My late mother-in-law, Dolores Graff, had a lot of opinions but one I vividly remember is that she did not like camping. Her reasoning was that she could pay for a lot of nice hotel rooms for the cost of a camper and a camping spot. Plus, she didn’t have to worry about rain soaking through her tent, bugs crawling into her food or sleeping on the cold, hard ground. I knew she wondered why would anyone do that on purpose?
This was hard for me to comprehend because I grew up camping nearly every weekend during the summer. My entire Saturday and Sunday was filled with walking along the railroad line next to the campsite, hoping a train would pass to crush the line of pennies I placed on the steel rails. I had unfettered access to all the junk food and soda my parents purchased every Friday to get us through the weekend.
And perhaps the most memorable part of the weekends were all the friends we camped with every weekend. Most were people my parents' age, who seemed ancient by my young standards but who I now realize were likely the age I am now…so very young.
There were also the kids my age, who we spent summer after summer growing up with but unfortunately lost touch when the camping trips came to an end. For years, we would roll out of our campers as soon as the sun rose into the sky and would only check in with our parents when we needed food or there was a severe injury to report. Otherwise, we were on our own until the evening meal, which was usually coordinated among the families.
Since we were camping next to a river, the plan was always to have a fish fry for dinner with all the trimmings. If my memory serves me correctly, we usually had tacos every weekend. These people were good at camping; not so good at fishing.
But ultimately, it was the camaraderie that drew everyone together every weekend. These people were my parent’s core group. They attended weddings together, celebrated graduations with each other and unfortunately served at their funerals too.
Why did they devote nearly every weekend to camping? Why do people continue to flock to area lakes, state parks and campgrounds? One word: community.
As I walked around the campsite at Mahoney State Park this past week, every spot had a camper with people sitting out front. Some people were sitting around a campfire as they visited with family and friends. Some were just waiting for people to walk by so they could wave and say hi!
Because of the traditional lack of space inside a camper, people are forced to sit outside, encouraging interaction with others. Now, it happened to rain most of my recent camping weekend, so my husband and I spent a larger percentage of the time sitting inside playing cards. But we ventured out rain or shine because dogs had to be walked, trails had to be hiked and because I’m nosy and/or curious, roadways had to be explored to see all the other types of campers.
This led to dozens of conversations along the way with our fellow campers about what kind of dog we had to the types of bikes leaning against their RV. After most of our walks, we returned from a 15-minute walk in about an hour.
It is very similar to the way people used to sit on their front porches and felt like they were part of a community. They would wave as people drove by. They would sit in their front porch swing as a neighbor reclined on the front step. Conversations would be had over a mailbox in the front sidewalk.
People long for that community, to see their neighbors, to connect with their friends. Unfortunately, it is now more uncommon to see someone just leisurely sitting on their front porch, waiting for a conversation to happen by chance. Instead, people are more likely to be inside staring at a screen.
Perhaps, that is why camping remains so popular and continues to grow in numbers. People know they are going to see others when they go camping because it is naturally built into the situation. And we are all looking for the community.
So while I will always continue to frequent hotels, it will be out of necessity for a warm, safe place to sleep. But I will always continue to go camping, because it fills the need to be around others and to be part of a community.
