Very first camping memories - Coleman tent trailer

[bpaikman]

Our family of six camped frequently, a few weeks in early summer, and occasional trips to the lake in East Texas about 3-4 hours away.
We were completely self-contained, and looked for remote and primitive camping - trailer was for storage and supporting the tent only - it had no equipment.
I’ve looked for a photo on the internet, and this one is the closest.

I think our trailer was a 1950s Coleman, nd we pulled it with an ordinary family sedan. It was basically an aluminum box with four compartment doors : 2 opening on port and 2 on starboard. The tent unfolded to form a room. My parents slept on a mattress on top of the trailer, and the two compartments that opened inside the tent were used for clothing storage. But when my sister was very small, she slept inside one of the compartments. Later we added bunk cots for us girls and the two boys got an umbrella tent outside.
My mother cooked on a Coleman stove and also used some kind of reflective oven on a fire pit. She was an excellent cook and we ate things like bacon and eggs and biscuits for breakfast and just really good food all the time. No eating out. I remember when we were having breakfast one morning, and some other campers stopped by and were amazed at our spread - they had canned soup for breakfast! ?
When there were no “facilities” available (I hate pit toilets) We kids dug a pit about 3 feet deep. The dirt was carefully piled one side, with a short shovel with a role of tp attached to it was stuck into the pile. We erected a small 4-pole teepee over it, and voila! a sanitary “facility”. We called it the PT instead of a TP, ( portable toilet).
There was a styrofoam ice chest attached to the front and my dad applied some sort of heavyduty coating (epoxy?) All over it and painted it green. One night we had a bear try to get into it. I still have the ice chest with the claw marks.
We took this brick all the way till the school one year, in 1967, anyhow our way to Alaska was not paved that time we had to have a rock guard shield also known as a bug screen attached to the front of our car to save our windshield.
I so much appreciate my parents for giving me these experiences, but….. I prefer a motorhome with an indoor potty, fridge, bed, and shower!

 

[J&JD]

Our family of six camped frequently, a few weeks in early summer, and occasional trips to the lake in East Texas about 3-4 hours away.
We were completely self-contained, and looked for remote and primitive camping - trailer was for storage and supporting the tent only - it had no equipment.
I’ve looked for a photo on the internet, and this one is the closest.

View attachment 8175
I think our trailer was a 1950s Coleman, nd we pulled it with an ordinary family sedan. It was basically an aluminum box with four compartment doors : 2 opening on port and 2 on starboard. The tent unfolded to form a room. My parents slept on a mattress on top of the trailer, and the two compartments that opened inside the tent were used for clothing storage. But when my sister was very small, she slept inside one of the compartments. Later we added bunk cots for us girls and the two boys got an umbrella tent outside.
My mother cooked on a Coleman stove and also used some kind of reflective oven on a fire pit. She was an excellent cook and we ate things like bacon and eggs and biscuits for breakfast and just really good food all the time. No eating out. I remember when we were having breakfast one morning, and some other campers stopped by and were amazed at our spread - they had canned soup for breakfast! ?
When there were no “facilities” available (I hate pit toilets) We kids dug a pit about 3 feet deep. The dirt was carefully piled one side, with a short shovel with a role of tp attached to it was stuck into the pile. We erected a small 4-pole teepee over it, and voila! a sanitary “facility”. We called it the PT instead of a TP, ( portable toilet).
There was a styrofoam ice chest attached to the front and my dad applied some sort of heavyduty coating (epoxy?) All over it and painted it green. One night we had a bear try to get into it. I still have the ice chest with the claw marks.
We took this brick all the way till the school one year, in 1967, anyhow our way to Alaska was not paved that time we had to have a rock guard shield also known as a bug screen attached to the front of our car to save our windshield.
I so much appreciate my parents for giving me these experiences, but….. I prefer a motorhome with an indoor potty, fridge, bed, and shower!

When our children were small, we had an Apache solid sided pop up tent trailer. It had a sink, an icebox, and we had a porta potty. We had fun really camping! The kids absolutely loved it. Now, we do not camp, we travel in comfort in our Dutch Star. Lol! Judy D

 

[Alex&Teresa]

I was about 4 years old and my father took two weeks off from work. The three of us were in a Coleman tent. Luckily we had cots to put our sleeping bags on and a fly surrounded the picnic table. We used Coleman lanterns for light and a Coleman propane stove to cook on. My dad drove to a local factory that made peach baskets and got a bunch of scrap wood they cut the round bottoms from that looked like moose antlers for firewood. He made a sign with our names on it that said "Moose-quito Junction". That was the upside. The downside is it rained 11 of the 14 days. We were never dry. ?