Back when camping was camping

[senior-cit]

Iknown thought I would post this to bring all of us who have these homes on wheels and "camp-out now.
Back years ago, my wufe and our then 2 children took a camping vacation down into Kentucky to stay in a State Park.
Packed evetthing in a 2-wheeled trailer, we tented, and I had installed a plywood area in the back seat so the kids could play. Yes, I know, they weren't restrained, no seat belt law in the "olden days". Unkown to me at the time, my wife had put a small cooler with fresh eggs in the back window. We arrived at our campsite, only to discover our son had gotten into the eggs and you can guess the mess.Wifey tosses the egg mess into the woods and I informed her that we are going to attract animals tonight. Off to bed we go and about 2hrs. later, we hear something outside out tent. Our tent, being well used, had a zipper that wouldn't zip all the way down, so got flashlight out and snuck a peak outside and stared face-to=face with the biggest skunk in the forest. Now unfortunatly he wants to come in and the tent won't zip up so we took the diaper pins off our son and as careful as we could, we fastened the tent opening up. After trying several times to get in and us huddled in a corner of the tent, laying out a plan, he left. After a while we went back to bed until the next morning, and life went on.

[mdcamping]

senior-cit wrote:
Iknown thought I would post this to bring all of us who have these homes on wheels and "camp-out now.
Back years ago, my wufe and our then 2 children took a camping vacation down into Kentucky to stay in a State Park.
Packed evetthing in a 2-wheeled trailer, we tented, and I had installed a plywood area in the back seat so the kids could play. Yes, I know, they weren't restrained, no seat belt law in the "olden days". Unkown to me at the time, my wife had put a small cooler with fresh eggs in the back window. We arrived at our campsite, only to discover our son had gotten into the eggs and you can guess the mess.Wifey tosses the egg mess into the woods and I informed her that we are going to attract animals tonight. Off to bed we go and about 2hrs. later, we hear something outside out tent. Our tent, being well used, had a zipper that wouldn't zip all the way down, so got flashlight out and snuck a peak outside and stared face-to=face with the biggest skunk in the forest. Now unfortunatly he wants to come in and the tent won't zip up so we took the diaper pins off our son and as careful as we could, we fastened the tent opening up. After trying several times to get in and us huddled in a corner of the tent, laying out a plan, he left. After a while we went back to bed until the next morning, and life went on.

Love this story! :C

Mike

[Toolguy5]

A lot of great memories. I could not imagine tent camping any more.
My DW wife and I were still newly weds. We decided to take our 3 nephews ages 4, 6, & 6 on vacation with us to Florida. We packed all 3 kids and us with all our gear in a 1975 pinto with bucket seats. Had a styrofoam cooler on floor in back seat. 2 miles down the road a foot went through the cooler. After arriving at our destination in fFlorida we set up camp an 8x10 tent. That night the youngest had an accident and wet the sleeping bags. Well shortly after breakfast the rain came. The 5 of us and the wet sleeping bags had to spend the day in the tent and try and stay dry. Now imagine trying to keep 3 young children still and not to touch the side of the canvas tent so it would not leak.
But hey we had a great trip and lots of fun.

[senior-cit]

tatest wrote:
Camping is still camping, If you choose to do it. When I take my RV out to the campground, I'll sometimes choose a place when I am surrounded by campers. Sometimes I'll take my tent and kitchen. Sometimes I'll take the kitchen box, a low cot, and sleeping bag. Still have, and use, the camping equipment I bought 40 years ago.

I don't see RVing, another thing I do as a road trip convenience, as camping, but someone wants to call it camping, that's OK too.

But if you want to really camp, where I am, there's not much to keep you from doing it, hundreds of campgrounds, a long season if you can tolerate the heat and are not afraid to see wildlife.

But if you want to backpack, camp outside a campground in a wilderness area, we don't have much of that. that works better where you have forests.

In the true sense of the word, camping is setting up a tent or other rude means of shelter and living off the land, so to speak. We started out doing that and "roughed it" for quite a few years before moving up thru the TT, 5th wheelers, and eventually motorhomes. However, we are perhaps "old school" in the use of the term camping because that is what we choose to call it from the begining. Perhaps, deep down inside, the old way of "camping" is still a "bucket list" and all the memories of the past never go away, and I for one am that way. I will still take our 40ft. gas-guzzler and go on a camping trip, sit by the fire, cook on a coleman stove, etc., then retire at night into my "tent" and just remember all the trips we took years ago-going camping.
Happy trails

[tatest]

Camping is still camping, If you choose to do it. When I take my RV out to the campground, I'll sometimes choose a place when I am surrounded by campers. Sometimes I'll take my tent and kitchen. Sometimes I'll take the kitchen box, a low cot, and sleeping bag. Still have, and use, the camping equipment I bought 40 years ago.

I don't see RVing, another thing I do as a road trip convenience, as camping, but someone wants to call it camping, that's OK too.

But if you want to really camp, where I am, there's not much to keep you from doing it, hundreds of campgrounds, a long season if you can tolerate the heat and are not afraid to see wildlife.

But if you want to backpack, camp outside a campground in a wilderness area, we don't have much of that. that works better where you have forests.

[Hondavalk]

I hope you covered the plywood platform with a sleeping bag like I did. You have to think of the children. 🙂

[rexlion]

Our first camping trip in the '80s was in a tent. Young couple with 2 little kids, camping on a shoestring budget. I was so naive, I thought we could sleep in the tent with just a comforter and/or a blanket over us. We were near the Soo (MI), 6 hours from home, first night ever. Of course, the cold (even in July) ground sucked the heat right out of our bodies. After a very chilly night of little sleep, we hightailed it into town for some inexpensive sleeping bags.

[Chock_Full_o__N]

senior-cit wrote:

Dog Folks wrote:
A vast majority of us started out in tents. I now we did, 40 years ago.

Good times.

But the body grows old and starts to protest about sleeping on the ground, and thus the RV.

Did you know that a tent attracts rain? Ours did everytime we used it.

LOL, isn't that the truth! I remember one weekend in particular. We had erected a very large tarp over the tent to keep the dew off. Well, a storm came in and just sat over North Georgia for several days. The first day was okay because everything under the tarp was dry. But by the next day things were getting damp and at some point the tarp got heavy with rain and dumped about 9 gallons right on the back of the tent. We had 5 kids in a small wet tent and it was 50 degrees outside. When my son said, "Mom, do you realize it's been raining for 72 hours straight?" I about lost my mind!

Thankfully, DH had the presence of mind to put our damp sleeping bags in a few big dryers and took us out for pizza, thus saving the day.

[mbopp]

DW & I used to canoe camp. Dry our food, pack the 2-person tent, and hit the water for 3-4 days. We never had a bear in camp but then again I hung a pretty high bear bag.
On one trip we saw 2 gents with a brand new but very heavy canoe, big Coleman 2-burner stove, and a real boatload of gear. They were trying to get the canoe and gear over a short carry and were really exhausted. We asked where they were going and they gave a pretty remote destination that DW & I were headed to with our lightweight canoe and backpacker gear. DW & I looked at each other, smirked, and left them to their own devices.
I always said I was going to retrace their route and look for their skeletons.

[michigansandzil]

My last ever tent camping trip, I was 5 months pregnant with my third child. Our boys were 3 and 5. We were 3+ hours from home and I found lice on my son's head; then we all slept together in the tent.

I don't miss the tent, not one bit.
My oldest is 11 and very enthusiastic about boyscouts and is looking forward to more tent camping. Ugh!

Whenever anyone says I'm not really camping b/c I have heat and A/C and 2 kitchens, I have to set them straight. Not many other women I know would go tenting with 2 small kids while pregnant. I've paid my dues, paid off my debt, saved my $ and bought the TT with a roof, bathroom and fridge!

[Jim_Shoe]

I tent camped with my folks some 50-60 years ago in the Smoky Mountains. One evening, my Mom was frying chicken in a skillet on a portable grill, when a bear came walking thru the CG. She grabbed the skillet, jumped in the car and locked the doors - leaving me and my Dad outside! Luckily, the bear ignored everyone in the CG, but nothing was gonna get my Mom's fried chicken.

[bsinmich]

The skunk story reminds us of a trip in '81 to Texas with a pop-up and an attached screen room. We were in Branson, Mo in a nice CG. Our son, 14 and large boy, went to the bathroom and didn't return very quickly. I went to look for him and he said he would spend the night in the bathroom because there were skunks outside the door. He did come back with me but he had claimed the screen room for himself until that night. He stayed inside with his 2 sisters in the camper. We watched the skunks at the site next to us. They had left a cut watermelon on the table and there were over 2 dozen skunks who loved watermelon. They never did spray anyplace around the CG. We had previously had a pet skunk so we weren't overly concerned.

[barbandwayne]

I love these old stories. We started in a tent in the 70's. On memorable trip we had watched a movie about a solar flare that caused all animals to go mad just before we left to go camping. We had a visit from what we think was a racoon making all kinds of noise outside our tent. We had nothing for protection and the noise was between us and the truck! Even brave DH was a little concerned that night!

[KarenS144]

Like many, I started out in a tent on cross country trips from KY to CA with my parents. Our tent was an army surplus treasure that weighed about 500lbs and since I was the oldest, I got to help my dad set it up. After waking to a 6" snow in Yellowstone one year and having to break camp, we made our next trip in a pop up. The pop up went away and a house boat appeared which isn't all that different from an A or a C class!

I showed quarter horses for several years and for a couple of seasons we had a Winnie Brave. Many years & 1 husband later, I finally convinced my DH that he really wanted to camp. It was a long hard fought battle but I won out and we started out in a B+ but have a Class A now.

And I WAS right! He likes to "gamp!". LOL!

[JesLookin]

Back in the day we were camping in Yellowstone in a tent. After the daily thunderstorm would roll through we were able to pick the hail off the roof of the tent & put it in the coolers.

[Dog_Folks]

Campfire Time wrote:
x3. Our friends used to joke to others not to go camping when we did, because it always rained when we did. As much fun as tenting was and as many memories we have, we don't miss it in the slightest.

Whenever someone tries to tell me we aren't "really" camping. I tell them I have nothing to prove. I've done far more deep woods camping when I was young than most people will ever do in their entire lives.

Amen. Especially if any of your kids were involved in Scouting!