What is the point of a "camper"?

StarSis, now of youth sports fame, had not arrived when our family started camping. Actually the 3 youngest StarSibs, who arrived when I was in my teens, weren't around in 67.

When the young kids arrived and I became a teenager, I was bumped out into my own luxurious two-man Cub Scout tent with a cot.

StarSis, now with her own family of 5 kids, does the popup camper thing too, but theirs is a 2000s version with a propane tank and capability to plug in to electricity.

They can still go old school and go bare bones, but for some reason the kids prefer heat and electricity.

And oh yeah, most of the campgrounds have WiFi now.

It was a big deal when I was 11-12 when I got a little AM-FM cassette radio with an earphone. That was the extent of our electronics hookups for a few years until Dad finally broke down and got a 8" BW portable teevee.

 

There were only two of us kids, but that was pretty much our approach, too. My parents couldn't afford (either in time or money) anything other than short trips to state parks in the area. Had some great times, though. To this day we laugh about my parents splurging on that six-pack (for the week!) in Myrtle Beach. I remember, also, my mother getting a jones for some onion rings, so in that god-awful hot and windy campground she plugged her electric frying pan in and gave 'em a go.

One other very vivid memory was from one of those state-park trips. We were watching some show on this little black-and-white TV we had when the local news came on with a special bulletin. A young girl, from the next town over from my hometown, had been kidnapped at a laundromat. They went on and on about it, then my parents said it was time for bed. I lay there in my little bunk, a piece of vinyl-covered canvas between me and the world, and I just knew the kidnapper was out there.

 

The valet at the Ritz Carlton is usually very good about giving directions to the local hiking trails. They will also give you a bottle of water so you stay hydrated.

 

Our Moms were troopers. They did everything they did at home - cooking, cleaning, laundry - without the appliances at home that made these things easier.

 

We used to do weeklong canoe trips down the river, and always brought at least one extra canoe to hold all the booze.

 

The prime sites at most state parks always fill up fast.

Over the years, I've camped in this exact campsite probably a dozen times.

Back in the Sixties/Seventies it was $1.50 a night. I think it's like $22.50 or so now.

 

SonOfQuant loves to camp, so of late a spring-break camping trip is almost de rigeur. Last year (2016), we camped for two nights at the state park a few miles down the road where, even though you're in/near the big city, it feels wild (the coyotes yipping late at night certainly add atmosphere). Way early (say, 2 a.m.) that first morning, some doofus kids a few spots down were having a blast yipping and hollering non-sensically across the lake. Finally, I had enough, stormed out of the tent and walked down there to tell them to shut the fuck up. The grown-up (late 20s, early 30s) with them asked me if I had "a light" -- I told him I didn't -- then said they'd quiet down.

In retrospect, I don't think the guy was asking me if I had a light.

 

During my aforementioned (and only) overnight camping trip there were two guys in each canoe and one giant jug of vodka and lemonade, and we battled over control of the jug, ramming each other's canoes all the way down the river. That part was fun.

 

Fuckin' Rockefellers, always showing off.

 

Camping. Yeah. We, too, had one of those Coleman pop-ups (not as fancy as Baron von Quant's model). Damn near froze to death overnight at Dinosaur National Monument, fought the stifling heat outside D.C., and always had to piss in a damn pot. God help you if you had to take a dump.

Goooooooood times.... good times.

 

I'd like a pop-up as well. Camping in my beck of the woods, though, isn't the same as when I lived out West where you could go up to the mountains and escape the heat.

A few years ago, went to Disney World. Rented a camping space in Ft. Wilderness on site and rented a pop-up camper from a place that set it up and took it down. Too bad it rained half the time we were there.

 

Why Is Camping a White Thing? A Few Wild Theories