As for the Topic of the Day...
I think the closest I've come to roughing it is walking the streets of New York without a guide book, and very little money in my wallet.

However...
My parents used to take us camping quite regularly when we were in grade school. We would head out to Harper's Ferry, and stay on the side of the mountain. -I do have to admit that there was usually a motor-home nearby - friends of the family. But, still, we were outside. -And there were a few times when we see shadows of bears lurking outside the tent. Scary!
We also used to go to Solomon's Island for the weekend. My Dad and his friends would go crabbing, so a bunch of families would caravan there, and set up tents on the campgrounds for the weekend. We would usually head down there Friday afternoon, and get everything thing set up. Then the fathers - and sometimes the sons - would go right to the docks to stake out a good spot, and start crabbing. It was a very nocturnal activity. Thankfully, since we usually stayed on the grounds of the Coast Guard Base there, there were public bathrooms and showers to use, so it was never that rough. But we did sleep in sleeping bags and/or in cots.
*And, strangely enough, even though we would sometimes come back with bushels of crabs, I never really did develop a liking for eating them. -Well, for cracking them open. I prefer to have my crab pre-cracked and/or in crabcakes. No fuss, no muss.