Your first camping experience

[SeaDawg]

Just for fun, I thought I'd throw this out there.

For me, the very first  "independent" camping experience was  army surplus,  from my uncle,  thrown over a clothesline wire, between two trees, on our farm. Summertime,  of course. Army blanket for a ground cloth, and some kind of cotton batten sleeping bags. 

I think I was not quite four.  Maybe just over four? Not sure.

My sister and I (she's a year younger) had a grand time. Of course, I had to "watch" her. That was ok, and still is. My little bff. And, of course, mom and dad were just steps away, in the house. If we needed them. 

 

[topgun2]

Mine wasn't so glamorous - 

I "ran away" from home and decided to sleep with my dog in the back yard in his dog house.  I still don't know just how it was that I awoke the next morning in my own bed! 

[rideandfly]

Our Dad bought us a canvas 2 person pup-tent. Started camping in the back yard.  Eventually started back packing and camping in local woods. When camping in the woods would take side meat, eggs, and cook with Sterno stove. Really enjoyed that! 🙂

[Steve Morris]

Wow! I can’t remember my first camping experience! That surprises me. 

I remember going to Kiser Lake State Park (Ohio) in my grandparent’s Shasta in the late ‘50s. It had the canvas bunks suspended on rods above the bed. All I remember about that trip is how hot those bunks were, that there was an artesian spring to cool off in, and that all the parents were worried about a bobcat howling in the woods behind our camp.

My first tent camping was probably with the Boy Scouts, but we did have a canvas tent at home. I just don’t remember using it. We built a tree house (on 4x4 posts) and slept in that many times.

I’ve been backpacking and car camping ever since, only having the squaredrop the past five years. Everything before was in a tent.

Thanks for making me (try to) remember! 

[BackofBeyond]

Boy Scouts = Hike in, Tents, camping over open fire. California mtns. Long time ago. 

[snakeriveridaho]

The earliest I remember is similar to SeaDawg’s, but I was older. We were on our farm, canvas tent, blankets with cotton sleeping bags. It was in the winter and we were deer hunting. Has a great time with my two brothers. 
Kirk

[Landrover]

I was 7-8 not sure. Dad had a new 1965 Chevy C30 4x4 step side, with a slide in camper. Mom Dad and my two brothers spent many times at Charleston Beach RI. On the breach way. Driving a couple of miles on the sand to get to the ocean front. My brothers and I got our fill of digging in the sand, when the truck got stuck in deep sand.  We always made it. Camped for three four days on the ocean front no one around for miles.  With just a ice block refrig  small porti potty  toilet and 20 gals of water. Good memories. 

[Mike and Carol]

Mid 1960s, Boy Scouts in southern Oklahoma.  Hiking, campfires, little tents.  When my dad got back from Vietnam the first time we got an 8X10 canvas tent that my parents and us five boys and two dogs could fit in.  Then we got a pop up that we towed, I was 15 and it was my first towing experience with my dad in Vietnam the second time.  We 5 boys could set it up while mom watched.  Good times.  As part of my career as an adult I got to camp all over Europe and many places in the US.  Mike

[dewdev]

YMCA camp when I was 10 and again when I was 11.

My dad bought a Apache pop-up camper when I was 12.. It had a double bed (for my Dad) and the pop-up canvas went to the  side and made a side room. We had two cotts on either side of the door, one for me and one for my best friend who was from NYC. We went all over New England and Canada each summer. Mom stayed at home and worked in her restaurant. (she did not like camping anyway because there was no toilet in the popup or so that was her excuse). We would eat supper and Dad would go visit with the neighbors while we boys were assigned to washing the dishes. Those were the good old days as a kid. We never needed to get a reservation at campgrounds so we just traveled whereever Dad drove us.

[Trainman]

3 hours ago, BackofBeyond said:

Boy Scouts = Hike in, Tents, camping over open fire. California mtns. Long time ago. 

Me to, I find I still use my Boy Scout experiences today when camping, it's funny what other campers say, how did you know to do that.  I do carry my Boy Scout Handbook with me in the trailer and yes, I have looked up things in it at times. The book is some 64 years old and still going strong. Too bad the B S aren't what they used to be.

trainman 

[Mcb]

I was 8 or 9 I’m guessing. Somewhere in NH in an old Army surplus tent, full of old army surplus gear…it rained and rained..  I remember sitting on a cot with my little sister and brother eating cold spagettios and trying to keep our feet above the water as it rose, and watching stuff float around the tent.

The three of us got a kick out of it.. not sure my mother felt the same..