, very difficult to not offend someome.
Think about it....Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota
That's an automatic argumemt.
Sports unless you are all fans, is a problem
(And I have one friend who thinks all sports
are stupid and will always argue that anyone interested is of limited mental capacity.)
Camping...some will argue that tenting is the only real camping and rv people are ruining nature.
Campfire....Some must have it. While some say that the smoke is causing damage to their rv and they will lose money when they sell it.
Don't get me started on dog or no dog.
This my sound silly but the truth is people will argue about almost anything
We have entered onto an age where if someone has different ideas or does something you don't, or maybe their hobby is different than yours, you are wrong, or mentally unbalanced, or grossly unimformed.
I used to fish, alot. My neighbor liked to play golf. I accepted that he liked golf, however he couldn't get over that I didn't and the idea that I liked to fish meant that "I had a few too many damaged brain cells" (not a joke. He would bring it up over and over anytime we got together with others)
The world we live in has become overly judgemental. If I have a trailer and you have a motorhome, then I am wrong for not having one. God forbid if I buy a pop up. We'd never camp together again.
I like to wear jeans..but overheard one guy say it was a shame that I was so poor I couldn't afford slacks..had to bite my tongue on that one.
I know I sound thin skinned, but I'm really not. I just don't understand why I should have to agree with everyone, just not to start an escalating argument. Everyone seems to need to defend their position "to the death"no matter what the subject. Just look around. Much easier to nod, wave, and go about my business. Then I don't offend anyone.

To Pat & Chris,

I like your post. A lot of very truthful ideas and observations.
OH yes, my hair is red. People do not generally like red hair unless it is on a lady. I have personally experienced the prejudice some have toward redheads. Maybe I should start a protest like some of the other idiotic protests out there folks are having just because someone has a different take on a given subject.

A long time ago my parents told me, "If you don't have something 'good' to say about someone, keep your mouth shut". Wow, if that idea got loose, there would be people that disagreed with the wisdom of the statement.

To each, their own. I don't have to agree with you to talk about a subject. If folks feel like being by their-selves rather than mingle with other parts of the RV crowd, so be it. If folks want to socialize, that is fine also.

My personal pet peeve is someone who is or who acts ignorantly. I have no patience for such things, so when someone with ignorant tendencies shows up, I make distance my friend. It is very easy to turn and walk away and leave all the drama behind. Time to go fishing, or golfing, or just go read a book, or maybe even gaze at all the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Mingle or don't mingle. Do whatever you want as long as it does not impede my personal environment.

Enjoy RVing / camping until you can't!

Lakeside

After the trip, we kinda just chuckled about it and chalked it up to one person's boorish behavior. Not indicative of everyone. Just thought it was kinda humorous.. FMCA rally going on and the FMCA member takes her dog in front of a 5er to take a ****.

Mike

Somebody behave badly, toward me or others ..well they are not the reason we are there and we just go the other way.
We years ago had someone, more than one occurrance let their dog do its thing right in front of our steps and even throw their trash in a fire ring intended for our use.

Had a "lady" in a towable release her dog repeatedly to do its business in front of our coach between us and the lake ,and a year prior a let it pee on our chairs etc. That second year she was very profane toward me and I had not said anything to her about the dog.
I started to call a Relative, a sheriff to have a word with her. But instead she and her crew were banned from the campground.
We see these things all the time. Over and done with, dn'tlet themcolor everyone else with the same brush.

I've never been to a "Rally". Not my type of thing but, I have nothing against people who enjoy it.

At public campgrounds it often; but not always; seems that the people with the expensive RV's tend to look down upon someone like myslef in my 20 year old 20 foot TT. Even though it's in good shape for it's age. If they give me funny looks I leave them alone. Maybe they think that makes me unfriendly ?

I think rally's appeal to different types of people. Im not anti-social, but I don't necessarily enjoy the mass gatherings of people in an RV rally atmosphere.

I can sorta understand the new towable folks being a tad clannish. Remember, the "perception" likely was/is, "the coach folks opened up FMCA to towables because they needed new members in order to quit losing money". That may or may not be true, but I suspect when they arrived, and saw all the coach guys, they probably did just migrate to other towable folks. Honestly, I might have done the same, who knows.

I was at one campround a couple years ago, where there was a FMCA rally going on. Two folks left me with a bad impression for all. Doubt their behavior was indicative of the group at large, but it just seemed like "arrogance". One, an older lady, would take her dog out to do it's doo, and she let it do it's doo right in front of our friends 5th wheel... and of course never bothered to pick it up. I didn't find out about that until the last day, because I surely would have called her out.

Anyways, it's not surprising that like personnel are a tad clannish.

Mike

I posted then deleted my opinion once but...
The last FMCA rally, in Michigan this past spring...the new Towable Folks were clanish and not much socializing. RV Dealers did not show up. I can only ascertain based on limited observation as I was a bit ill and in the coach more than out. Wife was out and involved in things though. She noticed the same thing. We usually make two or three families as friends. We made one with a couple from Wisconsin and we went out to eat and see several times.
The rally was a failure but...the towable Folks did not jump in to help.
I appologize to those that did. It seemed they wanted to sit around in their groups only. I perceive, and I do not miss anything that passes by, that they were intimidated by the $500,000.00 plus coach owners.
Ours certainly is not one of those expensive coaches though.
I have noticed the same things at campgrounds where the Towable Folks and Coachs are together. I don't care how much money you have.
A real strong social director and program at rallys can help this.
And both sides should make the effort to be part of things.
The Folks in the fancy rigs are more outgoing of course, as is to be expected as those feeling their suceess are not intimidated unless someoen shows up in a five million dollar rig and are shallow.
Sojsut stop it. Forget what righ you are in and jump in and make friends and make rallys and get togetehers a huge success and make new friends.

Dcmac214- I think you hit upon a important point. People with a limited amount of time are trying to make the most of it with other activities. Seasonals who are there for the winter/summer look at it as a community.

Agree that fewer and fewer fellow campers seem to want or be able to initiate sociable contact. But I've found that once you say hello and start up a conversation very few people turn out to be unsociable. That 'Hello' (with the ubiquitous weather comments) generally leads to showing off photos of the Gkids, comparing the day trips and the aches and pains of advancing age, and often 'Hey, we just got a bundle of firewood, pull up a chair and have a beer.'

I think part of it is campers who are like us, don't go camping to hang out at the campground. The RV and campgrounds are our base camp, tools we use to do what we want: riding the ATVs; fishing; visiting aquariums, zoos, museums and other area attractions. Campground-initiated activities (potlucks, pool parties, movies, dances) rarely have any interest for us. And anyway we're usually off someplace else doing whatever it is we want to do that day.

badsix wrote:
I,m with the O/P. we have got into the r/v seen about 3 years ago spent a month in Alaska, back to South Dakota and all over Oregon. I can safely say that only one place we stayed was there anyone near sociable. what's wrong with people theses days or is it just a different group of people camping now?

we pulled off in a rundown campground somewhere in Canada. an soon a fellow was pulling in next to us he got parked and I said hello neighbor, when you get settled come over for a beer. he was traveling by himself and soon he was over and what a good time we had talking. the wife was getting ready to make something for diner and ask if he would like to join us, sure he said and got up and went to his R/V and came back with a large bag of fresh caught Halibut. we had a great diner and made a good friend. we all left the next morning and as he was pulling out he handed the wife a bag about 25# of more Halibut and said your nice people.
30 plus years ago me and three of my buddies went for a 2 week trip of Washington and Oregon. we were on Harleys and camping outside on the ground. I never meant so many nice people everywhere we went, it was great. you just don't see that any more. most people now act like your going to rob and **** them. i'm pretty bumbed about r/ving, anymore pulling into a campground is like pulling into a prison. Jay D.

At one time there weren't so many people into RVing. We thought we had more in common with other RVers then, perhaps. I found that while on the road between NY and AK, we were making time and although we didn't shun company, we were busy doing what we needed to do and sleeping for the next stretch of the journal.

Most of our social contacts through RVing came through meetups with people from RV Net, Facebook, and other RV organizations. We went to rallys and rv shows (not allowed to do that now), and organized some local meet-ups.

In the campgrounds, we are cautious about just walking up to people. We were in a campground once and found out that the next night the people in the site across from us were arrested. They were on the run for a violent crime. It made the Canadian news so it must have been big.

There are also the people who come up to us to talk about our Class B. We do love to talk about it, and will show it, but we were just notified by some of our fellow B-ers that there are people out there who ask to see your rig and then rip you off, or worse.

If you are in a campground for more than overnight, you often don't have the opportunity to meet others. One of the places we met some people with whom we are friends after 10 years was a Flying J. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to making friends. It just happens.

Some people RV to make friends, I think. We mostly are that kind of people, but on a long trip, we try to make the most of our time in campgrounds for organizing, resting, and preparation for the next leg of the journey.