Started with my parents and grandad in a tent on the mississippi, they graduated to a popup trailer (most exciting was bears in the campground in Yosemite, they broke into our cooler and we were not sure that they would not tear the canvas in our popup apart!!!) then went to a trailer that carried motorcycles ( before they were "toyhaulers") and then finally to a Class A MoHo. Now both my brothers and my parents have Class A's BUT none as classy as ours
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Ron and Debbie Lawrence
1985 345 Motorhome...... delightfully tacky......yet unrefined
AIR 7992
My younger days were ether camping in a tent, or sleeping in the back of the families 1972 Chevy Blazer. The Blazer has been resting in the barn since 1996.
Bought our first travel trailer (77 Wilderness) and towed it with a 1985 full size GMC Jimmy. This combo was slow and unstable
Moved on to a 1978 Class C Monaco motorhome. Needed a fuel tanker to follow it.
Next was a 1996 Weekender cabover camper on our current truck. Should have been called a backpack.
Bought the Airstream in the summer of 2002, and have had nothing but great memories
[quote=zamboni]I hear everyone say that they used to own a "XXX" or SOB before they got their AS. I think many of us have worked our way up the "ranks" of camping in one way or another.
quote]
Sandi and I actually went right from a Cabela's Alaskian Guide tent into our Safari. We totally cut out the middle guys.
__________________ J. Rick Cipot Sandi Gould NEUNew England Unit Airstream Life Magazine WBCCI #3411 AIR #17099
Started out backpacking as a kid, no tent, just a plastic A-frame to keep the dew off us. A pup tent when I got married, the kind with guy ropes to keep it up. Self standing backpacking tent when they came out, an old Alaskan camper when we had kids, and now a vintage airstream project when the kids are grown. AS is still not in use so made our 1700 mile trek south this winter and tent camped again, it hurts too much to sleep on the ground, even with a therma rest pad!
Sold the house in Y2K and bought a 40' Monaco Dynasty MoHo and full timed in it for 5 years........
Sold that in '05 and bought a house in FL.............
Needed a new RV so I bought the '06 19CCD..........GREAT MOVE!!!
I tell most of my clients that remember my MoHo that the Airstream will fit in their living room of their 4 slide 45' 'rolling homes' now......they just can't believe it!!! .........
Started tent camping as a youngster. My first few years in the Army cured me of ever wanting to do that again. After the Army we camped in a Chevy hi-top van with a reclining rear seat complete with 12v cooler. Rented a pop-up once and a Scotty another time. Decided to follow a long-time desire and purchased our first '67 Airstream. Still don't know what it was since the plaque by the door had "Land Yacht", "Globe Trotter" and "Caravelle" all on it. Wife didn't like the gaucho (but I still wish I had it back). Sold that to a couple headed for Alaska and bought a brand new '93 Excella 30' with dinette and queen bed (wife wishes we still had this one), but fulltiming dictated more storage so on to the '93 34' . All were great in their own way.
I guess as a very young boy, I was always fascinated by big mechanical things....Grandpa had that big ol' dull silver thing tucked in the backyard next to the garage, and they disappeared the day after Christmas every year, and came back every Easter, or thereabouts, all golden brown, and healthy looking.....wow, was I envious..... As i got a little older, I realized this was their Avion, and Mom and Dad and I even got to spend one night in that little 21 footer back in March of 66, down in Pompano Beach, on the first night of out 2 wk vacation in Fla. (gave a whole new meaning to cramped!)
But then Gramps sold the 21 footer in the fall of 68, and Grandma told him she liked the inside of the all new redesigned Airstream 23' Safari for 69....so that clinched it. Guess up until then, for me, it was the week during the summer at the family cottage in Canada, on Lake Erie, and an occasional trip up north to stay a few days at whoever's cabin, and we'd snowmobile, and ski, but the "grups" would be preoccupied with cards, food, and the consumption of many cases of whatever barley and hops mixtures they could procure.....
Guess it was that first summer of 1969, the G'Parents had just arrived back home from their first winter in Pompano with the new Airstream, and they asked me if I wanted to join them that summer, during my summer break, and tour the west. I jumped at the chance, and I enjoyed the next 6 summers with them, a few times they were already here in the driveway, the last day of school, with my mom, packing the trailer, with all my supplies, and we would not be back til late July, or early August, some years. I can still hear a couple of my buddies, on our school bus saying how cool it was that I was leaving that afternoon with my G'Parents in that cool trailer!!
We attended several WBCCI International Rallies in those years, and I have fond recollections of all of them..... Gramps was forced to sell the beloved Safari in the fall of 76, due to his failing health. He passed away in the Spring of 78. Grandma, on the other hand, she was a tough old bird.....but had a little problem with her "recipe", at least one or two "belts" every evening after dinner.....we all told her it was going to be her downfall one day....we were right.....that "recipe" finally got her.....she passed away in 1996, at the ripe old age of 96!!!!
But in my teen and later years, I never really could muster the motivation to tent camp on the hard floor in the woods....so around 1980 or so, began my love affair with Chris Crafts...and to date have owned three. This was my own version of a floating cottage/RV/and "chick magnet" all wrapped into one!!! (What a concept!!)
Married in 92, (thought to my "life partner") and we did the requisite trips all over the area in the big boat, had a blast, but within a few years, kids, real life, troubles in the marriage, and the economy here in MI led to a new beginning in my life. Guess I had been "lurking" around on various Airstream sites, ebay, and nosing around locally, looking at an occasional trailer for years.... When i expressed the desire to rekindle my aluminum fever, so prevolent in my earlier years, i was met by a huge resounding "NO", and that evolved into a threat that if I ever brought one of those "damned old ugly silver things" into our driveway, that would be the end....I further added fuel to the smoke by expressing my desire (being an old car nut too) to bring home an old Ford or Merc Woody wagon home too, to pull the Airstream!!!
Well, long story short, the marriage was over by 01, but not finalized until 05. Life is now once again happy, and optimistic.... The 1969 23' Safari is tucked away next to my garage now...a duplicate trailer to my G'Parents, and my two kids (10 and 12) are ecstatic, and ready and rarin' to "break 'er in" this spring....
Attached are two pix....First one was taken in the spring of 1975, me visiting my G'Parents in Pompano Beach, at Easter Break. (dig my CRAZY red velvet bow tie!!) Second pic...32 years later, me applying the "Big Red Numbers" (next successive #'s to GP's) on my own 69 23' Safari.
Somewhere I still have that tie.....one day all that wild 70's stuff is gonna come back...you mark my words!!!
"And The Beat Goes On!"......
Scott Anderson
Grosse Ile, Mich
WBCCI #22426
(formerly #22425 1968-76)
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Scott Anderson Grosse Ile, Mich. 1969 23' Safari Twin WBCCI # 22426 (formerly #22425 1968-76)
When it is my time, I want to go peacefully, And in my sleep.....Just like my Grandfather.... Not screaming, kicking and in a state of panic, like the other passengers in his car were......
Neat story Scott. You have some wonderful memories to relive, and an opportunity to create the same with the kids. As for the bowtie though - maybe let the kids decide if you should wear it again .
In the pic with the bt it looks like a late sixties Oldsmobile, tan or gold colored, off the side. Was that the tow vehicle they used? Have you managed to find that woody yet?
Whatcha sayin' here??? Ya don't like my red velvet bow tie, eh???
I dunno, compared to what some of the younger set are wearing today, with the boys and their pants down around their knees, maybe my bow tie isn't so bad after all!!!!
Regarding all the great memories of those days... yup, it surely was an awesome childhood....those experiences will always be treasured!! I would only hope to show my kids a small bit of the experiences I had once, a long time ago.
You have a keen eye for cars too, I am guessing..... Yup, The last TV Gramps had was a 69 Olds Delta 88 4 dr Sedan. Big ol 455 engine, heavy tow package, a real workhorse... I think that car had over 140k on the ticker when Gramps sold the Airstream in 76....
And no, though I have a couple leads on a few woody wagons, no purchases yet. Patience....Patience......
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Scott Anderson Grosse Ile, Mich. 1969 23' Safari Twin WBCCI # 22426 (formerly #22425 1968-76)
When it is my time, I want to go peacefully, And in my sleep.....Just like my Grandfather.... Not screaming, kicking and in a state of panic, like the other passengers in his car were......
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