2009.06.23
Any fond memories of backyard camping?
When I was a kid, one of our summertime traditions as soon as school was out was to pull out our old, musty, canvas Wenzel cabin tent and pitch it in the backyard.
For the next three months that tent would be our daytime fort and our nighttime bedroom. Most summers we slept outside far more often than inside.
The other day I spotted a couple of tents in a yard in Southwest Roanoke. That's something you don't see too often these days. It got me thinking I should do a story for The Roanoke Times on this once-popular summertime tradition. Timing seems appropriate as this Saturday is the National Wildlife Federation's Great American Backyard Campout. (The above image is from the Web site.)
So, I'm wondering how many readers of this blog have fond memories of those backyard campouts? And would you be willing to share those tales with me and readers of The Roanoke Times? Of course, if your kids are continuing the tradition, I'd love to hear about that, too.
If you'd wouldn't mind talking for the story, just drop me an e-mail at mark.taylor@roanoke.com or call me at 540-981-3395. Also, feel free to share any stories here by commenting.
Oh man was this a part of my younger years! Ironically, I was reminiscing about a particularly debaucherous backyard camping adventure during my teenage years just the other day with a childhood friend who now lives in Colorado. He took the positive influence of our youthful camping experiences and turned them into a career, spending some years working in the outdoors with troubled youth (he has since moved on to another career). In our younger years, backyard camping meant a taste of freedom and independence from the parents - late nights of games and hide-and-seek throughout the backyards, fields and orchards of the neighborhood, and no curfews. As we grew into our teenage years, our campouts would progress to include late night rendezvous with lady friends, and eventually include some unrepeatable adventures involving spirits much stronger than the water in our army surplus canteens. Drivers' licenses suddenly moved our camping trips beyond the backyards to mountain tops and stream banks, and even greater freedom and independence...and more spirits. These trips would continue for many us well up into our 20's, until career, family and other obligations ended our camping rituals. Ahhh, good times...
Ironically, the last time I camped (or attempted to anyway) was about 5 years ago. I didn't even make it the night, instead retreating a few miles back home to a firm mattress and cool air conditioning, after tossing and turning for several hours on a half-inflated air mattress inside of a pup tent along the banks of the James. My how times change.
Comment by botetourtsteve — June 23, 2009 @ 7:03 pm
I did this often as a kid. My friends and I spent all kinds of time in tents in the backyard. Good times!
Now as a parent myself, we are going to "practice camp" in the backyard with our 2 year old soon before we take her out in the middle of nowhere and find that it doesn't go over so well...
Comment by HCS — June 24, 2009 @ 10:49 am
Wow! Lots of good memories. Same thing as the author; spent nearly every summer night "camping out" when I was a kid. We spent a few winter nights out there as well in a "club house" built by a bunch of friends. We stayed good and warm but it was still cool waking up to snow on the ground one time over Christmas break. We used to sneak out to the local convenience store (of course Mom and Dad knew but we thought we were being sneaky LOL) and then we would listen to Mystery Theater on the radio. Lots of good clean fun.
Comment by ADP — June 24, 2009 @ 11:33 am
Yes, my brother and I camped out in the back yard often with our friends when we were growing up in Kentucky. My sons are teenagers and they have never camped in our back yard.
I have a few funny stories about our adventures, so I'll share one of them here. On the afternoon before one of the campouts, my big sister and her girlfriends were "laying out" to get their summer tans. My friend, my brother and I snuck up and threw cold buckets of water on them. We thought this was really funny until that night at about 3 am. The girls came out to our camping spot and got even, dumping buckets of sand over our heads! It took days to get the sand out of our ears and hair.
Comment by Anthony Brown — June 26, 2009 @ 12:08 pm