By Bob Difley
My grandpa used to start his stories with, “I remember back when . . . ” and then go on to tell us boys elaborate stories of how times have changed, how different it was when he was growing up, and how wonderful the “good ‘ol days” were.
Well, now it’s my turn. I remember when camping fees at state parks were $6 to $8, When you could get full hookups and all the usual amenities at very posh RV resorts for $20, and gas was $1.49 a gallon.
Now you can’t find the most primitive amenity-free forest service campground for $6 to $8 any more now that the Forest Service has delegated fee collection and operations to private companies, full hookups in an average resort are double (and more) the old $20 fee, and gas–well, that’s another story.
Economists tell us that when you adjust for inflation and all the other things economists adjust for, these prices are not unreasonable compared to the good ‘ol days. Maybe so. But I also remember when you could camp just about anywhere in the National Forests–or on any public land–and nobody bothered you or told you to move on, or if you parked overnight by a city park (these days people look at you like you are a child predator). You could sleep overnight safely in a shopping mall parking lot–right under the lot lights if you were nervous–or even on the street as long as you didn’t stay more than a night or two. It was possible to go for long periods when traveling without paying any campground fees.
It’s tougher now. The Forest Service, and soon the BLM and other public lands, are now designating which roads you are permitted to drive on and where you are allowed to camp. And it’s up to you to know the rules or you could receive a hefty fine. Even some Walmart stores and other big box retailers that used to welcome RVers–and their spendable cash–are starting to back away from the welcome-with-open-arms policy.
But I guess we can also be thankful for some of the things that we didn’t have back in the good ‘ol days as well. Like the internet, that let’s us send free email to take care of communications with family and friends, pay bills online through local bank, make reservations for campgrounds, stream movies (no more having to drive to the local Blockbuster and back for VHS’s), and find out all the information we needed to know about the places we were visiting right from our own computer–and to make all of this work 75% of private campgrounds now offer internet connections right from your campsite.
We also now have cleaner air, organic pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, efficient home-like appliances and other devices for our RVs, cell phones, iPads, and–well, I could go on and on. Add to that global warming that guarantees that we can stay longer and be warmer in our northern campgrounds before having to head for the deserts for the winter, a dis-functional congress that happily isn’t passing more rules for us to live by, and millions of people out of work who can’t afford to own an RV keeping the campgrounds less crowded. The skies are still blue, the water wet, trees green, and bison still blocking the roads in Yellowstone. Where would you rather be, in the here-and-now or in the good ‘ol days?
Happy Travels.
For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.
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abercrombie
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Richard Bartelt
Life is good, we are now in a State Park, reading the comments. Woke up on the green side of the grass. We are Blessed. To live in the US. Thanks to all who serve our Country.
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Gary
I too remember when there was such a thing as a GAS WAR!!.. Bought gas at 0.19 (that’s nineteen cents).. What happened?? No competition anymore. They (we) all want a piece of the pie. What with the recession , yes it’s here and not going away, the pie is going to the elected officials and their awkward way off thinking. It’s too bad that the internet has , I believe, caused the rapid rise and fall of our monetary system. Look at the $ vs the Euro. All prices are in dollars, so when the “almighty buck” fall on it’s face, we all suffer. I do not count the rice!!
From reading all the above, except for Mary Harris, we still try to live and have fun. It’s too bad the “officials” have to muck about and ruin the camping. I know, some people will not police themselves and leave an area filthy. Why not clean those ourselves and not let a few ruin it for the rest. The same applies to the off-road crowd, of which my wife of 46 years and I still save some $ so we can go. Not much free stuff left. Road closures of historic red and white skinned peoples are closed to a ALL trespass as the land is sold to individuals who love to keep people out. I must quit now as I am only getting started !!
lmatch
Nice story Bob. It doesn’t have to be a choice between then and now– we should hope for the best of both times. For instance, we need to do everything in our voting power to undo the nightmare unfolding with BLM and Forest Service shutting down our public lands. A couple years of closed roads, and the roads will return to nature, likely never being made available again except to skilled dedicated hikers with machetes (and machetes will be soon outlawed as well).
Just last weekend we 4-wheeled on a closed road (closed for absolutely no reason other than to keep people off) to one of the most incredible places i have ever visited, and no one would ever hike to this remote 8000′ spot. We had to dodge “federal law enforcement” vehicles, patrolling the area hoping to catch violators. It is getting really bad really fast out there my friends.
Tom S
In 1978 at the age of 31, I hired a 72 year old man (younger candidates proved to be so unreliable) which meant he was born in 1906. Over the years I talked to him about the good old days. He of course talked about the slower pace of life and that people were more friendly in the local community. You knew your neighbors.
But he also told me about raising 5 kids during times of Measles, Polio, kids dying at birth due to lack of access to hospitals in rural areas. He said that food was basic with little variety that we had in the 1970’s (and even more today). Life was a drab existence with work consuming 6 days a week just to survive, as the norm. He didn’t want to go back to the old times except for people being more considerate than they are now.
It was an eye opening discussion with this gentlemen. From his experience, now that my wife and I are in our 60’s, we have aligned ourselves with people that we respect and they respect us. That allows us to cross all generations as there are young people that know what human respect is.
Curtis
You are welcome cathesthewind, I am very proud to have had the privalidge to
to serve my Country and be a Marine.Long may America be here and Strong!
catchesthewind
Curtis, Since you quit school at an early age you can spell these any way you want. I too remember the earlier days with cheaper prices, cheaper wages and more diseases. I also remember when a mans handshake was as good as a signed contract. I remember when both men and women were people of character and stood by their word. In closing thank you for your military service and SEMPER FI.
George
Oh, come on, Mary Ellen. Bob is celebrating none of that. Having started RV’ing just a few years ago, I don’t have the the long-time camping perspective, but I do have memories of 29-cent gasoline for my ’67 Volkswagen bug.
Having just retired, I’m enjoying getting away to our beautiful Florida state parks and enjoying nature year round. Actually, we’ve been clubbing mosquitoes since Debby came through… but most of the year round.
Nice food for thought, Bob.
Mary Ellen Harris
I find it distressing that you can celebrate other people being unemployed, the devastation that global warming is causing on the Arctic Coast and other places and a congress locked in small-mindedness!
Those good old days you speak of were never as good as you remember, especially for women and persons of colour.
Can you write a blog that contains actual useful information?
Dan
I just attended my 45th high school reunion. Very rural area in NE Washington State. About 1/2 the attendees lived in the same old rural area, full of clean air and the great outdoors, while the other 1/2 lived in various other areas in the country, some rural, most in big cities.
We all swapped stories of the ‘good old days’, it was fun, but no one wanted to be back in those good old days. We had our share of members no longer around, but overall the survivors were doing pretty well. And I don’t mean money, most were now retirees, or living on rural jobs, and I don’t mean health either, as many had issues.
But in attitude, the room was full of optimism, for the present and the future.
Many had rv’s for vacations, but I was the only full-timer in the group, and found myself the center of several conversations . . . what was it like, where have I been, how could I do it, sort of questions. And the enevitable, Oh I wish I would have done that . . .
It all boiled down to the fact, that 45 years earlier, we all started out, more or less equal, headed different directions, college, the military, work, families, did big and small things . . . And now 45 years later we were mostly equal again, retired, grandkids, etc., and all with that positive attitude about the present.
The good old days are a great reference point, history to learn from, but what counts is what we do now, with what we have. No matter what gas costs, what the Forest Service does, or who is in the White House.
rock
24.9 Gas for me in California and I could fill up the Volksy bug for $3.00 and drive down to LA and back, (700 miles), for about $11.00.
richard7072
I remember $4 park fees and gas at $ .34 cents a gallon .
Art Steebs
When I got out of high school gas was about $.32 per gallon. Of course my first professional job after college I only made $8,000 a year. Jon is right in his comments about illness too. We tend as we age to fondly remember the good things and forget the bad. Truthfully though life is for living right now. The past is a land you can never revisit, and the future is promised to no one.
Curtis
You write a very interesting story Bob. I like living in the present.NOW. Way back when, I first worked on farm as a 16 year old.I got $.50 a day.I remember gas being
$.15 cents a gallion. We were poor and barely got by. I had to quit school when I turned 16 to go to work to support my Mother and siblings. What I went through
durning thise hard times help make me the person I am today.God was with me, guided me through my life and thought me the value of using those times as a learning tool.First, I learned that Common sence could help me through life better than a college education,whick I never had. When I turned 19 I joined the U.S.
Marines.They though me how to defend my self,turned me into a level headed man and to think and act as a man. I love learning and I tried to learn a bit of everything I come in contact with. What I do today will help me tommorrow and I
look forward to the future. My life is in my hands and it is left up to me to help make the present better. Not worst. The good ole days are what we want to make of them.The things we do then and now help make us the person we have become.
We can be Thankful or blame our situation on someone else. I thank God I am alive and am still alive and in great HEALTH.Praise god for all I’ve got!
Jon
I also remember when gas was 25 cents a gallon or less but I don’t want to go back to those days. Remember when polio, measles, mumps, chicken pox and all those others were common no thanks not for me. I love being retired can come and go as I please. Wife and I are both in pretty good shape. She just retired Friday and we are planning our first extended trip. Nope I think now are the good old days.
Jim G
I will never live to hear it but more than likely in around 2050 somebody will say Do you remember the good old days back around the beginning of this century.
GaryM
Hey Bob,
Good blog as always. I think I do like now better… Kids are making their own way and don’t need our help anymore. Retirement is awesome and I don’t mind getting older. I am in pretty good shape as is the Mrs. We don’t have a lot but we never have so what we have is just fine.
We love to hit the road at the spur of the moment – still pay property taxes on the stick house. We have a small rental that we rent to a person who has some disabilities. Once we don’t need to do that anymore, we will probably go full time. He is a little younger than me and is quite willing to house sit and feed the barn cat. I think that we have the best of both this way. We certainly don’t worry about much and maybe that is why this side of life is better for us than the good old days. We do the same things even though the weather isn’t the same. We golf, travel, visit friends, work around the place, mow the grass, camp – both in the forest and in hook up places. We did all that stuff before but now we don’t have to come home to go back to work. WE LIKE IT…
Glen Jones
As walt say’s 25 cent gas and my wages were only 75 cents an hour.
PS: i filed an ADA complaint againest the Forest Service, they classify power wheelchairs and handicapped scooters as motor vehicles.
butterbean carpenter
Howdy Bob,
Happy are those who still can afford to ‘GO” anywhere in their RV!! Still some of us work on keeping the batteries up, in case one day we may have a pocketful of coins
to purchase gasoline and actually drive some place… My sis wants to ‘go’ somewhere?? just to get away from the Poisonplex and breathe ‘sorta’ clean air!!
We’re too $$$$ away, so IF we get the gas $$$ we’ll met in the middle and at least get to hug each other… Our ranch is more quiet and relaxing!!!!
Walt
Wow, B.J., I didn’t even know that this was a POLITICAL site. I was taught not to discuss politics or religion with closed minded people. Ah, yes, I remember the good ole days when gas was a quarter and the wages close to the same. Life was good!
B.J. McCord
Terrific story Bob, as always, but I feel obligated to let you and your liberal friends know that not everyone is completely gullible, and doesn’t believe there is anything to this so called ‘Global Warming’ and that Al Gore got going merely to bilk dumb-bunnies out of billions (including us Taxpayers, courtesy of our corrupt government).
This is merely a warm spell the world is going through as it has many, many times in the past.
I am still debating if he invented the Internet………………………………
McCord
hoppe
I think I’d opt for the ‘good old days’, if I had a choice.
I’d be younger (more pain free days).
i wouldn’t have as many assets, but then I couldn’t lose them either.
And since my pay raises weren’t astronomical in the last 20 years of punching a clock. My pay went further.
A ‘Do Over’ kind of thing, I guess? Mulligan, anyone?