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rebelstand · 11-30-2010, 07:58 PM

Maybe I should not say that ours is 4 years to the month older than me...(it was inspected in my birth month)

Grand Master · 11-30-2010, 09:03 PM

My Dad took this picture on Oct. 20, 1956. It is of poor quality. Sorry.

There are three 13 panel Airstreams in this picture. That is quite a gathering of Airstreams in 1956. It does not appear to be at a Rally as there is a non-Airstream on the left. All these Airstreams had to be fairly new when the picture was taken. I was very young at this time and have no personal recollection of this event.

Note: click on the images to enlarge for a better view

flyfshr · 11-30-2010, 09:15 PM

There, I fixed the color. I just love these old time photos. Keep them coming.

Brad
FF

Grand Master · 12-01-2010, 11:51 AM

Here's another old camping photo.

There was definately a differnece between camping and going to an Airstream Rally in the early days. This picture is typical of camping in a State Park in the late 50's. Rallying with the WBCC was different. We toured attractions in the area. There was great commradary with happy hours and dinners. When we camped (non-WBCC) we sat around a campfire or hiked, but I seldom remember doing that at a Rally.

The WBCCI was formed primarily to travel or Caravan. Rallies were an offshoot, but still based on the concept of going to new places. Seldom did we ever have a Rally at a campground.

Now before I get lambasted again for being an elitest, I am just trying to give folks some perspective about how this club looked in the early years. I am one of the few people around who actually was a part of the formative years of this organization. I am not just looking at 50 year old pictures and interpetting how it must have been. I am trying to provide some insight on how it really was (based on my first hand knowledge).

Enjoy the pictures.

Grand Master · 12-01-2010, 12:01 PM

Now here is a Rally picture from the same era.

There are a couple of things worth noting in this picture.......
1. I'll bet the owner of the Chevy wagon doesn't know that he is hitched wrong and that his wheelbase is too short to tow that Airstream.
2. When is the last time you saw an Airstream being towed with a Thunderbird?

Notice that we are parked in an open space. Not particularly attractive. That's because we were there to visit the area not camp. The only point I am trying to make is that camping and Caravanning were both good. They just weren't the same.

clancy_boy · 12-01-2010, 02:09 PM

A must read thread - I enjoy this trip down memory lane. Great Suff

slowmover · 12-01-2010, 08:53 PM

In other words, I don't agree that they are necessarily "more affluent, better educated", but rather the people in your photos are just conforming to the social standards of their day.

No, they were more affluent. Today, in America, it takes pretty well two incomes to produce what one "family wage" did circa 1960 when one factors in costs of health care, housing, transportation & retirement.

Literacy rates were higher as well (those who don't read are no better off than those who can't; 3/4's of todays US college graduates are unable to decipher a complex English sentence) so an expectation of conversation leavened by reading would have been higher.

Men's suit sales peaked in 1945, and the dearth of hats is ascribed to JFK's hair -- his vanity -- (actually, TV's influence) in the 1960 election.
Nothing funnier, IMO, to see one of today tattooed and t-shirted out in the rain with no hat.

The generation shown there (older) was also the last to belong to civic organizations (Masons, Rotary, etc), also prior to suburban sprawl and the isolation of television. Only later than this did we see (and hear) only opinions as offered on the 'tube as defining. The opinions of others mattered more up to this point.

Social standards aren't relative, any more than are morals, and they are intertwined. The idea that clothing doesn't matter, well, it doesn't for the rich or the poor (for whom societal rules are irrelevant), as one would be hard pressed to find a human society where clothing plays no role. That todays standards are poor doesn't also make them admirable. How any of it is defined is an unrelated question. But dress poorly and expect to be treated the same, $200 "t-shirts" notwithstanding.

Airstreams, Silver Streaks, Streamlines were not cheap, thus there was a higher proportion of above-average education and income among the owners. It may not have been a big jump in socio-economic terms, but it was there.

Aage · 12-01-2010, 09:59 PM

Nostalgia often clouds memory, but one thing is sure: opinion is often far from fact. And opinion purported to be fact is still just opinion.

To give one example, the fact is that illiteracy in North America has steadily declined throughout recorded history. Here is one site that shows the data in a graphic format with the years user-selectable, and here is another one (only showing data from 1870 to 1979) from the US Government that breaks the numbers down quite a bit more.

Clearly, we are far more literate than we have ever been.

However, I do agree that television played a major role in effecting the changes our society went through from the fifties until today. TV has been called a mirror, and yes, when the President doesn't wear a hat, why would any man? To take the Kennedy example farther, he and his family were often portrayed at play, in very informal clothing. When had we ever seen a President dressed in a bathing suit, shorts, or a sweat suit!?

It would appear the The Times They were indeed A-Changin', to paraphrase Bob Dylan.

However, the fact is that the generation that was "driving the bus" of the nation by the end of the '60s was far more wary of the things their parents considered important, and so it is quite understandable that many conventions, from wearing hats to riding little motorbikes around in parades, were in effect "thrown out" by that generation. After all, hadn't Castro, Kennedy, Johnson et al almost blown them up in a nuclear mushroom cloud, and then sent them and their friends to a unexplained war in the Far East?

So, I stand by what I said. And, since I myself grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, I am as much a witness as anyone here can claim to be.

But I too miss those times, when good folks had fun times in their Silver Bullets, and Eisenhower told them that things were All Right in their world.

silverhawk · 12-02-2010, 05:31 AM

Everyone has opinions, but not everyone has pictures like the ones that Grand Master has been so generous to share with us. Thank You Very Much, To You Grand Master.
With that being said let this thread drift back to it's original direction. Pictures of Vintage Airstreams.

Thank You, Bob

pinktrailer · 12-02-2010, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyfshr

There, I fixed the color. I just love these old time photos. Keep them coming.

Brad
FF

The one being pulled down the road looks just like my '53!!!!

safari57 · 12-02-2010, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverhawk

Everyone has opinions, but not everyone has pictures like the ones that Grand Master has been so generous to share with us. Thank You Very Much, To You Grand Master.
With that being said let this thread drift back to it's original direction. Pictures of Vintage Airstreams.

Thank You, Bob

Yep, a big thanks Grand Master. Really really enjoying your posts. Please keep it going.

A bit of an early Christmas treat being able to view your pictures.

Barry

tlavergne · 12-02-2010, 02:13 PM

Here is a few from my childhood. If I did this correctly the first will be my sister, myself and my brother with my Grandparents, leaving for the International in 1968. The second is Mr. and Mrs Gibson and myself and my brother while on the Western Canada Caravan in 1968. We left on that caravan after the International was over. Got home about 2 days before school started. Great times, great people. On those caravans we had dozens of "grandparents" watching over all of the kids that were traveling. Mr. and Mrs. Gibson were such "Grandparents". Absolutely amazing people.
Tom

Grand Master · 12-02-2010, 02:45 PM

I notice that the Gibsons appear to have their name painted on the front corner of their Airstream. I can't quite read it on my iPhone.
That was a custom started by Wally that went out of fashion after he died. My Dad quit doing it in the early 80's
I have painted our names & city, state on our Trade Wind

tlavergne · 12-02-2010, 03:25 PM

Yep...they were from El Paso. We never painted ours that I can remember.
Tom
#8848

tlavergne · 12-02-2010, 03:35 PM

The first one here was somewhere in South Dakota in the mid '60's. That still sits in my mind as the best sunset I ever witnessed. The next one is about the same vintage as the first. My siblings and I with my Grandparents in Yellowstone. It was summer and we had a wet snow that morning.
Tom
#8848

Grand Master · 12-02-2010, 04:39 PM

I can't recall where this picture was taken. Airstream Recreation Program - Mobile Unit #1 was probably used at International Rallies.
Perhaps someone will recognize this unit a provide more information.

silverhawk · 12-02-2010, 05:25 PM

That is another great old trailer that I have never seen a picture of. Keep digging into that treasuretrove and sharing with all of us.

LisaP · 12-02-2010, 06:53 PM

I second that. KEEP DIGGING!

tlavergne · 12-02-2010, 08:00 PM

This first one was from the 9th International in Cadillac, Michigan. The next one is my grandparents in Florida during the winter of 1969. I am indebted to them for instilling in me my love of Airstreams. I remember walking to school one morning in 7th grade when they drove by me honking the horn, waving, pulling the Airstream south. I knew then and there that someday I am going to do that.

tkasten · 12-02-2010, 08:25 PM

Grandmaster - These pics are absolutely wonderful. Have you ever considered turning them into a CD or DVD? I think many of us would love to have one as an archive of AS Pics. I am retired from the video production business and would be happy to work on something like this for free....Tim MI 14.