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Old 03-12-2020, 12:07 PM   #21
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My mom and dad, as they approached retirement in the late '70s, decided they wanted to buy a camper....they found a good buy on a 1974 26 ft Argosy along with a 1974 Suburban(454 engine) from an older couple who was having to give up camping due to health reasons.....they bought it "turn key" all the way down to the knives and forks in the kitchen drawer....In the early '80s I borrowed that rig to take my wife and kids on a week vacation....following that trip we SWORE we'd never get into the "camping thing".....now fast forward 37+ years to today and the second picture.....funny how times and minds will change....lol.
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Old 03-12-2020, 06:08 PM   #22
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As a kid, this was our 1962 14ft Yellowstone. TV was a 1958 Edsel with the Corsair V8. Fun times and great memories!
This is probably one of the coolest pictures. The Edsel, and Mom and the kid. It just screams nostalgia. Very cool.
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Old 03-12-2020, 09:39 PM   #23
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The first camper mom & dad got in 1968 I believe was a 1966 Coleman tent camper (all canvass). All it had was 2 end bunks & a dinette. A small counter for the Coleman camp stove (but, all the cooking was done outside) & storage under.

In 1969, we got a 1970 Apache Ramada (the Mesa shown below had only 1 dinette & was shorter). That thing was state of the art for pop-ups. The hard top would crank up then the 2 sides would fold up to make solid side walls. The 2 end bunk sides and ends were still canvass but the top of the bunks were hard plastic. It had 2 dinettes (1 4 seater & 1 2 seater) that folded into beds. All 8 of us could sleep inside! It had a propane stove, 110v electric & a small box refrig. that I don't recall what powered it. It also had a FW tank w/sink and a hand pump faucet (I think).

I remember my dad explaining how the sides folded up as I was cranking the top up as fast as a 15 yo kid could when the crank handle came off and smacked me right up side my face nearly knocking me out. But, I recovered, put the crank back on and kept on cranking....albeit a little more carefully!
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Old 03-12-2020, 10:22 PM   #24
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First Baptism by Camper, thanks to my Grandparents retirement circa 1957, in a 16-foot Dalton trailer, towed by Gramps new 1957 Cadillac.
Gramps frequented trips with as many of his 21-grandkids as he could fit in the car. Everyone was blessed with these trips.
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Oh, I'm the short one on the right, next to my Brother, and two-cousins.
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Old 03-15-2020, 04:39 PM   #25
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First Baptism by Camper, thanks to my Grandparents retirement circa 1957, in a 16-foot Dalton trailer, towed by Gramps new 1957 Cadillac.
Gramps frequented trips with as many of his 21-grandkids as he could fit in the car. Everyone was blessed with these trips.
Attachment 225073
Oh, I'm the short one on the right, next to my Brother, and two-cousins.
I bet that 57 Caddy towed that travel trailer it like it wasn't even there!! Nice.
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Old 03-16-2020, 10:09 AM   #26
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First Baptism by Camper, thanks to my Grandparents retirement circa 1957, in a 16-foot Dalton trailer, towed by Gramps new 1957 Cadillac.
Gramps frequented trips with as many of his 21-grandkids as he could fit in the car. Everyone was blessed with these trips.
Attachment 225073
Oh, I'm the short one on the right, next to my Brother, and two-cousins.

And those were our "play clothes"!
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Old 03-16-2020, 10:41 AM   #27
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Great pics guys and great memories! Those old Scotty trailers are so cool. I always loved the way people would make them look 'homey' with old school curtains and stuff.
Hey, those curtains weren't old school back then.
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Old 03-16-2020, 10:47 AM   #28
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I honestly don't remember the first TT I ever saw. But a great read thru other's memories and it brings back some, too. I don't know if my parents were too poor or too cheap to buy a TT but they did like to camp. I remember doing family vacations to the Rockies (from Chicago suburbs) in the family Rambler. Mom and Dad would sleep in the car and the kids would bunk out in sleeping bags on top of picnic tables at rest stops or roadside parks. No tents, either. We had a Coleman stove and lanterns and an ice chest but if it rained we all slept sitting up in the car. They would get a room (one room, one bed - - guess where the kids slept) every 4 nights or so, so that we could clean up. More than one trip like that, too.
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Old 03-16-2020, 10:51 AM   #29
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And those were our "play clothes"!
Remember when parents' cared how their kids looked? That takes me back! Loving all the latest additions to this thread.
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Old 03-16-2020, 12:15 PM   #30
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Growing up, I think the first RV we ever used was in the early 70s. It was a borrowed popup - either a Lionel or a Bonair with that yellowish brown tenting - that had 3 pull out beds and no hard top. My Dad towed it with the family car. Probably either his Chevy Impala or Ford Galaxie 500.

The first one I ever owned was a 1999 Coleman Santa Fe (10' box) with no battery, no furnace and a hand pump for the faucet. Just as now, we always camped on site with an electrical hookup. Towed it with the family minivan.
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Old 03-17-2020, 02:19 PM   #31
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I finally found some pics of the first travel trailer I can remember! I remember my Dad telling me at some point that it was a home-built unit and that it was about 12 feet long. These pics are from the summer of '66.

Trailer hooked up to the Rambler, with Mom in the pic:
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Set up at campsite, with my older brother and I (I'm on the right):
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Another campsite pic:
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I don't have a lot of clear memories from that trailer, but I remember that one of the sleeping positions was basically a canvas sling that was unrolled and hooked to the walls. It was the "upper bunk" and my brother and I would fight over who got to sleep there because it would often come loose from the wall and the person on the top bunk would fall down onto the person on the bottom. Neither of us ever wanted to be the person on the bottom!
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Old 03-17-2020, 02:41 PM   #32
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The 'ole Nimrod

Dad bought a new Nimrod....somewhere around 1965, I think....so that would be the first one I recall. I remember it going up relatively easy, folding it away was an entirely different thing.
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Old 03-17-2020, 02:53 PM   #33
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fantastic pics! cc102bob, loved the bunk/hammock story. Miss those old school lawn chairs too!
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Old 03-17-2020, 02:57 PM   #34
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Pics of the first RV you can remember

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My dear mother bought a 1971 VW Westfalia. We camped locally in Ohio and did several trips around the SE and Florida in particular. So many fond memories.

Around 1980 DW & I bought our first 77 VW, a second new VW arrived in 87. Our girls grew up in our VWs and camp today with their own families and campers. We kept that 1987 for 18 yrs until we inherited our first Class C.

This is a great thread. Thanks for sharing memories.
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Old 03-17-2020, 04:32 PM   #35
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Not the first I remember, but the first I ever actually traveled in. My parents El Dorado Class C at Mugu State Park, Oct 1974 (and my beautiful 1974 Gremlin).
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Old 03-17-2020, 05:28 PM   #36
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You guys were lucky. My first camping memories are in an old military surplus tent, a 2 room tent. Camping in Cottonwood Cove at lake Mead near Las Vegas with my grandparents, siblings and parents. Seven of us would suffer in that thick canvas tent in 100 degree heat. My Grandpa always brought his boat. My Grandma went to Vegas in the evening. Several of my neighbors had truck campers and a friends parents had a early 70's Winnebago we camped in once. My first RV was a 1985 class A Gulf Stream Sunstream.
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Old 03-17-2020, 05:43 PM   #37
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Lots of us started in tents. But the post is about first RV's.
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Old 03-17-2020, 06:10 PM   #38
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Picky picky. Yes, this started about RV’S but most of us did tenting as our first camping experience. Very happy to leave tents behind.
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Old 03-17-2020, 06:17 PM   #39
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Borrowed Pix of a '64 Holiday Rambler, Dad picked one up second hand. As oldest I got to sleep in the overhang,my brother slept in the dinette/bed under it, Mom and Dad slept in the gaucho bed in the rear and sister in the hamock above them. Dad's big old Ford Country Squire pulled the rig back and forth from Florida twice a year to visit Grandfather.
Great memories camping Acadia and Gunstock in the fall
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Old 03-17-2020, 06:37 PM   #40
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You guys were lucky. My first camping memories are in an old military surplus tent, a 2 room tent.
My Mom told me that an old military surplus tent was the reason I never had to camp in one... She said that Dad woke up in a wet sleeping bag for the last time one rainy Saturday morning at 3 A.M. They tore everything down in the middle of the night, the tent was stuffed into the trunk of the car, and off for home they went, never to sleep in a tent again! Fortunately for us kids, that was before we were around.

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