Is it me? Am I a dying breed?

[CajunCamper]

I am 47 years old and have been camping since I was about 5 years old. Back then we slept in an old canvas cabin style tent with sleeping bags and no pads or air matresses. We cooked over an open fire using dutch ovens, cast iron skillets and a grill my dad made that layed across either bricks or logs to suspend it over the fire. We toted our water in 5 gallon cans and kept things cool in ice chest. We hiked, canoed, fished and swam in the lake or the river and enjoyed singing and conversation around the campfire. When we needed to use the bathroom, we had a designated area where a hole was dugg about 50 nyards from our campsite and that's where you went. At the end of the camping trip the hole was coverd up. When you needed to take a bath, waster was warmed in a large pot and you found a place out of site and tooka a wash rag and bar of soap and washed yourself off. Nothing real complicated about any of it and we loved it.

Today, not much has changed except for the fact that we sleep in a pop up and use public bath houses. We still keep things cool in ice chest and we still cook over an open fire with cast iron and a grill. We now bring along a small gas grill in case a fire ban is in effect. We traded the canoe in for kayaks, but we still hike, fish and swim, and we still keep things at an unhurried pace still enjoying song and conversation around the campfire as well as a mid-day nap every now and then.

The reason I ask if I am a dying breed is because, some of the people we camp with got into camping later in life and they seem to keep the same hurried pace while camping as they do during their work week. Their kids bring along ipods and personal DVD players and the adults cook their meals in microwaves and crock pots using a Mr. Coffee as they spray pancakes on an electric griddle out of a can while having either a TV or a stereo playing music most of the day around the campsite. It takes them 4 hours to set up camp with all the crap they bring along and they don't ever seem to relax or get quiet long enough during the trip to exhale and recharge their internal batteries. Most of them don't even seem to really notice the beauty of the outdoors they find themselves surrounded by. There's so much gear to set up and fix and start and recharge and add batteries to that MAN, I get tired watching them.

I get enough of that at home, that's why we camp, to break out of that mess and relax. Even when our kids were little they learned that when we went camping we did things a lot different than at home and we slowed down.

I know everyone has their way of camping, but to me it seems like people are missing out on a lot of what camping has to offer by always having their toys and gadgets with them.

We have two families that we have been camping with for about three years now that always brought every gadget the kids were used to having and every modern gadget you can imagine. Like a food processor for chopping onions while cooking. Well we talked them into leaving all that stuff behind on one camping trip and they were a little hesitant because they thought the kids would revolt not having their stuff. Well they agreed and guess what. The kids never missed any of their stuff and we cooked over an open fire and they loved the process as well as the end result. Our friends told us that they always thought  that the gadgets would make things easier for them while camping and that the toys would keep the kids occupied, but they said that without all that stuff, they all enjoyed the camping experience much better and that they felt much more relaxed as a result.

I may be a dying breed, but I intend to pass along a few of my learned camping skills to others to help them get as much out of the camping experience as possible.

CajunCamper

[spicyville1]

Very well put! .  In this day of a fast pace life, it does take it's toll on you. Living in the Dallas/Ft Worth area is the MAIN reason I try to get out camping as much as I can. Even if it is with my 2 youngest daughters. I MUST have that peace of mind I had when I grew up just outside of Waco,Tx. I was camping every weekend it seemed. A fishing pole, bow and arrow or a rifle was always near by. Though I no longer "hunt" I trully enjoy the outdoors with my little critters Emma and Rachael and we do.............you guessed it fish! They love it!  I spend as much time as I can fishing with them from the bank of a lake or river. Spending the time with your little ones is a memory that I hope they never forget. I know I remember the fishing trips with my dad!  :#

[AzRon]

I agree some people take way to much stuff. When i was growing up ( my Wife will debate that i've grown up ) our camping was just a sleeping bag a ground cloth (old shower curtin) and an old cast iron skillet and water we didn't have the luxry of a  :tent:  now days when i camp it is with very little distractions other than a book and a comfy chair.  AzRon

[Miller Tyme]

I'm on my 3rd pop-up, and have yet to use any of the sinks, furnaces, or cooktops inside any one of them.(okay, once in a while with the furnaces, but that's it.)  As far as any electronic devices...nada. You want entertainment? You got the whole wide world out there.:cool:

We just transferred all our camping stuff from the Pal to the Dutch. Talk about unused stuff! Good thing we're having a rummage sale next month.....:banghead:

[fritz_monroe]

I camped a lot as a kid in scouts.  My wife didn't camp at all.  I got her camping and trained to camp like me.  Our kids get to take their hand help games for the trip, but they don't leave the TV.  Same goes for DVD players on long trips.  We have been rained in the camper before and watched a movie, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

I've also camped and vacationed with the hurried type of family.  I vacation and camp for to relax.  I can't relax if I'm racing around trying to get places.  We hike a lot and geocache while camping.  We will visit local attractions.  But I get enough stress at work, I camp to get away from that.

[AZsix]

You are not a dying breed my friend. Everyone has their own reasons for camping and their own ways of doing it. Like you, I camp to escape the distractions of home. My kids bring their Nintendo DS's but for the ride only. Once we reach camp they stay in the car. We don't bring a television but do bring a radio. We don't have a clock in the camper and my watch is broken so the only clock is on my cell phone which I never look at. One of my kids once suggested that we get a clock to hang up in the camper. My response was, "Why? When we are tired we go to sleep, when we are hungry we eat and when we wake up if we want to get out of bed we get out of bed." That seemed to make sense to the both of us.

We do cook on the stove in the pup and the small gas grill outside. I am going to try to get adventurous one of these days and cook over the opened fire but with five people depending on me for food I don't want to leave them hungry and hostile toward me. That would tend to put a damper on the rest of the trip.

One of the great joys of camping for me is sitting by myself with a cup of coffee in the cool morning air watching the sunrise. Another is sitting either alone or with my wife under a million stars just reflecting on how happy I am to be right where I am at that very moment.

[ColemanCampingFamily]

Like you, I started out camping at a very young age (3 or 4) and we had an old Cox soft-top camper. I can remember getting more "gadgets" as the years went by, but we NEVER had a Television or radio with us. We did, however, have a fan because we always camped at Myrtle Beach (HOT as hades). My mom also had an old Coleman gas stove (you know, the LIQUID kind of fuel) that she would cook breakfast on. Dinner was always cooked by fire. I actually had that old stove until a few years ago (thing was about 30 years old, I would guess). Because DH is a Boy Scout, he believed in that old saying that if you can't carry it on your back, you don't need it. When we first started camping together as a couple, I would pack a chair and he thought that was a sacrelidge. Needless to say, as the years went by, we added onto those "must have" items. Now, with a PUP and a kid, we take everything but the kitchen sink. Wait....we have one of those too! We bring everything from a TV/VCR/DVD to pillows. Sad as it may seem for many, our PUP has absolutely every modern convenience stored in her that all we need to do is pack some clothes and fill the coolers. My LL Bean Camp Kitchen has all of the cooking tools & spices, we have towels/linens/pillows that stay in the PUP, we each have a toiletry bag with the essentials (I do manage to go without makeup on weekend trips  :p ), lordy...so much stuff is stored in that tiny thing that it amazes me!! I will admit, however, that on a one-night trip we only pull out the "essentials", which means the camp kitchen, chairs & TV so that son can fall asleep in the PUP by himself. Well goodness, I have rambled on and on, lol. I have our setup down to a science (takes MAYBE an hour from start to finish), though. We truly enjoy the outdoors and the recharging of the batteries. I CAN'T WAIT TO GO CAMPING AGAIN!! OH, we do go "no frills" twice a year with the Cub Scouts, lol...DH wouldn't let me take the air matress last time, but after seeing every other adult there with an air matress, I kindly informed him that ours would be going in May...can't deal with sleeping on the hard ground anymore, lol. If HE wants to "rough it" with our son, so be it...not me.

[cyclone]

My camping as a child was much as Cajun describes (big old canvas cabin tent) only we camped mostly in state parks that had bathrooms (some just pit toilets).  We swam, fished, played LOTS of cards and games, etc., for entertainment.  We also had this huge canvas tarp that more than covered two picnic tables placed end to end.  Hung a lantern from a loop in the center of that and played cards when it was dark, too.  We cooked on either a Coleman stove or the fire.  The only source of light was that lantern or a flashlight.  And, we had FUN!!

Now, we do have a pop-up with many of the amenities.  I admit to having a small microwave, but we almost never use it.  And, about the only time we take along a TV is if the Titans are playing.  We still cook on a Coleman stove or with a grill.  I think we have used the stove inside the camper twice, and that was in horrible weather.  We use the a/c, have turned on the furnace a couple of times, and rarely even bother to hook up the water.  We cook and eat outside, so it's just easier to get water from the actual spigot instead of going inside the camper.  We don't have hot water, so we heat it on the stove to wash dishes.  Entertainment is still the campfire, a good book, and maybe a game or two.  (we keep a few games and decks of cards in the camper all the time).  And, we use a lantern when we need it.

[SkipP]

My camping as a child was much as Cajun describes (big old canvas cabin tent) only we camped mostly in state parks that had bathrooms (some just pit toilets). We swam, fished, played LOTS of cards and games, etc., for entertainment. We also had this huge canvas tarp that more than covered two picnic tables placed end to end. Hung a lantern from a loop in the center of that and played cards when it was dark, too. We cooked on either a Coleman stove or the fire. The only source of light was that lantern or a flashlight. And, we had FUN!!
 
Now, we do have a pop-up with many of the amenities. I admit to having a small microwave, but we almost never use it. And, about the only time we take along a TV is if the Titans are playing. We still cook on a Coleman stove or with a grill. I think we have used the stove inside the camper twice, and that was in horrible weather. We use the a/c, have turned on the furnace a couple of times, and rarely even bother to hook up the water. We cook and eat outside, so it's just easier to get water from the actual spigot instead of going inside the camper. We don't have hot water, so we heat it on the stove to wash dishes. Entertainment is still the campfire, a good book, and maybe a game or two. (we keep a few games and decks of cards in the camper all the time). And, we use a lantern when we need it.

Our camping style isn't unlike Jan's. We have a nuke but it's main use is to heat things quickly so we can get back to relaxing.
 
Kids can be seperated from their iPods but is it really worth it?

[sacrawf]

I used to camp with a group of friends with little but sleeping bags, clear plastic sheeting from the hardware store taped up with duct tape to make a bivy bags, ensolite pads, aluminum mess kits, used boy scout backpacks, and tin can candle lanterns. So equipped, we camped even when the temps dipped into the teens and the snow was falling.  All cooking was done over an open fire.  The fire was tended all night, so rocks could be heated and quickly wrapped in cloth to throw into the foot of the sleeping bag to help keep feet from freezing.  We sat around the campfire, smug with an attitude of disdain for those those that dared to cook on a Svea backpacking stove, use a nylon tent, or use flashlights or lanterns. How could someone truly enjoy all that nature has to offer when they brought a synthetic fabric to hide the stars from their eyes or use a battery powered flashlight?  How can you truly hear the sounds of nature if a lantern is making it's hiss? Wouldn't it be better to rid ourselves of hiking boots in favor of fringed moccasins made ourselves from a kit, or better yet, buy a hide at the local mountainman meet and make our own?   We thought the best part of camping was the joy of just knowing you had and could survive the night.

As we hiked back into town after our weekend camps we laughed at the travel trailers and motorhomes that were parked in driveways.  What right did those people have to call themselves campers?  They slept on foam beds, as protected from the wind, rain, and cold as if they were in their own homes. They couldn't hear the wings of a dragonfly if they tried from inside their metal cans on wheels!  They don't even have to hike for miles or climb any cliffs to get to their campsites....and so on.  We truly thought we were the last of a dying breed.

Being a teen purist snob backpacker made it difficult to later accept the comfort of down coats, tents, and even a stove and lantern, and finally today a very well-equipped pop-up.  I now realize that the lack or presence of comforts aren't what makes or defines the outdoorsperson.  Instead it is the reverence we bring with us for nature, science, history, and other people.  It is the observations and memories we take home. In camping you don't have to be an ascetic to grasp the experience.

[flyfisherman]

Hopefully, we all head to the great outdoors for the renewing, the rejuvenation of nature. Some of us are more primitive than others. Admittedly, I'm getting softer in my latter years. But I still remember the wonderful transition of sleeping on the ground in a tent (especially in the rain), to that lofty elevation of a high and dry popup! I've spent some wonderful nights, snug and dry, while listening to the rain coming down on the camper! Now, having said that, I still from time to time do a little tent camping. There are a couple of State C/G's that only allow tents - AND, they have a nice trout stream flowing by. Also, there are a couple of rivers where we like to set up the PU, riverside, then drive upriver and launch the canoes and just meander down river back to the camper site. We do a little fishing and carry along a tent to spend a night, with fresh caught fish for the evening menu, cooked over an open campfire. Now, to me, "it don't get any better than that".

To me, my popup is the base of my fishing "operations". Now, I know there are folks who could care less about anything related to fish. But that's me and that's what I really like to do. Have some friends who are avid back packers. Not me! More years ago than I care to fess up to, I spent a "tour of duty" in the military; and they discovered what a brilliant technical genius I am and made me an "up front grunt", toting everything I owned on my back, days and weeks on end, sleeping sometimes where-ever I just layed down! No more back-packing for me in this lifetime! But I do so much love to spend a night out of the canoe along the bank of a river or lake.

At this stage of my life, rather than thinking I'm a "dying" breed, I'd much rather think I'm simply a dinosaur.


Fly

[ForestCreature]

Maybe you aren't as rare as you thought Cajun. We still kick back into low gear too when camping. Heck our tent had more room than the A! My son grew up playing with mother nature, not Ipods.
 If we were guilty of taking to much of anything it was chairs LOL.
 At one time we traveled with a chair for every mood. Now we are scaled back to 2 non bagged folding chairs and 2 lafuma wannabes, those cover all the moods now. The rockers are retired as well as "shadows chair" (some know that chair).. Koda hasn't  shown interest in using a chair of his own at all. Shadows chair is too small and I'm NOT giving up my lounger!
 
 We do now camp with ele. , mostly because the local CG has it and to get back into the forest where we really belong (it's a 1 1/2 tank of gas weekend) Getting hard to justify $150 in gas for 2 or 3 nights camping.
 
 Still cook over the fire or in the "outside kitchen". Like Jan we do take a tv along for sports, mostly early May for Hockey (GO WINGS!)  and I have an electric percolator tucked away for those real nasty weather mornings. The stove has been used 2 times in 9 yrs, for coffee.

[jaytee2274]

Well said, everyone!!  Reading these posts, I get the feeling I am one of the younger "dying breeds."  (DH and I are 34....I can hear the groans)  As my signature says - I started camping before I was even born.  My parents started out in a tent, but when my sister came around - we moved to a pup.  I always tell people I feel so fortunate that we were able to travel and see places that my parents never could have afforded if we had to stay in a hotel.  While most kids took one big expensive vacation every summer, our family was able to take many trips all summer long.  I never remember missing the TV, and we never went hungry because we didn't have a microwave!  Honestly - my family and I used to make fun of the people with their A/C's running all night, watching TV instead of sitting by the fire!!  What's the point??!!

DH and I had to take a few years off camping, to have kids, buy a house, etc.  This is our first year back to it and I cannot tell you all how thrilled I am to show my kids the fun of camping.  No television, no DVD's, no handheld devices.  Just us and the dog.  We can't wait to get out there!!

Jen

[Old Starcraft]

I see that I too am not alone in that camping as we get older includes more "luxuries". I grew up in a middle class family that spent more time on vacations camping since it was much more econmical. All 5 of us stayed in an Coleman canvas 6 man tent. I fondly remember those nights when it did rain on the tent. This was the 70's without the "electronics", and no A/C in our tent with July being our month to camp, temps did climb but I still rememer the fun we had, rather than how hot it was.
 
Now that I'm older I wanted to get back to camping. Not being a purist I felt that our definition of camping is having a good time, being comfortable without most (I work at a Hospital as a manager and need to bring a cell phone) electronics, and more closer to nature.

[GeneF]

I envy many of you that got started camping at an early age with families that enjoyed the lifestyle.

Only camping I did as a youngster was a couple of Boy Scout camping trips.

We didn't get into camping until our kids were 2 and 6 and dw and I were into middle age.

We were given a 1969 TENT camper with some pots and pans, a gas stove and a lantern. I think you could call this camping with a tent on wheels.  Yes, the tent part was real canvas.

If you have read my thread on "Evolution" then you know how my family progressed from there.

Amenities grew as the age grew but we still enjoy the morning cup of coffee under the awning, the time around the campfire with friends and taking a look at mother nature.

Amenities such as A/c and furnace just make it easier for the old bones to enjoy camping more.


Hey Marcy, you forgot to mention the "Blender."

By the way, Marcy is a great cook on an open fire.