Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays in a shelter away from your home. Note, to claim that you went camping; you must have stayed one entire night.
Interest in camping for leisure goes back to the late 1800s in countries such as the US and England. I have written about settlers in Saskatchewan from 1900 on. I can't imagine at that time they believed camping would be fun, as that was basically how they had been living for years while they tried to clear the land and build a home.
The United States is ninety years older than Canada. The craze started there in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State and eventually trickled across the border. It was easier for advertisers to convince second-generation Canadians that it would be fun to leave their homes' comfort to stay in the outdoors.
A booklet written about how to camp in 1904 piqued American's interest and became a bestseller. Soon people were gobbling up any information available on the topic.
Youth groups and churches sponsored camping trips for kids to promote health and happiness. Going off to camp was a right of passage for many kids. I went to camp for a year one summer (ok ten days). I had never been away from home for more than a night, and man, was I homesick. It turned out good in the end, and I will always remember that experience.
The telegraph line, railroad, better roads and vehicles soon made these locations more accessible to the general public.
When Canada was still called British North America, word of untapped natural resources like hot springs, discovered by railway workers, began to spread. In 1885, Banff became the first national park in the country.
Initially, men went on fishing and hunting trips to remote areas. Entrepreneurs learned of these fantastic locations, and soon recreational areas sprang up. They still had to come up with a way to sell camping to women, though, to bring families in. In ads, camping was described as something that would be delightful to ladies. The delicate and fragile need not be afraid. Pleasure boating also became a favourite pastime.
The images camping conjures up can be appealing but possibly unrealistic:
- sleeping blissfully in the open air under a starry sky or comfortably in your tent
- splitting wood, swinging an axe like Paul Bunyan (a muscular lumberjack and folk hero)
- laying on a beach blanket, reading a book and soaking up the sun
- fly fishing in a creek
- thoughts of a fish fry tantalizing your taste buds
- hiking through a wildflower meadow
- emerging from the water after a swim looking like Bo Derek or Arnold Schwarzenegger
- savouring a delicious hot dog cooked over an open fire
- S’mores (some more) made with marshmallows, the size of your head, browned to perfection, melting in your mouth
- watching the sunset
- sitting around a campfire, sharing memories
A more likely scenario of a camping trip:
- being covered with a thick coat of blood-sucking mosquitoes
- horse fly and black fly bites
- getting the itch from the lake
- the blazing sun burning your skin
- getting a fishhook lodged in one cheek or the other
- an axe blow to the foot
- the abject terror of having to put on a bathing suit
- ungracefully stumbling out of the water, adjusting your bathing suit: yanking up the top, pulling the clinging fabric away from your stomach and repositioning the rear
- tossing and turning all night trying to fall asleep as you shiver, scratch your wounds and gingerly try not to lay on your sunburn
- when you finally start to drift off to sleep, you realize you have to go to the bathroom
- hearing everything from the next campsite located two feet away
- a vicious storm rips through your campground
- everything in your tent soaked in a rainstorm or sprayed by a skunk or both
- listening to other campers partying late into the night knowing your kid is going to be wake up at 6 a.m.
- wet kids, covered in sand, pile onto your beach blanket
- agreeing to go on a short, easy hike only to find out too late that it’s much longer than you were told and straight up a mountain
- someone forgetting to zip the tent shut and spending the night swatting mosquitoes
- your air mattress goes flat
- being cooped up with your scrapping children in the camper on a rainy day
- every item of clothing that your family has reeks of campfire smoke
- sitting all day in a fishing boat, without a bite
- someone whipping a stick around with a black, flaming marshmallow on the end of it, what could go wrong? The giant marshmallows that they have now are a death trap
- a hot ember landing on your bare skin in those short shorts
- everyone sitting around the campfire saying nothing to each other, staring at their phones
- after kneeling beside the flames of a fire, almost having your eyebrows seared off, you watch helplessly as your hotdog plunges into the fire to its certain death
Whether I am packing for or unpacking from a camping trip, I wonder why they call it a leisure activity and what is delightful for the ladies about the process. It is a lot of work.
Camping was promoted as a spiritual and physical cure. As with any new industry, the popularity of camping spawned businesses selling clothing and gear. A lady's camping outfit came on the market that included gloves, a felt hat, flannel undergarments, waterproof footwear, and a short walking dress with pants underneath that had tight bands at the ankles. This seems a far cry from what we see today; cheeky bathing suits, spaghetti strap tank tops with no bras, short shorts and flip flops. Men weren’t spared, for a time there was the Speedo. Enough said.
If only for a weekend, escaping the routine and restrictions of ordinary life can be rejuvenating—a balm for the soul.
There are benefits to camping:
- builds and strengthen relationships
- creates positive memories
- a chance to talk to each other with fewer distractions
- reduces stress
- no alarm clocks
- it is a break from everything being done on a schedule
- you can unplug, cell phones shut off
- great food
- fresh air
- exercise
- connecting with and learning to respect nature
- learn new skills like how to fillet a fish or start a campfire
- builds confidence in kids
- the calming effect of being near or on the water
- the relaxed feeling you get when looking into a campfire
Camping equipment started off in 40,000 BC with a mammoth hide thrown over tree branches. The first tent was patented in the US in 1856. Once the world became industrialized, the manufacturing of camping gear became big business. This leisure pastime evolved from tents, camper trailers, including the aluminum ones we called "toasters," camper vans, tent trailers, motor homes, fifth wheels and coaches. Once they got to the maximum road towing length, designers added slide-out additions to increase overall space.
How about this 2020 one?
Many campgrounds were designed years ago, long before the size of campers swelled to that of a small house. Squeezing a large unit into one of these spaces requires superhuman driving skills and a rock-solid relationship.
I am slightly amused that the "toaster" is back in style. As kids, we made fun of them. People are now looking to downsize their campers. Once the rest of society catches up, the trendsetters move away from them to something new or back to what once was.
My family didn't go camping when I was growing up, but I was adamant that our kids would get the chance. In the 1990s, we purchased a twenty-foot Vanguard camper. We got on the bandwagon at the end of when that size was still in style. We had fun times with our camper, eventually selling it in the mid-2000s. The Hubs liked the setup part, he would string tarps and secure the perimeter, but once that was finished, he was like, "what do I do now?"
Our kids loved those trips and have lots of great memories. I appreciate that we were able to do that as a family. Many children never get to experience a camping trip.
I have never mastered the art of packing light. I understand the concept of what a backpack is, but in my defence, the amount of stuff I packed was because you have to pack for all four seasons on one camping trip in Canada.
For many generations, camping has been a part of their heritage in one way or another. Your ancestors may have travelled across the country in a wagon train or been among the first explorers to venture into untamed areas of the country, discovering untapped beauty in the process.
Today camping is so popular that booking sites, cabins, and recreational vehicles can be challenging. People camp in all sorts of places; remote spots off-grid, rural dwellers set up a camping oasis on their property, others travel the country and beyond in RVs, or live in them
Camping Trivia
- The first folding aluminum lawn chair with fabric webbing was invented in 1947. The sound the chair made when you snapped it open is a familiar one to many. Those suckers lasted for decades!
- The term happy camper was coined to refer to kids at a summer camp with not a happy camper meaning the youngster was homesick.
- The marshmallow was invented in France in the mid-1800s. It was made by whipping the sap of the mallow plant, which grows in marshes. Originally it was considered a delicacy only for the elite. Today marshmallows are made from sugar, water and gelatin and then whipped.
- The first marshmallow was roasted in 1892.
- In 1927 a girl scout handbook shared a recipe for s’mores.
- You could get arrested for indecent exposure in 1900 if your swimsuit suit showed too much skin.
- A 1946 two-piece bathing suit is considered to be the first bikini. It was thought to be so salacious that the French runway models refused to wear it, and the designer had to hire strippers for the fashion show.
- The first all-plastic cooler was invented in 1960.
In Saskatchewan and across Canada, there are many lovely places for happy campers to visit. I know that in many large cities in the world it can be hard to see the sky because of pollution. They can’t hear the birds, see the stars or watch the sunset.
Sitting around a campfire, watching its embers disappear into the night sky, seeing the sunset, being out on the water, and that feeling you get stepping outside in the morning and seeing nature’s beauty all around you; there truly is nothing like it.
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