"I’m a happy camper."

An oxymoron if ever I heard one!

SR

I love camping!  I am often a "happy camper."  Not everyone is suited for out door life.  I guess I am just a throw-back!

Although I have been with many people who complain and lose their sense of humor when camping, I find the lack of facilities and abundance of dirt and life very invigorating!

Sitran

(PS I am not talking about RV’s here, but really out in the scary woods camping!)

A character in a book I read many years ago always took young ladies camping prior to proposing marriage, just to find out if they were really compatible. The narrating character tactfully concluded that these excursions were not entirely successful, as the bachelor broke off with each afterwards…

I like visiting the scary woods, but rough-camping there? Bleah! I have been on a couple of these "pre-marital" excursions and have been amazed that the male(s) in the party revert to a neanderthal state with alarming speed. I can still see them, crouched like Tom Hanks in front of the fire they so proudly built. (Fire! I made! See!) :D

I don’t want wild animals, birds, reptiles, and insects to come tourist-ing through my house, perhaps taking up residence because they find the experience so adventurous and enjoyable. The least I can do is return the favor. :D

gailr
whose natural environment is multi-storied bookstore

I thought that Bette Midler’s earliest fans were happy campers.

Perry

(PS I am not talking about RV’s here, but really out in the scary woods camping!)

Nor am I!

I don’t want wild animals, birds, reptiles, and insects to come tourist-ing through my house, perhaps taking up residence because they find the experience so adventurous and enjoyable. The least I can do is return the favor.

Amen!

I thought that Bette Midler’s earliest fans were happy campers.

Good one, Perry! Got any more camp suggestions?

For a lazy guy like me, camping is a whole lot of work, even the Bette Midler fan sort of camping.
When I was a boy, camping was fun, the adults did most of the work. Even as a Boy Scout the work was divided among several young campers.

Maybe my antipathy for camping is the result of my last major camping experience when the oldest of my three older children was only 10, many, many, many years ago. That really took my love for camping down a peg or two.

SR

My idea of camping is staying at a Motel 6 (We’ll leave the Lysol for ‘ya).

- PW

My parents did the "family camping" thing with us, too. It certainly was more practical than motels for them, and we saw a lot of the country. Yes sir, quite a lot of the country. Of course, most of the country that we saw was located conveniently around my parents’ favorite campground chain.  ::)

I also learned a valuable life lesson as my parents were navigating a particularly tricky stretch of the Needles Highway. No matter how sensible it seems at the time, it is NEVER a good idea to store your rubber snakes in your mom’s purse for safekeeping.
gailr
Who almost met her maker in South Dakota…

My dad took all the kids and cousins hiking every summer when I was a boy!  In all there were about 8 kids.

Once my oldest female cousin took the little girls off to bath in a beautiful moss edged pool just down from the main lake.
There they were bathing (nekked) in the cool water, feeling clean and feminine again, when over the hill came a large troop of boys scouts, some with binoculars.

Those screams probably scared all the wild life away for miles around.  We all went running, thinking something was wrong, and they were running back just as quickly.

They were very indignant!  We laughed at them the whole night!

Sitran

[quote author=StoutRex link=board=idiom;num=1083560276;start=0#0 date=05/03/04 at 00:57:56]"I’m a happy camper."

An oxymoron if ever I heard one!

SR

My earliest camping experience was two weeks at a Washington,  DC, Boys Club summer camp in Southern Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay.  I went there for two or three summers and I WAS a happy camper, except when we had to write thank-you letters to the sponsors who helped subsidize the camp.  (What kid do you know who actually LIKES writing thank-you notes?)  I think this is where the experession probably comes from, from the larger summer camps for kids, not the family-oriented variety.  These summer camps are usually in some sort of barracks or huts with a dining hall, a small library (for those of us who liked to read), hot showers, and indoor plumbing.  Think of "Camp Granada" on its better days, or the camp in "The Parent Trap."  Of course, there’s always Jason, I suppose . . .    :o

When I was old enough to join Boy Scouts, our troop ran its own two-week summer camp outside of Front Royal, VA.  This was in tents (Daffynishion: intense—where Boy Scouts sleep), with tarps over the kitchen and mess areas.  The men did all the cooking, kids did KP.  This was a long-established troop that had custom-made gas burners, from old ovens and water heaters, for the stove and for heating the vats of hot water for washing dishes, a block-and-tackle system for raising the tarps over the tables, and other amenities.  Mail was sent c/o the Royal Dairy in Front Royal, and the men made a laundry run once during the two week session.  However, since it was in a National Forest, there was no indoor plumbing, only some latrines which were large concrete holding tanks with seats.  One quickly learned to raise onself up when the guy in the next stall stood to leave so that one didn’t get "updrafted" when he slammed the lid down.  

When we first got married my wife and I went camping for our summer vacations.  My extensive Boy Scout experience helped out there.  We camped at Chincoteage, VA twice and once we made the Grand Tour through Bristol, Oak Ridge, and Nashville in Tennessee, up to King’s Island amusement park in Ohio, back down to Louisville and Bardstown, Kentucky, and then back home.  

The last time she went camping was when the girls were in Girl Scouts.  Fortunately, they stayed at Girl Scout camps with cabins; it wasn’t REAL camping in the Boy Scout sense.   :D

Here he is, (note comma) Chief Scout of the World. And, for equal time, Daisy.
gailr
Exsisto paratus

[quote author=gailr link=board=idiom;num=1083560276;start=0#13 date=05/04/04 at 16:14:45]Here he is, (note comma) Chief Scout of the World. And, for equal time, Daisy.
gailr
Exsisto paratus

Yes, the youngest level of Girl Scouting, before Brownies, is Daisies.

//Larry
Who once was a registered male Girl Scout.  I got to sign a lot of autographs during a scavenger hunt at one GS camp when I took my telescope for them to look through.  

"I’d rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than anyplace else on earth"

From On the Loose

This is one happy camper who has been rolling around in the dirt with shaman on four and a half [OZ] continents and hopes to do it some more on the what’s left.

BNJTOKYO

  Re: Happy Camper - I don’t think this expression was around much earlier than the early 1990’s when I first heard people at work using it, sometimes with referrence to their bosses or customers. A few days ago, I  a saw an article about a movie Bob Hope made in 1941 where he had to wear a wig and a dress with a picture of him in it. The author of the article said that Bob Hope didn’t look like "a happy camper" in this movie, and he didn’t.

—- Brian Costello

As far as I can tell, however, Bob Hope never actually used the expression "happy camper."   I did find that it is a registered trademark, first used in commerce in 1978 with respect to information about Recreational Vehicles.  I expect the phrase was used vernacularly for at least a little while before it was initially registered.

By the way, various parties have registered or attempted to register the phrase with the US Patent & Trademark Office 37 time for use with various goods and services.

Not such a happy camper anymore now that I know it implies the use of an RV rather than rolling around in the dirt in the middle of nowhere.

BNJTOKYO