SC's. Did you ever have holidays under canvas, if so what memories do you have?

Question

For us it was the only way to afford a holiday. As a family we all enjoyed the challenge of coping with the weather, having to wait ages for a cup of tea and even longer for a hot meal.

We had an old fashioned ridge tent, and not much in the way of luxury.

Answer 1

When the kids were small, the only option we had for a holiday was camping. My favourite memory was scraping new potatoes, sat on a camping chair, in a bluebell wood with the birds singing. That was 38 years ago and I can still picture it now! Happy days.

Answer 2

Yes, we celebrate the holidays under canvas.

Luckily I live in California where the winter months are mild; I can recall coping with the weather only twice and we made a good time of that too.

No waiting for hot meals or tea/coffee as I have out of doors chuck wagon I can move anywhere.

We had company from Wales for three weeks during the winter holidays and loved the set up and atmosphere outside.

Luxury is the company; plenty of that to go around, and not having to fret about the children spilling anything. Everyone can move and play freely =)

Answer 3

They are having a remember the 60's week on radio York and it's very emotive. Beehive hairdo's, mini skirts and cars, all the old songs and groups, flower power, free love and the introduction of the pill, dinner parties where you ate tinned ravioli, spag. bol.,blackforest gateaux, flambes, cherries jubilee, crepes suzette and washed them down with chianti in the ruffina bottles which then were prized as candle holders, liebfraumilche, black tower, babycham, ponys, baby seals and lambrusco - and we thought we were the bees knees! Very free, easy and happy days - great to have lived through them. Edit: Hi elsie 19, yes i remember how very precious those days were too. We could go off from dawn till dusk with a bag of sandwiches and buns and some pop, sometimes there were around twenty of us, we looked after each other, ran, laughed, climbed trees, built dens and didn't have a care in the world. We didn't have paedophiles then - or i should say they weren't as obvious! and a murder made the headlines for at least a week. I was born in 1951 just after rationing had disolved, my father was a farmer and we really did have the best food available, all fresh and home grown - but seasonal - no tomatoes at christmas in those days! I really do think my generation have been so very, very, lucky with the immense changes we experienced. My kids think its hilarious that we had black and white tv but we only got that in 1957! no tv before that!

Answer 4

When our children were young we went camping all the time. We had a huge tent with screened windows and a screened porch. With three sons and one daughter we needed a big tent. We had all the camping equipment. We lived in New England when the kids were little and of course we could be from one state to another in just a few hours. We loved camping on Cape Cod in the summer and many other beaches, parks and so on. It was a great way to teach our kids so many things about nature and how you can survive under any situation. By the time they had become teenagers our camping days were pretty much over. My husband and I tried it on our own a couple of times but were shocked when it took us for ever to get that huge tent up and all the work involved. We had been spoiled by our sons who put it all together for us with such ease for so many years. So now we never camp any more but it is a fond memory for us. We pretty much camped all over the USA. Now when we go on holiday we stay at the Hilton and order room service.

Answer 5

When I was a child we would go into the countryside and camp in a tent - mum, dad, my two brothers and I. Dad absolutely loved it, both brothers enjoyed it, mum hated it because she still had all the same chores to do that she did at home but in dreadful circumstances and I hated it also as it rained virtually all the time and I, being female, was expected to help mum with the chores.



We had to get water from a stream make a toilet in the bracken and sleep on a waterproof sheet placed on the ground - no air beds or foam mattresses in those days.



As an adult my husband and I have taken our children (who are now all adults themselves) for two holidays in a large caravan then I said "Never again." Just like in my mother's day I got left with all the chores in circumstances better than a tent but not remotely like home. We went shopping for food, brought it back for ME to cook and 'they' all came back when hungry.



I didn't get a 'proper' holiday until all the kids had left home and I had to go on my own because hubby didn't want to. I have done that several times since and intend doing so again later this year.



Give me the 'ties of a hotel' any day rather than the soggy wet tent or the slavery of 'holidaying' in a caravan.

Answer 6

Never spent a holiday under a canvas but when living in Hawaii, we were invited to a huge Hawaiian style wedding and the dinner was held under a canvas tent because it always rains in Hilo.

My husband and I were the only non- Hawaiians invited to the wedding and we were actually invited to the marriage ceremony as witnesses.

I found out later what an honor that was as only about 10 people witnessed the ceremony while at least 100 people came for the party after wards.

It was one of the only weddings where I cried, it was really beautiful, took place in a small Japanese garden overlooking the ocean.

The grooms mother was a pro-hula dancer from Honolulu and she did a very special emotional hula in honor of her son and his bride. It was something else, even my husband had tears in his eyes.

Seemed all the guests made food for the party and it was served Hawaiian style on paper plates with loads of beer served.

Answer 7

We used to have an old ridge tent and no luxuries but I enjoyed my holidays. I used to camp in all seasons. When I camped in Langdale in the Lake District over Christmas, the people in the tent next to us had a small Christmas tree and lit it with torchlight. There was a lovely atmosphere and we were surrounded by snow covered hills. Beautiful

Answer 8

I had several family holidays in a tent, it was all we could afford.

They were marvellous times in the countryside and near the sea.

Protocol was very lax, I can remember wandering into other tents and seeing sights that would have been frowned upon if they were viewed back at home. Everyone turned a blind eye to us changing into swimming costumes and back into our clothes, if female cousins skirts rose too far at home a severe public reprimand would ensue from parents in home surroundings, but in the tents no one took any notice

There was even one location where we could swim without costumes when it was dark although the moon was fairly bright on occasions.

The cooking could be difficult if it rained and the wind always seemed to come from the wrong direction with smoke always getting in our eyes. a thunderstorm at night caused us all to huddle up together particularly when some bright spark said they could feel the electricity running through the ground. We cycled to our destination so there was no car to shelter in.

Answer 9

We had no tent. I hate tents, you always wonder what's walking around out there. I prefer to be able to see a little from the light of the stars and moon. I would still rather sleep on the ground than in a stinky polluted hotel room. I have had animals of all kinds come and sniff me while in my sleeping bag, they are no threat at all, they are much safer than the predators that roam hotels. No animal has ever harmed me, but I have been robbed at gun-point twice in hotels, and fought off one mugger in a hotel parking lot. 'll take sleeping under the stars whenever possible.

Answer 10

When the kids were younger we used to go tent camping and the kids loved it. Then the parks (state) in Michigan got crowded so we bought some land in northern Michigan and had a cabin built on it. There isn't any electricity or installation in the cabin and we can only use it in the summer and fall months. It's just like camping, only we have solid walls around us.

Answer 11

When I was a child my family lived in a sea-side town so we never really went on holidays away from home.

My sister was in the Girl Guides, my brother in the Cub Scouts and I was in the Brownies so when we went away with them we were under canvas. I used to love going camping. Both my parents were volunteers with the Girl Guides/Brownies and Scouts and my brother, sister and me went on all the camping trips.

LOL I remember it well having to wait ages for a hot meal to be cooked on an open bonfire or having Sausage Sizzles by cooking bangers on sticks over the open bonfire.

Answer 12

I have very fond memories of camping in a tent beside a small lake. Sitting around the campfire at night roasting marshmallows. Sleeping in sleeping bags. When it rained, hunkering down inside the tent to stay dry. Fishing in the lake and then cooking and eating the fish we caught.

Answer 13

Never with my family. With a uniformed youth organisation and then with friends once only. We got slung out of a pub for singing very rude songs possibly because we sang them out of tune I have stayed there since and was told that that would be the only reason these days 40 years on



Then I became interested and involved with another uniformed youth organisation and camped regularly for about 24 years and in retrospect enjoyed every minute of it. A is the way the things that annoyed or worried me most at the time are the very things I laugh about now. It was the fact that I found that age was catching up on me and that I was often quite ill at camp even after getting myself comfortable that I had to stop. I also realised that I was the oldest leader still camping all the others i spoke to from other areas had stopped about ten years before me. I still miss going 7 years later.



The boy who complained of a bad tummy and after a lot of questions we found he had not been to the loo for 2 days

The boy who lost all of his clothes when we went swimming

The boy who we could not get to be quiet because the wind was blowing from his tent to ours and we were not prepared to leave our tents in heavy rain

The time I could not find tickets which I had put in my pocket. I did find them.

The boy who came out of a sweet shop just in time to miss the train home and the irritation of the leader we had left behind to find him. Not one of my group I was glad to say. i think I would have strangled him

The counting in of a boy who was not ours

The boy who moved and was counted twice

The boy found reading a comic when we were breaking camp

The boy who had Crones disease and his parents had not told us

The bed wetter again the parents had not told us and he wet the boys each side of him

The boy who was ill until we found his parents had split a couple of days before (that caused a lot embarrassment because we thought he had appendicitis)

The boy who spent the whole weekend being a completed pain in the bum and then came true when we needed something doing quickly.

When asked why he had been such a pain he said, "'cos it's more fun being naughty." I had to agree it is,

The one I can not even now laugh about was when a helper had a nervous breakdown at camp and it took three leaders off site for half a day to get help because no one knew what was wrong and her own family were not interested. It was our good fortune that we had friends on site who were able to cover for the missing leaders and one of theirs helped to get the lady home so I only lost two leaders. We were able to do that which we set out to do but dinner was late that night



None of the mishaps were serious and all problems were sorted out in minutes except for the last one, That we did not expect or foresee and so had no pre-planned procedure--- THEN--- we did after

Answer 14

Camping under canvas is just fine for males who can take servants (sorry I mean females) with them to do the cooking, water carrying etc. When is a holiday not a holiday? Answer - When it's self catering in any shape or form. Men don't understand that though.

Answer 15

I've done a lot of camping in my time ... I enjoy(ed) it.

I could easily be enticed to do this again but I don't own the first element any more. To start camping f/ scratch can be considered an expensive investment. It seems like the amount of conveniences are endless. Then one day the trailor/motor home is bought and the concept can be considered a commitment.

Answer 16

Only once, in 1959 at Lambley outside Nottingham, in the woods.

A group of us underprivileged nippers were loaned a massive bell-tent, and off we went for a weekend camping.

I was stung on nettles, cut my big left toe, got chased by a bull, cut my lip on the opened lid of a tin of tomato soup, fell into a stream, caught a cold, lost a shoe, and left the site early to have my broken ankle tended at the hospital! (I managed to fall off a railway bridge as I was watching the steam trains pass).



By gum, this question bought back some memories!

Answer 17

I've only ever camped with CLB (church lads brigade) when pre and early teens. We went to places like Rhyl and Whitby. The tent was a large bell tent,which we had to roll the hem up every morning. We slept on straw paliasses which we had to fill ourselves from what the farmer had allocated for us.

It sounds idyllic now,although I doubt I'd go backpacking

Answer 18

NO, but my Family has grown so large that we are going to rent a hall for our Thanksgiving dinner this year. It's the only way we can all be together. In the summer we go down to my late Father's favorite state park and have our big Family picnic under one of the pavilions. It's nice.

Answer 19

In all my 61 years I've never been in a tent and I certainly don't intend to start now. ha ha.



When I was 5 years old, my parents got a loan of a small caravan from someone and we went to Crieff, which is only about an hour's drive away from our home. It rained every single day and my mum ruined her shoes (she told me years later). I've been on caravan holidays later in life and enjoyed them, but NO, you won't get me in a tent.

Answer 20

When I was growing up, in upstate New York, we had a tent in the backyard and frequently slept outside during the summer and on Saturday nights in the fall, and we frequently started a fire but about all we ever did was cook hot dogs, heat sauerkraut and roast marshmallows.

Answer 21

I've never been camping in my life! I'm 52 now, but as a child, I used to g with my parents to the nearest seaside resort (80 miles away) on a coach (they never had a car) and we used to stay in either a guest house or a chalet park

Answer 22

Loved camping, but love to sleep under the stars☺

Answer 23

We were the same, loved the freedom for us and the kids, playing ball games, tripping over the guy ropes, sleeping bags and grass in your tea. Happy days!...Skint but happy.....

Answer 24

I've camped in a tent and it's no fun, for sure. It's fun for kids, maybe. My daughter and SIL camp during the summer, they take a tent with them, leave the kids with his parents and have a riot. But, it's not for me, any more. I will take my pop-up camper with its tiny fridge and stove any time over a tent.

Answer 25

Camping was good.Up and away as soon as we wanted.Really don't remember how wet and/cold we were at times.

Answer 26

No, I've seen too many horror shows with that scene.