Your housetrucking histories

[yugogypsy]

A little off topic, but here goes.

I am sitting in a chair in the back of a Ford van that's been converted to haul donkeys, coming home from a Christmas pageant with 1 donkey beside me. On a curvy stretch of road, Keith dimmed the lights, and when he went back to high beam-EEEK NO LIGHTS!

By repeated stomps on the dimmer switch he was able to get it unstuck and we were 20 ft from a rock wall on the wrong side of the road---luckily not much traffic!

Lois

[Stealth Camper]

bbrazil,
If you haven't looked at it, you might want to watch "Alice's Restaurant" as a background thing. Or Woodstock, the movie (I'm sure you have already watched that one.)

Not really about housetrucking, but show some of the "restlessness" going on at the time.

Always seemed to me that the '60s people movement was just a continuation of what the country had been doing since the beginning - always in motion. Always looking for something. Seems to be a human nature thing.

I started traveling as soon as I got the engine on my Volkswagen fixed well enough (rebuilt from not being smart enough yet) to make it out of state (16 years old). Covered all the surrounding states - to Oklahoma - plus Illinois, before 17 on weekends and long school breaks. Then I got the Buick Wildcat and I could really travel. Always camped out - either in the cars or if had enough time and patience for it, in a tent with sleeping bag. Put about 120,000 miles on those two in 3 years. When gas was only $0.27 per gallon. But then, I only made about $ 1.60 per hour.... picked up lots of pop bottles along the way to cash them in.

[graydawg]

Our neighbor while growing up had a 69 Buick Wildcat, I think it was a 428 engine, they were nice large cars compared to today's standards, but were actually a mid size sport back then. and it would get up and go.
James in da GRAYDAWG

[splummer]

your right .alices restaurant would be a good back ground, any one connected to that time frame was always in motion. people from all over the country came to alices and rays . getting off topic rays caddy flower car came up on e bay a few years back steve

bbrazil,
If you haven't looked at it, you might want to watch "Alice's Restaurant" as a background thing. Or Woodstock, the movie (I'm sure you have already watched that one.)

Not really about housetrucking, but show some of the "restlessness" going on at the time.

Always seemed to me that the '60s people movement was just a continuation of what the country had been doing since the beginning - always in motion. Always looking for something. Seems to be a human nature thing.

I started traveling as soon as I got the engine on my Volkswagen fixed well enough (rebuilt from not being smart enough yet) to make it out of state (16 years old). Covered all the surrounding states - to Oklahoma - plus Illinois, before 17 on weekends and long school breaks. Then I got the Buick Wildcat and I could really travel. Always camped out - either in the cars or if had enough time and patience for it, in a tent with sleeping bag. Put about 120,000 miles on those two in 3 years. When gas was only $0.27 per gallon. But then, I only made about $ 1.60 per hour.... picked up lots of pop bottles along the way to cash them in.

[bbrazil]

Hey,

I'll have a look at Alice's Restaurant. I was making a movie list and had decided to leave that one off, so good to know I should put it back on.

Some of you have gotten messages from me already, but I hope to give some of you a call in the next few weeks!

Ben

[splummer]

ben if you do the alices rest. give me a call or private message, can help on that one. going tobe headingout tonight ,will b back in a week ,will check messages

[Jesper The Dane]

Interesting!!! I'm "only" 42, so was born in '68 when it all started here in Europe. My parents were too old back then to really participate in any part of the youth revoulution, as we call it here. And I was too young to know...!

I never looked at things in this perspective of being a part of a greater movement. I was just restless, fighting with my old man and in the proces of growing up.

I think it started when I was a todler. My mom had a fulltime job making me stay in one place, and she never succeeded! She took me travelling to her homeland Norway, and I always made instant friends with everyone abord the ferry or the train. All those times I never got lost. I always knew where I was - but my mom got lost almost all the time!!! Eventually I tought her to just stay in one place, so she wouldn't get lost! I would always find my own way back...!

Then I discovered tools. As soon as I was able to grab and hold a hammer, I started building my own sheds in the garden. I would then tear them down, and build something bigger. Always enjoyed sleeping out...

Being 14 and a runaway kid after a fight with my old man, I hitchhiked 600 miles to Holland, and went around the countryside of Neijmegen, working my way from farm to farm for food, shelter and pocketmoney for 3 months. I remember that summer of '82 as the summer when I learned to cope, and for the first time I saw my father cry... He was a wreck when I finally returned home, and promised me to never hit me again, if I would promise to never run away again.

I get sentimental now. The old man and I are now closer than ever, as he slowly and gracefully fades away into his 70'ties...

During the 80'ties I travelled on my thumb whenever I needed to go anywhere, and later earning a living as a taxidriver for 9 years, I could talk to almost anybody, no matter how drunk or distressed they were. Being on your own in a cab, you have to cope a lot.

Within that period, I also became a qualified pastrychef, as I wanted some kind of education "to fall back on"...!

Later that taxijob lead me to a job in a mental hospital for elderly people. They had some problems with nurses being hit by male patients, and wanted male employees to calm things down.

Getting a family quikly takes the travelling out of a man, but I managed to take the hole family with me to London, setting up a pastry factory plant with a friend. After selling it, we came home as the children started school.

The divorce took me living in a hook up caravan for a winter, and meeting a new woman led me to owning a tourist restaurant on a small island. Kidney failure led to dialysis and a kidney transplant. And now the curcuit takes another turn, as the lady and I are making new plans for building an alternative accomodation on wheels...

And it all started because my mother would keep getting lost from me!!!