Whatever happened to camping? When I bring up this subject, some of my younger camping friends think I'm a bit crazy. They have their fancy nylon mansions some call tents, and screenrooms, three burner stoves that light automatically, lanterns that put out more light than my dining room chandelier, coolers that hold a short ton of food and a glaciers worth of ice. They have their boomboxes, wave runners, jet skies, four wheelers, and on and on.
So what do I have? I have my 30 foot travel trailer filled to the brim with all I need to live, seemingly, forever. Even so, I can't help but hearken back to a much simpler time, and to wonder to myself which was better, then or now.
When I was a child, camping was a simple thing. As a Boy Scout, I had a simple canvas combo tent and poncho, which was nearly impossible to set up the right way. I had a sleeping bag filled with kapok, which was impossibly unable to keep even the hottest blooded Scout warm at night. I had an aluminum messkit that everything stuck to, and a roll of aluminum foil (it wasn't very good back then) that pretty much did the job of all other cooking utensils. I had a beautiful compass that I never did figure out, but which all the other scouts admired.
When it rained I tried to keep dry inside that leaky old poncho/tent thing. At night, when the real cold settled it, I spent half my time huddled in the very bottom of that old sleeping bag, trying to find some semblance of warmth, and some sign that daylight would be coming shortly.
So why are these trips so memorable? Let me try to explain. First of all, the night skies were brighter and more filled with stars. The sounds of night didn't include sirens, and noisy cars and trucks, and dogs that barked seemingly forever. Above all, the camaraderie of the campfire was the magic that held it all together. To sit and stare into the crackling flames was (and still is) the best stress reducer ever invented. To poke a stick into the coals then bring it up and watch the flame on the end of the stick slowly dwindle away was pure bliss. To roast a marshmallow till it was burning like an adventurers torch, then blow it out and eat it black and all....wow, a gourmet's delight. To cook a porkchop and sliced potatoes wrapped in foil in a campfire's coals, then open it up and eat the half-raw results, cinders and all.....what a memory. To simply be in a place untouched by a loggers saw, or a bulldozers blade was what it was all about. The sky was bluer, the trees greener, the air more pure and sweet. It was as if you were the only person on earth........
So, is it better now? I guess it depends on your viewpoint. If you are a younger person, say 30 or below, you can't possibly understand what it was truly like back then. Does that means it's worse now? No, only different. Those of us who are truly old-time campers know that back then it was harder. Nothing came very easy, and the bad camping times could be really trying to the soul. Do we hate the course that camping has taken nowadays. Certainly not. Any camping is better than no camping. It's easier for us nowadays. We can sit back, knowing we have all the things that make camping so simple, and enjoy our "golden years" listening to the jets, and the sirens, and the loud cars, and the noisy boomboxes, and the never-ending yapping of ill-trained dogs, AND peering into that wonderful campfire with it's crackling flames and magical wisps of smoke that carve imaginary figures in our mind. And we know that even though almost everything is different, we don't really care. We are camping, and that is what it's really all about.
Mike, Vicki (Wife) Jeremy (Grandson
1994 Allegro Bay
454 on P30
Blessed much better than we deserve..........
Yesterday is a memory, Tomorrow is a dream, Today is a gift, that's why we call it the Present. Enjoy your Gift today.
WOWOW... Great Job!
I too remember these things, I first started camping in 1946..there were very few 4x4's(only ONE in northern Calif. around Clear Lake at the time)...no ATV's...very few portable radio's, no TV..No gas BBQ's..no ice chests..we would put ice in a galvanized trash can with drain holes in the bottom and place a canvas tarp over the top with dry ice wrapped in newspaper.. it worked..sometimes keeping foods for days..SOMETIMES freezing everything if you used too much dry ice.!
We did have a gasoline stove and lantern...if you were adventurous, you could attempt to light the dang things..if you over pumped the primer they would usually catch on fire..along with everything around it in a 10 ft circle..I never owned a sleeping bag of any kind until 1960.. spent may nights rolled up in blankets and a REAL canvas tarp..on green fresh cut pine bows along side a camp fire.. waking up sometimes to find that it had snowed during the night..we had no lounge chairs..you sat on a stump or log or what ever else might be available..we cut dead timber with an AX..no fire..no heat!
We didn't have hiking boots.. you were lucky to have a pair of boots..usually black and white tennis shoes.
Flannel shirts and a Levi jacket..and a "Poncho".. wasn't any INSULATED anything.
I miss it too..but my 'Ol body doesn't..it WAS different.. but we didn't know the difference..because there wasn't anything else!
Thanks for the memories..
Without going into a rant....
Some of my best camping trips were in tents, (pup, GP small & medium)
The accommodations weren't always the best, but the camaraderie was some of the finest.
Also the good ole days along a local river with a camp stove, AM radio & sticks to roast hot dogs on. Bring back fond memories.
for us south texans, going camping in the northwest of the country was the greatest adventure any of had ever had.
no scorpions, rattlers, blister bugs, grass burrs or goat heads.
lots of tall pines and fir and grassy meadows and lakes and streams that kept your butter and milk and beer cold.
no showers or portapotties, either, so it was a cold bath and a bush for a bathroom.
I still like finding a place that feels isolated and is QUIET, but I gotta have my TV and computer.
TexasShadow
Holiday Rambler Endeavor LE/ 3126B Cat
BMW K75 on Rear Carrier
Jeep Grand Cherokee Toad
M&G aux brake system
Datastorm 3990
Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.
I'm 78 but still remember, vividly, those late Fall and early Spring camping trips into the Hocking forest of Ohio. Taters covered with thick mud were thrust into the deep red embers and would be our veggie, later, when we finished cooking our steak-on-a-stick. Our fingers were, by then, numb from the cold and it was sometimes difficult to pull our Boy Scout knife/fork/spoon apart so that they could become useful tools to eat. The potato was never completely "done" but we always bragged that ours was the best we'd ever tasted. We'd sip our cool canteen water and imagine how our family, at home, were each pouring their 2nd glass of milk but not having the pleasure of our fine camp dinner. Poor family!
Off to our lean-to shelter, where we'd talk into the night and then drift off to sleep, only to be awakened by a root that kept rubbing our ribs. Daybreak was welcome, as one got sore from sleeping on the ground.
A couple of days later, when we returned home, we'd immediately shower and sometimes (so weary that we couldn't make it to dinner) toddle off to our bed where we'd sleep until noon the following day.
I am sort of the younger generation, at 43 I still remember the great times I had as a child camping with whatever we came up with, a tarp and a blanket, if I could sneak it out of the house. Then I got a tent and sleeping bag for christmas and I thought I had gone to heaven. On those hot summer nights in south Georgia when we were out of school, I camped out 4 or 5 nights out of the week. Had the tent set up permanently by the pond and thats where we stayed. Had to go home and wash now and then, and get more food. I camp in a 30 ft travel trailer now with the wife and child, enjoy it none the less, but the older you get, the more important the comforts of home become. Muscles and bones hurt longer from sleeping on the ground rather than a bed, Hot coffee taste better now than kool aide, and as for those hot south Georgia nights, well they haven't changed at all, their still hot and muggy, but the A/C helps take the edge off and makes for a much better sleep. But just reading the above posts and thinking way back when, it makes me all misty eyed all over again. I have an 11 year old son now and the same legacy is being passed on down to him. One day when he is enjoying his prevost, he will think way back about roughing it in dad's old Travel Trailer.
Thats what its all about...making memories...my 2 y/o grandson told me this summer.."Grandma, I LIKE campin' and wimmin" (swimming) I hope he will have lots of memories through his growing up years, and 40 yrs from now can be telling his kids about it.
Julie
Garry and Julie
2008 Jay Series 1207
Dodge Ram 1500
Looking to Make Memories
We've got friends who, like you, have many camping memories to recall when they talk of their younger days. In fact, they kind of roll their eyes when my husband and I talk about going "camping" in our 5'er for an upcoming weekend. However, I probably get just as much out of being in my home-on-wheels as they did in a tent. We all do it for different reasons.
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