My reference for low power camping is my childhood. My childhood living arrangement was less than today's camping. In
1950 when I was 6, my dad built a two car garage on a slab. We moved into it without electric power or indoor plumbing. We used the neighbor's cornfield for a bathroom and we didn't get the outhouse dug and built from salvaged peach crate wood covered with tar paper until late in the fall.
We had a well bored and carried water in pails. The water for bathing once a week was heated in a washtub on a wood burning stove in the kitchen. Light was a kerosene lamp on the table. Winter nights when my dad wanted to read, he lit a Coleman gas lantern. There was an oil burner space heater in the front room that was seldom used. There was nowhere to sit in that room. There was an oak library table, my mother's Singer sewing machine and the space heater. A blanket hung in the doorway to keep the heat in the kitchen. The only place to sit in the house was at the kitchen table. That's where the family spent evenings.
Bed time was early and the sleeping rooms were not heated in winter or cooled in summer. No fans. The window didn't even open. We went to bed with hot water bottles every night in the winter. We used those in the car too because the heaters didn't work in those old cars . . . especially in the back seat.
We eventually got electricity and in
1953 we got an indoor toilet and a bath tub. We got our first television in
1957. We got one channel.
Gary
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