Sunday Drive: Snow in Anaheim, 1949

Dad wrote the year and place on the cardboard slide holder for this picture and since snow isn't that common in Southern California it was easy to narrow down when it was taken--between January 9th and 12th. His 1948 Dodge truck and travel trailer #2 are parked behind Jimmy's work truck, possibly a 1935 Dodge.

[Jimmy Neal in truck, Anaheim, 1949, from my personal collection]

[Long Beach Independent, Long Beach, California. Tuesday, January 11, 1949. Source: Newspapers.com]

While Jimmy Neal (1899-1974), who worked with Dad on this job for the City of Anaheim, looks rather cold in the photo above, other Southern California residents responded differently, at least for the camera.

[The Van Nuys News, Van Nuys, California. Thursday, January 13, 1949. Source: Newspapers.com]

[Golfing in the snow in Glendale, 1949. Courtesy Glendale (CA) Public Library. Source: KCET.org]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Car and Homemade Trailer

The title of this 1936 Farm Security Administration photograph by Dorothea Lange says it all:

Car and homemade trailer on U.S. 101 near King City, California. Man and wife middle-aged, from Wisconsin. "Old Man Depression sent us out on the road ... You don't know anything about how many people are living in trailers till you 'hit' Florida."

[The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. (1936 Feb.). Car and homemade trailer on U.S. 101 near King City, California.

Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/02f9f0a0-c5da-012f-f460-58d385a7bc34]

Check out the photos in the Tin Can Tourism section at Florida Memory* to see what he was talking about.

*The website of the State Library and Archives of Florida


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Curreys and Travel Trailer #3 (Promise Partly Kept*)

When he decided the time had come to buy a new, larger travel trailer in 1952, Dad narrowed his options to Airstream and Boles Aero. Being a "nut and bolts" kind of guy, he wanted to tour both factories to see how they were built but he said Airstream wouldn't let him do that and Boles did. 

 [Boles Factory 1952, from my personal collection] 

So we got a 21' Boles Aero with some modifications: installation of a larger Servel refrigerator (that Dad bought and took up to the factory); the bathroom was replaced with more closet space;** and a 50 gallon water tank put in the back underneath the bed. I'm pretty sure Dad bought it through this dealer in Solana Beach.

[Tuesday, June 24, 1952; Paper: San Diego Union (San Diego, California) Page: 26  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

[Servel Ad from Better Homes & Gardens, February 1950, ebay seller Balovel]

I haven't been able to find a photo of the interior of our trailer, but the kitchen layout (including Servel refer) was the same as this one, although our wood paneling was much lighter in color (matching the color of the screen doors). We almost never used the heater (far left, just inside the front door).

[Kitchen of 1953 Boles Aero Ensenada, Source: Boles Aero Pinterest Board by Opuntia Potwell]

Note: On our travels I was allowed to take toys and games that fit in the second drawer on the right. A few books could be fitted into narrow cupboards under the table at the front of the trailer.

By our 1953 trip to South Dakota with the new trailer, the Boles had acquired a canvas awning (red of course, to match the truck). The wagon wheels were destined to grace our rail fence in Encanto.

[Grenfell Ranch, Black Hills of South Dakota, 1953 from my personal collection 

 

[Walt & Alta Shell's Ranch, Black Hills of South Dakota, 1953, from my personal collection]

[Camp near Prescott on Way Home 1953, from my personal collection]

Next summer we traveled to Oregon where we stayed (among other places) at a cherry orchard owned by friends on a hill near Eugene and in Winchester Bay at what is now Fishermans RV Park.

[Trailor at Redingers 1954, Back Door, from my personal collection]

[Winchester Bay Fisherman's Trailer Court, 1954, from my personal collection]

*I'll describe last week's photos later.
**We used a portable chemical toilet instead.



© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Curreys and Travel Trailer #3

These two photos will have to serve as my Sunday Drive post for today. I promise to search out more images of the 1952 Boles Aero (and explain these two) next week.

[Window Rock, 1953, from my personal collection]

[Agua Caliente County Park, Easter 1954, from my personal collection]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Curreys and Travel Trailer #2

This is the travel trailer that the Curreys had during the 1940s and up until 1952. The earlier photos were taken before I arrived on the scene and the trailer is being towed by a pre-war Dodge truck.* The color slides were taken in 1951 during our trip to South Dakota to visit Bernice's father; the tow vehicle is a post-war Dodge.

[Location unknown]

[Possibly at Agua Caliente County Park]

[Parked in front of the Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C.]

[At Indio, California]

[Grenfell Ranch, Lawrence County, South Dakota]

[Shell Highway Map of South Dakota, 1949. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

*I can't tell the exact year--it could be 1939, 1940 or 1941. Whatever the year, I'm certain the truck was red, Dad's favorite color.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Curreys and Travel Trailer #1

Harold built a tent camper for the bed of their 1935 Dodge truck soon after buying it and he, Bernice and Junior traveled at least as far as the Oregon coast with it.*

[My personal collection]

A few years after that the Curreys bought their first travel trailer in 1938 and took it on its inaugural trip to Encinitas.**

[My personal collection]

*Actually the picture was taken at Depoe Bay which bills itself as " The World's Smallest Harbor" and "The Whale Watching Capital of the Oregon Coast." Obviously the Curreys, with their boating experience behind them, weren't impressed with the harbor entrance.
**In those days trailers were still uncommon and Dad said that whenever two trailers met on the road, both would honk and wave as if greeting old friends. Other drivers weren't always comfortable when they faced a vehicle pulling a trailer. In one case a woman panicked at the sight of the Curreys' rig coming towards her and stalled her car in the middle of a mountain road. Fortunately there was just enough room for Dad to edge his truck and trailer around her and continue on.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.