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You know where I got the idea for this. I don't know where I an in these pictures but those two in the first pic are my big sis and big brother sitting at the table. They were 4 and 5 years older than I was. I was chigger bait early in life.



My mother is standing in this picture so it had to have been taken before I entered kindergarten. My mother left my Dad and took me with her the year I started school. We went camping solo without her after that.



Those of you too young to recognize the tent...it was pure army surplus. Our site was the island across from the COE Obey River Camp ground at Dale Hollow, TN. My Father would put the folded tent on his back and pack it up from the waters edge to the camp site by him self. Of course it didn't have those nice netted sides or solid bottoms that could keep the sweet wild things from coming in and sharing your space with you.....

Now that I figured out how to scan pictures to a san disk and then load them from the disk to the computer I will need to go upstairs and try to find more old camping pictures. Unfortunately, most of the pictures that my Dad had, and he had file drawers full of carefully organized negatives, went up in flames when lightening hit his barn, workshop, darkroom, art studio, stay away from Ellen hide out......

Look in your drawers see what you can find! Share, share!

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That tent was canvas, right? I can't imagine how heavy it was for your Dad to carry, poles and all!
What about "gear", like bedding and food and cookware?

Great pictures!

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Wow! Love the tent but sure would not have wanted to try putting it up. The pics are so cool! Thanks for sharing!

Of course, I have no clue where you got the idea . . .

The large center pole came separate as did the four corners. And the blankets and old air mattresses and all the old vintage camping equipment that us vintage campers needed. Dad would load everything in an rented wooden boat. Later we got to rent the new aluminum boat.....an the sweet little motor that must have had a top speed of 10 mph. We would motor over to the island and have adventures..... Fishing in the morning and evening and skinny dipping on the back of the island at night....

its late in a very busy day, trying to figure out which drawers I should look in ?

Really nice memories, Tina, thats when all the efforts put into setting up camp, meant you really loved it. Always meant loads of fun too, everyone had things they were responsible for , it was a family effort. Really nice, will be looking forward to others who have memory photos. I don't have any of my real early years. So will look forward to others sharing.

CArol

Our mother let us buy an old green tent at the army surplus store but our tent was a "pup" tent compared to yours. It must have been treated with something to make it waterproof. I can still remember how it smelled. We did all kinds of things with it. I think the last thing was we dug a hole in the back yard and used it as a liner for a swimming pool. We were like a bunch of gophers.

Martha

We had an old canvas tent....many camping trips with the whole family...before it bit the dust, we would camp out in our cow pasture under the hemlocks...by the spring....in the morning we'd have cows looking in the flap..... and the skunks... we ran into a skunk one night going from the house to the tent... good thing he was going one way and us another..... Don't have photos, but sure do have memories....

Yep, no bottoms in those tents to protect us from the wild!

That is one big tent. Happy days, I am sure.