Mine/ours was a Millets three man dome with little porch.
I'd guess this is the modern equivalent. It lasted years despite what people on here say about nylon tents and we had a whole lot of fun in it, went all over France and to Spain in titchy cars including over the Pyrenees in a Fiat 500. Don't really miss the tent but like pnefan miss being young.
Due to being regularly subjected to child cruelty..I was dragged off almost every weekend and made to live in a touring caravan!! by parents who were members of The c*r*van cl*b!!(I remember it vividly--vauxhall viva and an Astral ranger 10)it was almost inevitable that I would end up as a tent camper and this is exactly what happened!.A compromise was reached and I was given a small tent to stay in-usually as far from the caravan as possible in order to deny any link with those people in it.This was a basic two pole cotton tent with a loose groundsheet.The best was made of a bad situation.I would have been about 11 or 12 at the time.When my tin-tenting parents realised that I was serious they bought me my first "real" tent as a birthday present.This was a Freemans own make..2 man in cotton with 2 poles and a ridge pole with a polyester fly sheet AND-- a bell-end!! Orange with some blue highlights and a sewn- in groundsheet. The best present ever. Freemans was a large camping shop in Newcastle with an indoor display area.This tent became probably my most prized possession. I garden camped in it almost every weekend and every available night during school holidays.Later on when the parents accepted that I could probably survive I would venture of into the local countryside or woods at every opportunity.I had escaped..my caravanning days were over!! (aged 14)(I still laugh at caravanners now). It was a win-win situation--the caravanners could shoot off every weekend to a "rally" ..this is where people go to sit in a tiny box and watch a tiny tv in the middle of a field before meeting up on evenings to sit on hay-bales and discuss "outfits"before returning for a wee in a tiny tent full of creepy crawlies-- and I would be living the dream in my bright orange tent(camoflaged with branches etc so the farmer wouldnt see).
In 1975 my sent seen some real action..a bet was layed down that myself and a mate couldnt do real survival camping..for a week!! No contact with civilisation allowed.Bet taken. A bus was taken from Newcastle to the Lake district and the challenge was on.Huge rucksack with steel frame,sleeping bag wrapped in a bin-bag slung below,tent and poles shared out a strapped across the top,single campinggaz stove and spare canisters of gas,dehydrated food and pans /kettles attached wherever possible.Sturdy walking boots hired--yes-hired! We walked around the lakeland hills for a week carrying everything we needed and using o/s maps and a compass..following sheep trails etc.Only cheated twice..and that was popping into a pub for a pint of lager and blackcurrant(drink of choice when you are 15 and living in the 70s).Bet won-I cant remember the wager..2 packets of wrigleys and a curly-wurly I think.
Right--what was the question again? Ah yes.--I miss everything about that tent! It changed my life..and made me who I am today-a HAPPY CAMPER...(who still points at and laughs at caravans)
I think a lot of us, like Bryan said, were gifted freedom along with our first tent. The freedom to go off without recourse to youth hostels or hotels.. Or parents. In fact, throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s I only stayed on a proper campsite 6 times. The rest was all wild camping.
For me it's not so much the tent which would be an old Niger tent whilst in the cub's/scouts. I don't really miss anything from it but and it's a big but....the memories are priceless. First chance I got to go out without family members to far flung places a whole 2 hours away!
Draughty, smelly, dirty, heavy and hard to fold up....wouldn't change a thing! Great topic.
Can't remember the make, it was a 3 man dome tent with bamboo poles, an awful green flysheet and a small pink porch area. Stuck out like a saw thumb in a field, but had many a fun trip in it, especially as a boy scout.
I had a 2-man ridge tent when I was a pup and I can't say that I miss it apart from the nostalgia - it was very much a tent of it's day.
The first tent that I bought to take my boys camping was a Coleman Lakeland 4 and I do not miss it at all. No sewn-in groundsheet in the poxy-small living area meant it was unusable on midge-infested sites and the poles were a rather cheap metal that split on me in the Lakes. Lots of Duck Tape got us through that camp - just - but it was quickly replaced after that.
We went from Vango Icarus 500 to Kampa Filey 6 Classic + Kampa Frinton 4 Classic, all within the first few months of our camping career.
The only thing I missed was that, due to the direction of the way the bedroom doors opened, we went from beds (2 x singles) being to the outside edges of the room, with shared storage/dressing space being the spacious (and tallest) part to the centre of the room (in the Vango), to pushing the beds together centrally, and each having a smaller separate storage/dressing area to each outside edge of the room (in both Kampa's).
To be fair, we've since gone to a single room tent, effectively with no separate bedroom, and still have the beds pushed together centrally, but I still miss being as far away from Muckerette as possible!
Ear plugs help on one score, of course, but not with the bloody fidgeting!
If only Karsten did an inflatable vis-a-vis!
Like some others on here I don't miss my first tent, it was a coleman tunnel tent passed on from my brother with no porch or windows and it felt claustrophobic when all closed up. What I do remember was getting up early the first morning with my toddler and exploring the field before anyone else was up. We watched the morning mist disappear in the valley below us and I knew I was hooked on camping then. We were able to get our Monty tent a few months later and that's given us 7 years of happy camping trips so far.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: What do you miss about your first tent?
). It was a win-win situation--the caravanners could shoot off every weekend to a "rally" ..this is where people go to sit in a tiny box and watch a tiny tv in the middle of a field before meeting up on evenings to sit on hay-bales and discuss "outfits"before returning for a wee in a tiny tent full of creepy crawlies-- and I would be living the dream in my bright orange tent(camoflaged with branches etc so the farmer wouldnt see).
via mobile 09/4/2019 at 2:17pm
