Wheels and a Tent: Camping in 1958

I was seven when I first went on a camping trip.

Mrs. Magee (our neighbour) supplied the tent. Mom supplied the wheels—a 1953 Ford. Destination—JC Penney Department Store located south of the border in Colville, Washington.

The standard tent in the 1950s was made from heavy-weight cotton canvas and came with multiple poles, ropes and stakes for assembly. The tents usually were tan or an insipid green colour and tended to have a peculiar musty smell about them.

Mom and Mrs. Magee were on a mission—outfit five boys and a girl in blue jeans. (Less expensive and of better quality in the U.S.) It must have been a tight squeeze with all eight of us bundled into the vehicle. No seat belts in those days.

After a two-hour drive with six rambunctious kids, Mom and Mrs. Magee set up camp in the boonies, cooked supper on a two-burner camp stove and dished it out onto Melmac plates, all the while looking gorgeous in their Donna Reed dresses.

In the photo from left to right: My brother Jim, Wayne Magee, me, Mom, and my brother Gord. (Mrs. Magee and her sons Keith and Kelly are not in the picture.)

Wheels and a Tent 1971

(Camping across Canada)

One evening while camped on the prairies a motor home the size of a

house parked next to us.

“That’s not real camping,” we said. “Real camping is cooking on a camp stove in all weather, washing your hair in a bucket and going to the outhouse in the middle of the night—that’s if there is an outhouse.”

Feeling ourselves to be “real campers,” we looked down on them. Not an easy task when they were so much bigger than us.

Glamping 2019

Years later we purchased a 32-foot diesel motor home. While parked in at a government camp ground on a cold wet day we sipped our coffee in the warmth and comfort of the motor home and looked out upon those who were camped in tents. You might think that we thought to ourselves “This isn’t real camping.” No, instead we said to ourselves, “We’ve paid our dues.”

Roughing it at the Coyote Howls camping area in Why, Arizona.

A note of caution:

While enjoying the great outdoors, don’t feed the bears!

This photo of my Grandma Duff was taken over seventy years ago before people were educated not to feed wildlife.

Grandma Duff, a brave adventuresome soul, loved animals—maybe too much!