Vintage Station Wagon Living Article

[highdesertranger]

for the grand daddy of station wagons we must include the Suburban in production from 1935-present. I had a 1966 4x4 GMC Suburban with the 305 V6. that thing was a monster, it was a great expedition rig.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Suburban

highdesertranger

 

[JohnnyM]

eDJ,

Great photo of the Airstream caravan. Love the armed guards ! That's what we need when we're camping in the city -- Knock on the door? Nope. Gunfire while you're trying to sleep? Maybe. But then every good plan has its drawbacks...

BTW, the numbers on the Airstreams were their member numbers in the Wally Byam Caravan Club. Mr. Byam was the founder of Airstream and he organized these huge and highly organized caravans, complete with sergeants-at-arms and wastewater and electrical connection inspectors. The WBCC was really popular in the years after the war, when people were still comfortable with being regimented and told what to do on their camping vacations. The club was still going strong when I was a member back in the seventies, and it had its world headquarters right there in Jackson Center, Ohio, right across the street from the Airstream factory.

Johnny

 

[eDJ_]

Johny Wrote:

BTW, the numbers on the Airstreams were their member numbers in the Wally Byam Caravan Club. Mr. Byam was the founder of Airstream and he organized these huge and highly organized caravans, complete with sergeants-at-arms and wastewater and electrical connection inspectors. The WBCC was really popular in the years after the war, when people were still comfortable with being regimented and told what to do on their camping vacations. The club was still going strong when I was a member back in the seventies, and it had its world headquarters right there in Jackson Center, Ohio, right across the street from the Airstream factory.

Johnny

Wow !!!!

I'm so glad I've finally met someone who actually knows about this stuff.  I was just a little kid but I remember in my neighborhood there were two Drug Stores and the Pharmacist (owners of the stores) were both into Airstream's and trying to entice my Dad to consider it.   Dad traveled in his work and was so much intrigued by it but kept putting it off until retirement.  I'm not real sure what years this was in but Dad was bringing these magazines in with Class C RV's.   He was reasoning that he could own a Class C (before retirement) and leave it parked on the lot at the facility he worked at to have a home away from home there and if we were to go camping as a family he would bring the RV home leaving the car at work and we would then depart from home.  

It's an interesting point that you make about people still being regimented to organizational (military) structure
and chain of command.   These older Pharmacist were WW2 vets,  where Dad was an early "boomer" and more used to doing his own thinking and pursuing his own destiny.  (I'm guessing this was the way of the "60's" which the CRVL lifestyle may be a revival of)  If this were done today, I'm sure that there would have to be substantial flexibility designed into the journey.

Still  I can imagine that there would be some who would wish to "caravan" as a group for that quality of
"security & comforts".  I've noticed some of the threads in the "Women's Only" board allude to getting a bunch of  women together for caravans.  So the idea may still have appeal for those who want to do this and don't have much outdoor experience or camping skill. 

I'm so glad to learn about this, as an Ohio resident,  and your knowing about this Airstream Caravan method may add a lot to a thread here for those wishing to travel as a "group".   I could see them using "meetup . com" as a base to organize from and the security settings in it to members only/invitation only.   (such that if some on this board wanted to get together and organize a caravan, the innovator(s) could set up a meetup
for  those who would express interest and PM each other as to the details....or only accept bids from those that they have actually gotten to know face to face at RTR or some other event like it.

I read this book some time ago after seeing a movie about it on PBS.  (in the mid 1920's)

"Eight Women, Two Model Ts, and the American West (Women in the West)"

https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Women-Model-American-West/dp/0803260199

 

[JohnnyM]

Hey eDJ, thanks.

The smart folks tell us that there's such a thing as a teachable moment. I had one a them things as a kid growing up there in the Buckeye state. We lived on a farm next to a state highway (Ohio 661), and all winter long I would dream of the day when I could escape that frozen wasteland and head to the sunny South or maybe even the Wild West, just like in the movies.

One fine Spring day (I guess probably around 1950), a huge caravan of shiny silver trailers, pulled by Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles and fancy pickup trucks, rolled down the highway right in front of us as we kids, outside catching the first rays of spring, stood by the side of the road, slack-jawed, and watched them pass by.

My grandmother heard the commotion and came running out of the house and told us to get up on the porch pronto and to make sure our bicycles and other toys were out of sight. She said those people were GYPSIES, and that they would steal anything we left out by the road, and would maybe even steal us and take us away with them if we got too close. Knowing my brothers and sisters as I did, I doubted that would be a good bargain on their part, but still, you never know, and my Nana wasn't playin'. She was dead serious.

And so as I stood up there in the safety of our porch, I remember turning to my little brother David and saying "When I grow up, that's what I want to do."

It took me a few years, but I finally made it happen.

Johnny

 

[John61CT]

"When I grow up, that's what I want to do."

Steal anything left out by the road, including the odd kid?

8-D

 

[JohnnyM]

No no no, I'm always trying to downsize, so the last thing I would want would be somebody else's junk, much less their kids.

Johnny

 

[Motrukdriver]

The smart folks tell us that there's such a thing as a teachable moment. I had one a them things as a kid growing up there in the Buckeye state. We lived on a farm next to a state highway (Ohio 661), and all winter long I would dream of the day when I could escape that frozen wasteland and head to the sunny South or maybe even the Wild West, just like in the movies.

I escaped Ohio at an early age.  Had previously left only to return a short time later.  Finally I had enough and packed my tent and old boy scout backpack and strapped it along with my fishing gear to the back bar of my motorcycle and headed out.  Off to North Carolina and more points south.  Somehow over the decades I ended up in Missouri....   geeze.  I still look at station wagons, especially the old ones, with mental desires to own another one but that isn't in the cards for me at this point.  I'd sooooo love an old Ford Country Squire anywhere from the mid 50's to mid 60's.  Heck, I'd even consider an early 70's vintage.  Imagine tooling into a campsite with this pulling a matching vintage travel trailer....