Did you camp a lot growing up?

I'm just wondering, for those of you that enjoy camping, was it something you did a lot as a child? With your family or in some other capacity? I've only really been camping on two occasions, both when I was fairly young, and while I remember having fun camping with my grandpa, I also wish it was something that we had kept doing as I got older. It seems like something that it would be fun to grow up with.

 

As a family we use to camp every weekend. It was a way that the family bonded and catch food for the week. Fun times.

 

Like the Commander [campforums Founder] who went to summer camp; I went to summer camp all through my youth right up and into university. I loved anything that looked or smelt like camp. I couldn't get enough. No matter where I have been or what ever I am doing I've made camping a part of my life style. The commitment and cost has never been an issue other than on occasion I have tended to be a bit ridiculous in purchasing equipment and gadgets that I really really didn't need.

 

"Who hath smelt wood smoke at twilight? Who hath heard the birch log burning? Who is quick to read the noises of the night? Let him follow the the others. For the young men's feet are turning to the camps of proved desire and known delight." - Rudyard Kipling.

 

When I was a kid, we went camping just about every weekend in the summertime.
Mom would make fried chicken, potato salad, and packed them in the camping cooler, along with "fishin'beans", and all sorts of good foods that we needed to be able to eat at the lake.
Sleeping bags and air mattresses (and me) went in the back seat of our 1953 Buick (not known for being an off-road vehicle), and the wooden rowboat was on the top of Grandpa's old Ford.
The narrow dirt roads going up to the lakes were always winding, and often had big rocks you had to drive around, or branches that we had to get out and move off of the road. A 4x4 would have been a lot more appropriate than those low-slung cars were for the lakes we went to.

We would head up to one of the lakes on Friday evening after my dad got home from work, camp overnight, and then go fishing early Saturday, and eventually coming back home around dark on Sunday night.
Mom made pancakes, bacon and eggs over the campfire for breakfast. Sometimes, we had fresh trout along with it if we had caught any fish by then. Those were the best breakfasts that I have ever had in my whole life !
I suppose you are wondering about the "fishin'beans" ?
That is what we called the big cans of pork and beans that we always brought along, and the only time we ever ate them was when we went fishing, so they became known as "fishin' beans" in our family.

My memories of those camping trips are some of the best of my childhood memories, and I am glad that my folks enjoyed camping and fishing like they did.