941 replies to this topic

[PaulT]

I was in college in the 60s in Raleigh. We had a guy in the dorm that was an offspring of the Holman’s of Holman Moody stock cars. As I recall, he had a ‘64 Falcon into which he installed a retired 427 from the racing team. Fully muffled engine so it was a sleeper. Nothing stock about the suspension and drive train. He loved to challenge GTO’s, Stingrays, and Dodge hemis. It was definitely a rocket. Worked for a semester or two until he beat everyone around.

 

I had a ‘64 Falcon with a stock  six cyl. It definitely was NOT a rocket. More like a little ol’ granny’s car. But a guy could get vicarious thrills in seeing a similar looking car waste a Stingray.

 

Paul

[Old Crow]

I remember my Dad driving out to Detroit (from PA) with a friend to buy our new family car... a '57 Chevy base-model (150) two-door for $1800.  Six-cylinder, three-on-the-tree, steel wheels with hubcaps, dark blue in color, minimal chrome, no air conditioning.

 

I have fond memories of that car.  We used it for our first trip West in Fifty-Nine or Sixty.  Dad had built a camping tent-trailer on a military-surplus frame he got from the local Army base. The tent portion was also military surplus-- that extra-heavy olive-drab canvas with water-proofing treatment.  I remember struggling with that heavy tarp dust cover and tying it down with ropes to metal rings along the bottom edge of the camper.

 

That trailer didn't have a pop-up lift.  The tent portion was held up by 1-1/2" wooden poles in lengths assembled via metal sleeves. The bed platforms were simply pieces of plywood folded out on the sides and propped up by pieces of wood cut at 45-degrees on the ends. Stove and lantern were the classic Coleman white-gas models and the ice-chest was the classic Coleman.

 

The trailer looked a lot like this:

 

Family Camping Trailer - Popular Mechanics, May 1954 (click on the page numbers at the top to see more about it)

 

Our trip came about because Dad had to attend two weeks of training in New Mexico for his job.  Some vivid memories as I write this:

 

- Finding ice on the surface of our water bucket (inside the trailer) while camped at the base of Pike's Peak

 

- My brother and I having our photo taken with a Real Indian Chief at Disneyland

 

- Leaving our Las Vegas-area campground at 2 in the morning because it was too hot to sleep ("We may as well drive", Dad said.)

 

- Carrying a canvas water bag on the front bumper of the Chevy so we could cool the water a bit in the desert

 

----- 

 

For some reason that year 1957 stuck with me (I guess).  In the early Seventies I owned a '57 MGA ($500), two '57 Chevy wagons (I think I paid $200 for one. The other had a blown engine and a friend sold it to me for $5). At the time my new bride and I were living in a '57 Schult mobile home I had bought for $1000.  (That $1000 for the trailer may sound cheap but I had to pay $42 lot rent EVERY MONTH).

Edited by Old Crow, 27 March 2021 - 09:31 PM.

[ski3pin]

Old Crow, what a great story!

[JaSAn]

Old Crow, you had it fancy.  My dad removed the back seat from our '53 chevy so my mom and sisters could sleep back there (and us kids could play back there while driving).  My dad and I slept in a WWII surplus trailer with a tarp slung over it  and a 2X6 to provide 'pitch'.  The smell of WWII canvas still brings back memories of those trips.

 

I remember seeing the firefall in Yosemite on one of those trips:

Definitely qualifies me as a geezer.

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Great stories guys. Old Crow, I am also from Pa. Willow Grove area ( home to our first lady).

My high school friend and family did about the same trips you did.

They had a 57 Chevy station wagon. Made 2 trips west one all the way to Alaska.

The father was a art collector and would bring home a lot of the native art.

Soap stone carvings from the Alaskan natives to great Turquoise jewelry from the SW.

 

This "Geezer" thing is great. Everyone has great stories to share and a lot of them are very

much alike.Thanks to all who post their stories.Don't stop.

As another old geezer used to say, (thanks for the memories"

 

Frank

[Foy]

My own family camping stories are fairly limited: My grandparents owned a modest cinder block cottage on Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, so our Scottish-to-the-core (read-frugal) father but rarely vacationed elsewhere.  But he shared the cost of a new Cox pop-up tent camper with an uncle (see? Frugal!) when I was 8 and we took several trips to the Blue Ridge, to Kerr Reservoir, and to the Outer Banks over the next several years.  The one long-distance trip I recall was to New York City for the 1964 World Fair. Dad had us in a "campground" in Jersey, right across the river from NYC. I guess it was actually a campground as there were many more campers and motorhomes there, but is was fully paved and on an urban street. Just a parking lot with electric pedestals and a crapper, I'd guess.  I do remember Mom wasn't too happy about the campground. As we rode a bus to the Fair and to various other NYC sights, our parents would reach out and sheild the eyes of my sister and me when the bus approached people lying on the sidewalk or in the gutter.  We towed the Cox with a '63 Chevy wagon, Bel Air trim (but no A/C), 283 2 barrel, Powerglide automatic. Little did I know the thrill I would have when the wagon would become my first hand-me-down car when I got my license 8 years later.

My brother in law's family had epic long-range Western US camping stories. His parents were each schoolteachers and they traveled widely most summers when he and his siblings were kids.  Their dad would pull out of their neighborhood in Andrews, NC and drive a couple of blocks down to US 64.  At that point, he'd decide where they were gong as would be determined by taking either a left or a right on US 64.  He was also a true gentleman who drove their non-A/C station wagon in a dress shirt and trousers, wearing Wing-Tips.  When approaching a town where they planned to stop for lunch or supper, he;d pull over and don his necktie. Sort of like Ward Cleaver goes camping in Colorado.

 

Foy

Edited by Foy, 28 March 2021 - 10:50 AM.

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Your a geezer when you share a birthday with the Pony Express.

Happy birthday Pony Express.

Frank

[ski3pin]

.....when you cannot understand why anyone would buy brand new jeans with holes in them.

[craig333]

Heck, I never understood that even when I was younger!

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

And pay twice the price compared to a new pair in perfect condition!