Your housetrucking histories

For anything that doesn't fit the other forums.

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bbrazil
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Your housetrucking histories

Post by bbrazil »

Hi everyone,

I'm a Ph.D. student at Emory University in Atlanta who is doing a dissertation on travel and mobile lifestyles in the 60s and 70s. I've already began picking Sharkey's brain, and he suggested I post on the forums to see if anyone else was interested in sharing stories or memories with me.

Basically, I'm just trying to figure out what mobile living was about back then. Why'd you do it? Where'd you go? Who'd you meet? How long did you spend on the road? What did it mean to you and how did it affect your lives? Any information I collect would go toward the hugely daunting project that is my dissertation.

If you're up, I'd probably email or call to touch base. From there, we could figure out if a phone call or an in-person visit is the best way to talk. Although I live in Atlanta, I will spend some time on the West Coast this summer.

Please feel free to ask more questions, and please feel free to pass my name on to anyone who hitchhiked, lived in a van/truck, or otherwise spent extended time on the road in the 60s and 70s.

Thanks!

Ben Brazil
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benbrazil99 ((AT)) yahoo.com
dburt
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Post by dburt »

Ben, I hope you put your dissertation into a book form and publish it, it sounds like it would make very interesting reading to all us bus and house truck nuts out here!
Stealth Camper
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Post by Stealth Camper »

That would be interesting. Seems like it might be a limited audience, since there are only a 'couple dozen' regulars here, but it might appeal to others, too.

Good luck, Ben! I don't have much to add - have always just camped out in tents or small trailer, so don't have a history. Am working on the history for the future right now.
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Post by Griff »

I think it would make for a great read, Ben! 8) Please post how we can obtain copies when you finish it.

Sorry I can't help with input, I'm a slightly newer model than the era you desire details from. :roll:
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bbrazil
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thanks...

Post by bbrazil »

Hi everyone,

Glad to see there is an audience, however small, for my project. I should add, too, that I'm not looking only for people with super housetrucks. If you hitchhiked a lot back then, or if you generally did a lot of travel in the 60s and 70s, your stories are also what I'm looking for. So let me know!

Thanks again,

Ben
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Post by Stealth Camper »

Ohhhhhh...you weren't clear that it is "stupid-s***-we-did-as-dumb-kids" stories you wanted to hear! Well, that's a whole horse of a different kettle of fish!

You want the "I won't even tell my 30-something year old kids cause they might tell the grandkids" stuff? Or something a little more mundane? This has some possibilities. Now, if I can just remember some of those old things.....

Sleep deprivation is a wonderful thing! I am up listening to Lady Gaga in the background (Bad Romance). About the only thing I have found of hers that I can listen to. And I kind of like it, even though I really don't get into pop-disco-syntho-droid stuff very much.

Maybe I like it because the intro reminds me of the start of the old Adam's Family TV show music. Mental regression in progress here.
Rudy
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Post by Rudy »

This is not much of a story, but more of a trick.

When I hitch-hiked, I made a sign that read: To Mom's.
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splummer
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Post by splummer »

yep i might have a bus or hitch hike storie or two, ive done my share of busing and hiching around the country steve
just because you ride the bus , it doesnt make you a bus person
the bus stopped and i got on and thats how it all began
bbrazil
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progress

Post by bbrazil »

Ah, so there are some stories out there!

I should add that you get to be anonymous in academic writing.

So, it sounds like there are some of you who might like to talk travel. Why don't you shoot me an email at benbrazil99@yahoo.com and we'll go from there.

Thanks to all,

Ben
splummer
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Post by splummer »

one of the best ways ,is to get out threre and see it first hand, altho the times have change but nothing like seeing things first hand .
just because you ride the bus , it doesnt make you a bus person
the bus stopped and i got on and thats how it all began
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Post by Sharkey »

Both Roger and I have talked with Ben by telephone, although I think Roger would have been much more helpful than I.

My take on what Ben is asking for is that he is not so much interested in those outlandish incidents so much as trying to get a handle on what made people adopt a semi-nomadic lifestyle and how that might have related to the societal changes that were taking place during the "youth revolution" of the 1960's and 70's. Of course, your amusing and astounding stories of life on the road are the color that makes the resulting paper interesting, but research such as this is also a way of documenting historical events by observing trends and patterns that can only be brought into focus by seeing numerous examples of things which might not seem to be related on the surface. That's why researchers want to talk with an many people who had a shared experience as possible, it helps verify those patterns.

Ben's original query here was to ask about your housetrucking experiences because this seems to be a web site that appeals to those ideals. Overall, his research is much broader, housetrucks only came into his equation after bumping into my "30 Years" tale, which opened up some possibilities that he was previously unaware of. That's how research is done, you might start out thinking that you only had to explore a simple premise, but end up finding out that the tree of your subject has many branches and lots of roots too.

This is how scholarly history is written. The 1960's/70's are a gold mine of social change, much of which has not been seriously dissected for it's historical content. Your stories and experiences could add to the understanding and recorded history of those times. This is perhaps a small opportunity to participate in that process. That, and we've been promised ice cream if he gets his doctorate! :D
bbrazil
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thanks sharkey

Post by bbrazil »

Sharkey's got it just about right.

I do have a soft spot for the outrageous, but I'm also interested in life on the road, where you went, why you went, what it was like, what it "meant" (if anything), etc. Not having lived it myself, I have to gradually build a sense of "nomadic" culture from back then.

And if I ever manage to finish this, yes, ice cream on me.
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Post by GoodClue »

Been there, done that ... and all that jazz ... The 60's/70's were only different than any other age because I was there, travelling through.

I follow Steve's thought ... it's a "Do it yourselfer."

Everyone's migration stories thoughout history are different, personal, even in the herd menallity group movements whether coralled and taken off in rail cars, forced to walk to reservations ... tsunamis, volcanoes ... all very strong motivators.

Those who willingly travel are blessed with experience, insight still only valid to them no matter how entertaining, educating or enlightening ... Truth is altered by time, perception and ego ... and how many billions of us have there been that we do know of? And how many more whose lives have never been recorded ... or noticed, for that matter. They're our predecessors, the ones who got us this far. And I thank them.

We still don't know the whole truths to our own pasts ... ask the person standing next to you what you've just mutually experienced ... What we read or have been told we say, "That's not the way I remember it ..." Photographs and videos only show what the photographer wants shown ... historians are the same ...and even I can edit, retouch and rewrite.

I'm more interested in the here and now and how I can safely arrive at tomorrow. It's why I enjoy this site ... we're woking it out by trial and error, and with the help of those doing the same.

How about a treatise on why we're mobile now? What are the forces and motivations currently driving us? ... to move or not to move ... that is my paraphrased question.

I don't know why that indian left a point for me to find, tho I can speculate. All I know is what drew me to find it ... curiosity.

That you'll find here ... in every thread ... people asking questions, sharing info on how to get from today to tomorrow.

Again, I follow Steve's thought ... it's a "Do it yourselfer." Also, remember that most famous of quotes: If you remember the 60s you probably weren't there. :wink:
"ya gotta have art ..."
dburt
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Post by dburt »

Young folks nowdays can travel all over the globe and seem to think nothing of it. In the '60's folks did not travel as much, and if someone had traveled alot, or even out of the country- well, that was a big deal!

I wanted to travel because I had not traveled much as a kid, it seems the country and society was making a huge shift- the idea that most folks were content to "stay down on the farm" was changing. It seems that TV, music, and other things helped fuel the lust for change, for travel, for new experiences.

Many things also helped fuel an overall disillusionment with society as we knew it- the war in 'Nam, the Kennedy assassination and the downward spiral of politics, as the song said "the times, they were a changing".

When you traveled, you felt like you were really searching for something with long lasting substance and something better, or perhaps you felt like you were leaving something behind that you wanted to be rid of- be it a person, lifestyle, a dirty corner of society, etc.

The times were full of change- politics, economics, sexual mores, education, work, it was a huge generational shift. And some of us just wanted to travel, sometimes a change of scenery can make you feel a whole lot better about life all the way around.
graydawg
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Post by graydawg »

I once read a similar story somewhere not real sure about G men, if I can remember where it was I will post it for a good read.
I ONCE WAS A MIGHTY GREYHOUND
I THEN GOT OLD AND RETIRED
I LOST MY SEATS AND GOT A NEW GIG
I AM NOW A HAULIN SOME OLD DAWGS &
I BECAME THE GRAYDAWG
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