The "WHY" behind Old Camp🏕

Whats up guys, I'm Charlie Farley. I'm a Dad, Brother, Uncle, Cousin, Artist, Entrepreneur.....among other things...BUT for the purpose of this website and this blog..... I'm the founder of "Old Camp". So I thought I'd let yall kind of get a glimpse into who I am and why I created this brand. Ask anyone around about me and they'll tell you two things. I stay busier than a cat covering shit on a tile floor AND I LOVE the outdoors. I have 3 amazing kids that I'd do anything for. A girlfriend that takes my wild ideas in stride and lets me run with them and a family that I don't feel worthy of deserving most of the time (but I sure do appreciate and love them). I'm a full time musician and have been for about 7 years now. I've been very blessed to be able to do something that I love for a living. However, finding a way to get into the outdoor industry has always been something that I've wanted to do as well. When I say I love the outdoors, I mean it. A lot of people put camo on for a photo opp or when it starts getting cold OR they'll put that bass pro hat on to look cool. Well....the outdoors isn't a season or a trend to me, it's a way of life. Spending all those nights fishing rather than partying as a young'n or hanging from a tree rather than hanging with the wrong crowd helped to mold me into the man I am today..(it also kept me out of a lot of trouble so take a kid hunting/fishing anytime you can)....It's always been the outdoors that saved me, guided me or helped me when I needed it most. Creating this brand is no different. Like I mentioned a second ago, I've always wanted to get into the outdoor industry but I never knew exactly how I was going to do that or what I'd like to do. That is until the two most important men in my life (Dad & Papaw) passed away within a years time. Those men taught me LITERALLY everything I knew about the outdoors. My Dad was a quadriplegic for the majority of my life. He dove into a pool when I was young and broke his neck. It was a freak accident. He didn't hit bottom or anything, he just kind of turned his head slightly when he dove in and his neck snapped. Turns out, that is more common than you may think. So with him being unable to teach me a lot of the outdoor things a Dad would teach his son, my papaw became that guy for me. Anything Dad couldn't physically show me, like take me in the woods and show me what a scrape looked like or rub, etc. Papaw did it. Daddy didn't like bass fishing, and I can still hear him talking shit to me every-time I'd leave to go fish a tournament 😂 BUT Papaw liked it and showed me how to do it lol. He also taught me how to trot line, yo yo, go noodling and anything else I now know about fishing. When I was 16 my Dad had an aneurysm. Up until that point, although he was handicapped, he was still self sufficient. He had his own house, truck, etc. After his brain bleed he had to go live with my Papaw and Nanny. For the next twenty something years my grandparents cared for my Daddy every single day. Just because Dad couldn't take care of himself didn't mean my grandparents and him where confined to the house though. It didn't stop em from going camping. Papaw built a ramp so that my dad could get his wheelchair up and into their camper. It didn't stop em from going hunting. He built a ramp at our family cabin so that we could all stay in the woods during deer season and hunt together just like we would have if Dad wasn't hurt. Do yall realize the kind of "want to" and drive to hunt and fish you have to have, to go through the things my Grandparents had to go through just to be able to go fishing, hunting or camping? All the extra work, time and effort? It didn't matter cz they love it. That's my DNA. That's who I come from. That's who I am. We don't just talk about it, we are about it. My Papaw passed away in Sept of 2022. He was in his late 80s. He had just finished a entire days worth of work (yea in his 80s), got home, ate supper, sat down to watch some SEC football, Alabama was whipping the shit out of someone like they always are and Papaw tossed the remote to Nanny and said "well we know who is going to win this, I'm going to go out to the shop for a bit." He stood up and his heart just quit. That's exactly how he wanted to go, even if we weren't ready. He always told me he was going to die doing something he loved (i think he thought he'd go out on his tractor though lol) and he wasn't ever going to a nursing home. That's exactly how he went, so I thank God for that. Fast forward to October 10th 2023 when my Dad passed away. Tbh, he had been in and out of the hospital alot since my Papaw passed away the year before. Paps was Dad's primary caregiver, Dad and best friend and I don't think my Dad ever even got close to getting over him passing away. Dad had a history of having seizures and they where becoming more intense and more frequent after the passing of Papaw. I got a call on 10/10/23 that Dad had a bad one and he didn't make it. Let me tell yall something wild.....My Dad loved CB's when I was growing up and he had a saying he said over and over and over.....to the point that I can still hear him saying it....it was "10 10 My CB Friend"....so I thought it was kinda crazy that Dad passed away on 10/10. After October of 2023 life was a blur for a bit. I started drinking a lot. I got down on myself. I didn't have any direction. No drive. Nothing. Then one day I realized that's not who I am. That even though I got blindsided by losing the two most important men in my life, I had to use it as fuel rather than letting it get me down. I have always been the kinda guy that wants to leave a legacy behind. Not just for my kids but for the people that came before me. After I woke up from my little depression episode, there was a fire lit inside of me that I hadn't had before. I want my Dad and Papaw to live on forever. I want the Farley name to always be remembered in the outdoor world as a family of folks who do the right thing, even when it's hard. I want us to be remembered as people who will give you the shirt off of our backs and most importantly, people who have a unique love for living an outdoor lifestyle. Those are the values that the men who I loved more than anything passed down to me and Old Camp is my way of passing it down to others. 

On another note: 

At some point in the very near future I will be starting a 501(c)(3) non profit that will be aimed at helping handicapped men and women get outdoors. Whether hunting, fishing or just getting outside. I'd like to do my part to help folks who otherwise wouldn't be able to get out and enjoy life. The same way my family helped my Daddy throughout the years. 

If yall made it this far congratulations, that was long as hell lol! On a serious note, I love yall and I appreciate yall ANNDDDDDDD let's

KEEP ON KEEPIN THEM TRADITIONS ALIVE 🏕 - Charlie Farley