Friday, November 02, 2007

True camp

Seen outside a shop for camping supplies in Hawthorn (some time ago, so sadly I can't supply a photo):

This is the winter of our discount tent!

7 comments:

  1. The first time I heard it was in England in the mid-1980s when the sign in the Camping Gear Shop was supposed to have read:

    "Here is the Winner of our discount tent"

    Sounds more like the late Ned Sherrin circa 1967 to me.

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  2. I was a lad in short pants when I first heard that, and now, alas, I am a man of grey beard...

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  3. I guess it demonstrates a life spent assidusously avoiding anything like camping. A result of a country childhood, I expect: the great outdoors holds no romance, when it means a hard cold lumpy bed and no coffee in the morning, and I'd rather a hotel than a tent any day. Still, it amused me hugely this morning. Doesn't take much...

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  4. I googled "The Winter of our Discount Tent" and it is indeed a very old and widely travelled joke. However your post is the first time I've come across it and it amused me hugely too.

    It made me recall a sign I came across on a building in Boston advertising a fictional law firm called "Dewey, Cheetham and Howe". (Though I only found out it was a joke much later.)

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  5. I claim authorship of "now is the winter of our disco in the tent" (about 30 years ago)... About 219,000 hits for disco-tent tho!

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  6. I'd never heard of it before (and I own two tents), so I'm glad you posted it. Made me snortle.

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