Does anyone remember TENTS??

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When dome tents became available we bought one.
The first time out with it I did not know what that extra piece of nylon was for until we woke up soaked the next morning. I then learned that it was a rain fly and was needed to keep the rain out! :eek:
To this day, when I wake up in the trailer listening to rain hit the roof I think about how nice it is to wake up dry. 8)
 
Hi,

Just before we retired, my wife and I camped in a tent while looking for motorhomes. Pretty good for 62 year olds but we did have an air mattress. BTW we put our junk in the tent and slept in the mini van. I had thought ahead and bought a heater which we had to use in 30 degree weather. Picture is of our setup at Catalina State Park north of Tucson.
 

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Does anyone remember TENTS??
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Boy, do I!!!  After Daddy returned from a not-so-fun tenting experience trekking across Europe during World War II he eventually got out of the Army and I inherited his tent.  Yep, one of those canvas kinds that weighed a ton and I carried it on many Girl Scout outings.  Along with his canteen and mess kit with utensils.  The other girls may have had newer things but I got along pretty well with my basics.  I probably weighed all of 100 pounds so you might say it toughened me up!  I used that stuff until I graduated from both high school and the Girl Scouts at age 18.

ArdraF
 
For a decade, I camped with (and lots of time, without) a tent in the Army; spent plenty of nights sleeping in the dirt, or in the rain or snow, or fully clothed, or some combination of those. I decided that camping in the future would have a very different meaning, and so it does.

Nothing wrong with tents, but as always, different strokes for different folks, and that's a good thing...  ;)
 
signcut said:
For a decade, I camped with (and lots of time, without) a tent in the Army; spent plenty of nights sleeping in the dirt, or in the rain or snow, or fully clothed, or some combination of those. ;)
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In my entire time in the Army I never had the luxury of a tent.  If we were not in barracks we slept wherever we were.  Sometimes we had a sleeping bag, but often we did not.  My last night in VN I slept in six inches of water, course it was warm water.  We did have a roof where we hung our class As so we could get on the plane in the morning looking sharp.  Spent many nights sleeping in sand or jungle with nothing.

I like my comforts now.
 
My dad, brother and I camped in a sears canvas tent. That was in the early 60?s. Got married and dad gave us the tent. Wife and I camped in the Sears tent. Joined the AF and tent camped at different locations. Went to Japan and tent camped all around that country. Now we have a small TT but carry an EZ Up with a tent that attaches to the inside frame. The tent is 10x10x7.5. We have two large cots with pads and nice sleeping bags. The cots have built in bedside tables. The tent is great for storage too. Very easy to put up. I do that while the wife squares away the inside of the RV.
 
Oh yah, the good ol' tent! Money was tight when I was a kid and our annual family vacation was a week at Delta Lake State Park. We had a huge canvas tent - weighed 50+ lbs and had exterior poles. We did have the luxury of cots, at least. Also spent a considerable amount of time in tents (or under a tarp or even homemade lean-to) while in Scouts in all sorts of weather. We took our 2 girls tent camping a number of times but got a pop-up when they were 9 and 7 and haven't looked back!
 
My guess would be a large percentage of rvers were tent campers in their youth. They have carried their love of camping over to rving. I know my crowd used to camp all the time when we were young. Tents were what we used. We used to take an annual canoe trip to Algonquin Provincial Park. We would go between five and ten days, carrying all our gear and canoes over portage trails for miles. These days, not so much. Ive grown accustomed to having a bed, heat, air conditioning, a washroom etc handy at all times. I wont even buy a machine unless it has electric start and reverse. I guess I just getting soft in my old age. My days of sleeping on the ground are far behind me.
 
My dad had a travel trailer when I was a kid, so I was an RV'er in my teens.  After I left home, I spent a lot of years tent camping.  When I got married the wife, kids, and I always tent camped.  After the kids all grew, my wife and I started tent camping on a motorcycle, then we went to tent camping on 2 motorcycles.  As the tent got bigger and an air mattress was added, I started pulling a cargo trailer behind my bike.
Then one day the DW said she wasn't sleeping on the ground any more.  I hesitated to mention that sleeping on a double height, king sized air mattress wasn't exactly "sleeping on the ground".  My wife started looking on Craigslist for an RV, and that was all she wrote.
No more tent camping for us.
 
Yep,we had a canvas tent.  Inflatable pillows,much like a small rubber raft.  Remember those?  Camped at Assateague State Park in MD.  Sand in everything,no trees for shade.  Also did some camping along the C and O Canal.  My dad was a member of the canal association.
 
I still have my tent.... it is not canvas, but I have to bring a tarp or I wake up damp....
It fits my queen-sized deluxe air mattress and not much else..

We took my folks camping and the folks got the camper beds and my sister and I slept on the air mattress in the tent... wasn't so bad (except the first night I had forgotten why I always packed a tart with the tent, woke wet.... second night was more cozy)

I'd do it again....
I'm considering the tent and mattress a addition to my little RV as it give me room for friends to stay!
 
With DH being in the National Guard when we first married (he later went fulltime military) it was very hard to convince him to go ?camping?. Said he got enough of that with the guard no matter how much I said it would be different. So I went ahead and bought the tent and supplies and when he had his 2 weeks guard training up in Michigan the kids and I found a State Park nearby and camped out. He could join us on his free time or not ?.

Turned out he liked my style of camping and we did quite a few tent trips before graduating to a popup. Even then still carrying the tent so the kids could bring friends along.

We did have a mishap that first 2 weeks in Michigan. The 1st or 2nd night there, my daughter and I were in the big tent that had a separate screened porch area where I had the food stored and my two sons were in a separate pup tent. DH was not there yet. During the night I heard some rustling noise from the front of the tent so I opened the zipper to check it out. Even though the front part was zipped closed, it didn?t have a floor and a skunk had crawled under the wall and was rooting thru our stuff!! Fortunately we had a back way out of the tent! I woke the boys and we managed to open the front flap and scare off the skunk without it spraying. Kids thought it was a great adventure!

Vicki
 
shorts said:
During the night I heard some rustling noise from the front of the tent so I opened the zipper to check it out. Even though the front part was zipped closed, it didn?t have a floor and a skunk had crawled under the wall and was rooting thru our stuff!!
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I thought you were going to say it was a bear! Kind of a tossup I guess: Bear vs. Skunk.  ;D

Raccoons can also be a problem as I expect you know. Those critters who live around campgrounds have become particularly adept at getting at camper's food. Some have learned how to open just about any cooler as well as unzip tent zippers.
 
I have slept outside for over 50 years. In a tent, on the ground, in a Marine Corp fighting hole, under a tarp, under my dining fly, and in all 4 seasons. About a month ago I upgraded to a 5er.
I prefer to camp in the spring, fall, and winter. Not so much in the summer, especially in a tent. I especially love listening to the snow land on the tent, and to watch the world come to life in the morning.

I have camped in a tornado, and through storms so big they dropped 7" of rain overnight. Sometimes in a tent, sometimes under a 5x8' tarp. Wake up dry as a bone.

I hope the 5er keeps me as dry.



 
Hanr3 said:
I have camped in a tornado, and through storms so big they dropped 7" of rain overnight. Sometimes in a tent, sometimes under a 5x8' tarp. Wake up dry as a bone.
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Something very primal and satisfying about being comfy cozy in a tent while the weather rages outside.
 
As I mentioned in an earlier post I  have camped in a tent on many occasions. And I have learned a few things about camping in a tent. One very important lesson is if you take your lantern in the tent you and anyone else in the tent show up in silhouette on the outside. We were young and didn?t know any better. It was hard to look our fellow campers in the face the next morning. How did we find out about the silhouette? My wife had to go to the bathroom and when she came back she told me.
 
The last time we camped in a tent there was a little hail storm.  The next week we started looking at RV's.
 

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