Does anyone remember TENTS??

[jymbee]

Apparently in years gone by people used to carry around-- sometimes on their backs-- these rather crude temporary shelters composed of so much nylon fabric supported by a system of poles. From what I can gather creature comforts were virtually non-existent. No hookups of any kind... only light after dark were candles or perhaps some kind of gas torch. Toilets? Either a walk in nearby woods or you're on your own in this shelter. I take it that despite what today seems like what must have been near prehistoric accommodations, people were quite taken with this form of "recreation", often forsaking any kind of vehicular transportation and simply setting off ON FOOT! Strange times indeed...     

 

[UTTransplant]

I was an active canoeist until I moved to Utah. In Utah I became a kind-of canoeist, but many of my friends are still ardent tent campers. I still tent camp when on multi-day river trips, but it has been over 2 years since my last one. The lights at night are generally firelight or headlamp these days, and the toilet is a wag bag for solids. Cooking on a camp stove or the fire. Sleeping on a lovely down filled air mattress it?s 4? of loft, covered up in a warm, soft down sleeping bag. Ummm. It doesn?t sound so bad after all!

Ok, I cheerfully admit I like my comforts. I can tent camp every year or two quite happily for 4-5 days, but after that I want my shower and a real toilet.

 

[captsteve1]

In these tent things, I heard they put themselves in a bag to sleep and had to actually talk to the people they went "camping" with how absolutely barbaric is that!!!

 

[EdJunior]

Hmmm, something like this?  Copper River, Alaska, about 1986 or so.

 

[darsben]

I just bought a new tent. Opens like an umbrella. 2 minute set up

 

[jayc2640]

I've tent camped in the snow.  When it was cold enough that we had two dogs inside the sleeping bag with us!  I've tent camped on a hilltop in Kentucky in a thunderstorm, when it was so wet we dug a trench around the tent.

IT SUCKED!!

I now am full-timing in a class a, and snow means I have to turn on the furnace, If it rains, I watch tv in the coach.

Tents were fine in my 30s, but now I'm approaching 60, and I no longer want to sleep on the ground.  For those that do, you're insane.

 

[RVMommaTo6]

Lol that's great! I remember having to heat up water to bathe my babies in rubber maid bins, I had 3 in diapers. I thought it was ultra luxurious when I upgraded to an air mattress. Ahhhh, how far I've come! Lol

 

[cadee2c]

As a kid, we never had tents. We just slept in sleeping bags on the ground. Then I had a van with an old twin mattress in it. For a short time we lived in an old 14 foot shasta trailer. My ex got that, so I got myself a small dome tent. When the ground got too hard, I got an air mattress which required getting a bigger tent. Then the mattress was too low to the ground, so I got an air mattress bed frame which required getting a bigger tent. I was really excited when I got my Luggable Loo which required getting an even bigger tent. After I had to leave all our camping gear at the campground to take my DH to the hospital with congestive heart failure, we got the RV.

I dont miss tent camping.

 

[Prior member]

We still use one.
We go as far as we can with the RV and then that becomes our base camp and we take off with the tent either paddling our back packing

jack L

 

[Seilerbird]

I sure remember tents. I hung up my keys five years ago and stopped traveling. I decided to visit California for a vacation and drove my car and stayed in motels. I spent time at Grand Canyon, Zion and Pinnacles National Parks. I had to tent camp and loved it.

 

[ro1459]

Still use tents every year. I have two of them. One a 16 X 20 Outfitters Tent and the other a four season tent for the back country. You can't get an RV or any kind into places we hunt in Colorado every year so tents are necessary. That said, my tents have carpet floors, heaters and wood burning stoves, oversized cots with 4" memory foam mattresses, and lights. We also carry two Honda 2000 generators. I may tent camp but there is no need to be uncomfortable. Oh, we also have a portable outhouse.

 

[kdbgoat]

Deb and I still carry one in the C. We don't use it often. We went to a few Pennsylvania State Parks a couple of years ago tent camping, and other than crushing one of my fingertips in the car door, we really enjoyed it. We were in our late 50's then.

 

[ernieekberg]

YUP- 50 years ago, never again

 

[HappyWanderer1]

Our son was born June 1, and we spent July 4th weekend in a tent.

 

[lynnmor]

My now retired doctor carries a tent on his back and hikes for weeks at a time, all over the nation.  He is as fit and healthy as can be.  One of us is rather stupid.

 

[Cooperhawk]

I went camping with the US Army for a few years and that was enough.  I now enjoy the comforts of a soft warm bed and a roof out of the rain and snow.  So sue me.  Oh yeah, Satellite TV is good as well.  Want to talk, bring your lawn chair and cocktail and I'll be a happy man to entertain you.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

LOL! We had a tent back in the days when they were actual canvas.  Coleman stoves, grates for cooking over a campfire, collapsible water jugs, sleeping bags, etc.

I recall one rainy spring weekend when the waterproofing on the canvas gave out and we got nearly as wet inside as it was outdoors!  One major leak sprung right over my wife's bedding and it got soaked while we were traipsing out & about in the rain.  She was not a happy camper (especially when I laughed!).  We bought our first pop-up trailer the following week!  Had a load of fun, though, and we still tell the stories. 

 

[garyb1st]

My first experience camping was in a state park in Duluth Minnesota.  It was probably around October 1961.  Woke up to snow on the ground and an outhouse, about 100 yards away.  It wasn't too cold, probably only 30-31?.  Fast forward to 1996.  Asked my son if he wanted to go camping.  Following week I'm buying my first tent, sleeping bags, air mattresses, coleman lantern and stove.  Next thing we're heading to the Sierras.  Set up tent, talk to neighbor, listen to story, mostly in German, "grosser bear tear hole in tent".  No prior experience with bears.  Spent the night sleeping in back of SUV.   

 

[cadee2c]

Now thats funny

 

[Larry N.]

Are you sure that's not spelled TENSE?  : ;D

Actually, my first camping was with the scouts, but the folks occasionally would take a tent along when we traveled through the Rockies. After getting married, we tried a mini-motorhome (now Class C) for a couple of years, then picked up a backpacking tent and sleeping bags, which we actually enjoyed more, at that time. Camped periodically for a number of years, then started camping with the scouts, too, in the mid-80s when my sons got old enough for scouts. Finally got a Trailmanor trailer in 2006, then upgraded to a motorhome in 2010.

The old bod no longer likes sleeping on the ground, in a bag, even on a ThermaRest, so our mobile apartment serves us well these days. We do still have tent and bags, though, if we ever need them.