First years of camping

[loulou57]

What do you remember about your first experiences camping?

My dad driving 5 hours to a campsite, 3 kids in the back asking the age old question. My mother cooking supper on an open fire, only to hear my father in his broad Yorkshire accent, cursing about forgetting the tent poles in the driveway. The tent, hot pans, likely some supper and kids tossed back in the car and driving 5 hours home.

I never camped again until I was invited to go along with boyfriends family. Four boys and myself, the mom and dad, all squeezed into a small tent trailer. 2 beds and a fold down table. There was an add a room that served as kitchen. I remember it being full of boxes of food. No worries about, fridges, air conditioning, bathroom or tv. The only worry you had was if you were going to get a mattress to sleep on.

[noe-place]

I remember our first trip which was in a rented 23' rv. There were five of us and it got a little snug at times but we had a great time. That's what led us to buying our MH and we've been on the road ever since; when we have time that is.

[Carolina_Cruise]

Growing up camping was all I knew. Load everything in the little boat Thursday afternoon, parents get home from work on Friday, hookup the boat and off to the river we went. time made camp sites were first come first serve. Best times ever. Got away from camping for a little while but when the kids got a little older, started them camping and now they are grown so it's back to just us and the dogs but memories are still being made. We have came a long way from the primitive river camping but it will never be forgotten.

[JordanH]

What sticks in my mind the most was riding in the back of my dads old dodge listing to Buddy Wasisname on cassette, while he towed the trailer to Terra Nova National Park. I spent every summer there for years, I also remember towing the trailer to P.E.I. for a camping trip.

[Chock_Full_o__N]

My parents used to take their 2 week vacation primitive camping on Kerr Reservoir near Danville, VA. We had a huge canvas tent for the 7 of us, plus our Saint Bernard. Mom cooked on a Coleman stove. We kids were about 2,5,6,8,& 10. I can remember Mom washing out diapers in the water (I know, right? Yuck!) and hanging them up on a clothes line. There was no running water or electricity, just an outhouse up the road. We kids spent all day, every day in the water until we were sunburned and prune-y.

I don't know how they did it. There is NO WAY I would spend 2 weeks primitive camping with 5 little kids (one in diapers!), no A/C, no showers, sleeping on the ground, no kitchen and no easy bathroom access.

[realter]

The Good Friday overnight with the boy scouts at about age 11. It wasn't cool to bring anything but a flimsy sleeping bag, my tent partner just had a blanket. I've never seen anybody shiver so badly. The next morning we chipped ice out of the bucket of water. 54 years later, I really appreciate my truck camper.

[PcolaCamper]

I have vague memories of tent camping with my family when I was young but we never took our kids when they were small. It wasn't until our kids were grown and the nest was empty that DH and I started camping. We started with our Aztec that came with a "camping package" which included an air mattress, and tent that fit over the back of the open tailgate, about 12 years ago. From there we worked our way up to our first travel trailer. Since then we have tried to instill a love of the outdoors in our grandchildren. We have spent several summer vacations traveling with the older ones. We just signed up to go with our 1st grade grandson and his Mom on a cub scout family tent camping trip soon. Hope to pass along the skills we have learned over the years. Some of the things I love the most are the smells- campfires, pine trees, Fall leaves, food cooking outside. Seeing leaves falling and hearing them crunch underfoot in the Fall. Sunrises and sunsets are also high on the list of favorite things.

[Gunner45]

Our 'camping' was at horse shows 🙂

My parents bought a camper so we didn't have to get dressed in the back of the horse trail. After several years they upgraded to a small RV and then again to a 27' Minnie Winnie.

My parents now have a 35' class A and my husband and I just bought our first RV (a class C).

My grandma used to LOVE backwoods camping with her blue tarps. Me and my parents are more of the resort type campers 🙂 Just go out to get away and have a nice time with friends and family.


~ Dori ~

[Chock_Full_o__N]

DH didn't grow up camping, so he had a bit of a learning curve. The first time we took the kids(3,5,& 11) camping, we had a tent and sleeping bags. Our friends had invited us and promised to help. When we got up to the campsite my youngest son promptly vomited all over himself and me. He continued while DH and the friends set up our camp. About 5am, DS started wailing and wouldn't go back to sleep. DH and I got up with him and went outside, where it was blowing hard. For some reason, DH thought he should start a campfire. He put about 8 logs on the fire and in short order he had quite a conflagration. The wind was blowing the fire sideways and I was afraid he would set the whole woods on fire! I made him put that out and while he was stumbling around he clipped his shin on the metal fire grate. It really laid it open, too. When the sun came up we left the kids with the friends and headed into down to find a doctor and a tetanus shot! By the time we got back to camp, my 5yr old had fallen into the creek twice and had used up all her clean clothes. She was walking around in a man's Tshirt and no underwear. Really, it was a wonder we every went camping again!

[TnCamperMama]

First time I went was as a teenager, I remembered getting sunburned.

First time where I was the Mom in charge I took everything but the kitchen sink and didn't need it. I've learned over the years to simplify and take more bandaides, bug spray, and booze than I think I'll need. 🙂
I also take more snacking type foods b/c the kids are always hungry from playing so hard.

[michigansandzil]

Great stories. I feel like I am around a campfire!
My family didn't camp at all growing up. My first experience camping was going through the Smokies with a friend and her family at the age of 17. We were in a pop-up and stayed overnight in West Virginia because I begged to stay there. The showers were ice-cold and the crickets were so noisy that it was difficult to sleep.
My second experience was a few months later with the same friend. It was 4, 18 year old girls and the cg boys were chopping wood to start our fire and grilling us dinner! We crammed 6 people into a tiny car and drove to Tahquamenanon Falls for the day. Good memories.
Later, my husband and I got a tent as a wedding present so we could go to the Silver Lake Sand Dunes. We did that for years but we are now on our second TT. The last time we tent camped, I was pregnant with our third child and I had just found lice on my 3 year old son. I was picking them out of his hair at 10pm in a too hot public shower. Not fun at all.............but it definately made memories.

[PUCampin]

Opie431 wrote:
No he does not drink any more. It was years before my father stopped drinking. And having had an alcoholic father, I drink a few glasses of wine a year and that is it. Children of heavy drinkers go one way or the other.

So true. Because of my father I was 25 before I even tried alcohol. I have a very occasional glass of wine, and once in a while buy a 6 pack of good micro brew, which usually lasts a month. My brother was the same way as me, not ever wanting to go down that path. My father is sober now and I have a decent relationship, but I always wonder what could have been.

[Opie431]

No he does not drink any more. It was years before my father stopped drinking. And having had an alcoholic father, I drink a few glasses of wine a year and that is it. Children of heavy drinkers go one way or the other.

[oldbeek]

My dad went deer hunting in the eastern sierra every year. My brother and I joined in at 13yrs of age. 1954. We camped in an old oil cloth tent. 1956 we got a new ford Victoria and a 15 ft Starfire trailer. Mom said she liked the tent better. She liked working around the campfire. My first RV was a 1947 jeep with a 1946 Batam box trailer. Still have it. Could tent camp 3 days in the desert with 15 gallons of water for DW and 3 kids and bring some water home. Current 5r holds 100 gal and lasts 4 days.

[PUCampin]

My parents had a 72 Westfalia, so I have been camping since I was a couple months old. We went often and to many different places local and cross country. I have been to Alaska, NY and DC, Yellowstone and Glacier, and many many places in between, for which I will be forever thankfull.

Since the VW ("Bedbug" as we called "him") did not require hook-ups, we always dry camped. Usually state or national parks, or federal campgrounds. Being small we could take any site so rarely had reservations. I remember a lot of forest and desert camping.

My mom sewed a toybag that my brother and I got to fill and take. We ALWAYS packed the bulldozer so we could plow roads in the dirt for our other tonka trucks.

Dad would cook dinner on white gas coleman stove on the shelf just outside the sliding door. We also had a lantern for light that he would set ontop of the sink, which was under the canvas cot in the pop top. If it was cool out, my bed would be warm, if it was pleasant or warm out, my bed would be hot up there!

We sometimes had a fire, and the semll of campfire smoke combined with the canvas pop top is firmly inbedded in my memory. Ocassionally that smell will pop up somewhere, and vividly bring back those camping trips. My early childhood was good, and the camping / traveling trips are my favorite memories.

When I was in 6th grade my parents began having trouble, dad had turned to the bottle for reasons known only to him, totaled the VW, and by 8th grade they had a nasty split. I remember being devistated by the VW being gone, and not even being able to say goodby. At the time it represented all the happy family memories to me, and what I was holding on to as my family dissintegrated.

Things were pretty bad for a few years, but dad pulled himself together and has been a friend of Bill W (though my parents never did get back on speeking terms). He got a TC for his truck and my brother and I went camping with him and made good memories as well, just different than before.

Wow, just typing this has been such a trip down memory lane, many painfull, but many wonderfull.

We financially will probably not be able to take our kids to as many places as I hope to, but I hope they remember their childhood camping fondly as they grow up.