What is the point of a "camper"?

In the 1960s/70s, our family (then of 4) camped in one of these.



No water, no heat, (usually) no electricity.
It had a zip-on add-a-room screen cook tent area out front where my dad ran the Coleman lanterns and stove.

That's a "camper."

First thing you did checking into every campsite was to scout out the location of the nearest bathroom. If you were lucky, it was 100 or so feet away. And not a pit toilet.

 

George Carlin famously railed against camping, said something like why would you purposely choose to act like you're homeless. One of the few times I had a big departure from his way of thinking. I love camping. Hell, I went camping on my honeymoon. My ex-wife and I took a tent with us and flew out west and camped at Brice, Zion, Grand Tetons, Grand Canyon.

After college, I lived in a tent outside Aspen in the national forest for like a month while I waited to try to get a job and lodging in town. Camping resets your meter, man. Few things better than camping by a running stream and waking up to that sound. I don't try to proselytize though. My gf is way t0o girly for it. She is a mosquito magnet, breaks out easily in heat rashes, and so she is highly suspicious of the allure of the outdoors. But I camp on the beach each Labor Day with my daughter and she loves many aspects of it.

A camper feels like cheating, but if that's what it'd take to get people to join me in the great outdoors, I'd go along -- and bring my tent to sleep outside beside it.

 

I bought a Coleman lantern the other day and about set my fucking house on fire with it.

 

Not much different from what we had (check out that groovy 70s color scheme) ...

 

Yeah, yours was a little fancier with the hard top,a little better in the rain, but still pretty basic.

Our first major camping voyage in the no-frills Nimrod was a 2 1/2 week trek to Expo 67 in a June -July 67. We were camping in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal for 10 days. It rained and snowed half of them. Lows were in the 20s.

 

Few years ago we went to Santa Fe, NM, for spring break and, on the way up the mountain, saw some kids camping in a newer pop-up (it had heat, but the campground didn't have electricity). Colder'n shit, snow everywhere ... if that wasn't camping I don't know what is.

 

I've found that this piece of gear helps in weather.

 

Propane? Or gas?

Either way, there's that moment when you've put new mantles on it ... you've burned them down to ash ... and you hear the gas running. That "pop" when they light is terrifying to me.

 

Oh yes. It is now standard practice for me to start drinking beer first thing in the morning. I have some coffee, then I crack open a beer or two (or four). Takes the edge off. Especially on that first morning.

 

Yeah, the first time or two you light up the lantern, it looks like a remake of ...

In fact, Arthur Brown pretty much looks like he's dancing with a Coleman lantern on top of his head in this video.

I was 13-14 before I was entrusted or wanted to try lighting the lantern.

 

Ours could be connected to electricity and had a small fridge and stove. I had 7 siblings (10 years between the oldest and the youngest) and this was the only kind of vacation we could afford. We'd hit the Provincial campground at Shuswap Lake for at least 2 weeks. And 2 kids slept in the back of the station wagon since the tent trailer couldn't sleep us all.