This is the second installment in this series, featuring vans and their owners in the ’60s and ’70s. And today’s collection shows a good range of situations around these lifestyle vehicles; most are at play, and some are at work (sort of). Plus, their strength as a ‘home on wheels’ is heavily featured with a few of these appearing in outstanding locations.
Related CC reading:
Nice shots, I’m appreciating ’70s van life (okay, the idea of ’70s van life) more now than ever before, especially the one with Spicoli’s two buddies in the last pic…
Here’s my own shot – this is my Dad and his van. It could be from the ’70s except that the license plate is from the early 90s (as is the photo). Finbarr (the name of the van) tragically ended in flames a year or two later as it caught fire somehow while parked in front of the neighbor’s house…
It could be interesting to compare our van life with the van life Down Under in Australia where they used “Panel vans” like this 1970s Aussie Falcon.
Oh and I forgot to mention Sammy Johns’ hit song “Chevy Van”. 😉
…and that’s all right with me
There’s also the Rockatansky family wagon, so post-apocalyptic idyllic before it all went horribly even more wrong and Max turned Mad….
Great vans and great movie references! Spicoli is the go-to reference, but I’d forgotten about the Rockatansky family.
One of my brothers had precisely that van, color, wheels, and added Premier (4 headlight) front end, in about ’83. I remember it being quite fast and very loud.
I didn’t get on with that brother as a kid, but I did have to feel for the poor bastard – it was always being stolen! It finally met its own armageddon when a female thief, drunk and mentally-unwell, drove it very hard into a tree (she walked away).
Actually , I just remembered the wreck sold for not-nothing, the buyers intending to repair it, so the thing – now valuable – could well be out there yet, probably still magnetizing local thieves.
What an impossibly cringey ad for the Falcon!
Incidentally, if that optioned-up GS V8 van still exists, there are plenty who’d pay possibly as much as $100KAUD ($66K USD) for it. Though absurd, there’s a vague market logic to that: 99% of such vans were just stripper workhorses, even if someone did order a V8. I’ve got vague memories of seeing one or two GS utes, but never a van.
Awesome collection. I can so relate, although not to the shag-carpeted 1970s version, which was not really so much about actual camping and kayaking and such.
What is that strapped on top of the Chevy van? An old bomb or belly tank? Or?
I hate to sound like an old curmudgeon, but the explosion of vanlife in the past few years has really impacted a lot of sites. There’s just more folks out there all looking for the same thing. That’s why I keep heading to ever more remote and unpopular places.
The situation on Vancouver Island is much the same.
Lots of great shots there.
Just to keep us on our toes, you should’ve sneaked in the vintage picture of Paul relaxing in the side door of his Dodge A100! 😉
I have in-laws from Peekskill, NY round about the time that the J.R. Donohue & Son van with the watercraft (?) tied on the top was shot. I wonder if that was a familiar sight around town, seems like someone might recall.
“Peekskill” was the town where the fictional , girls school in “The Facts of Life” was located..
Those bell bottom blue jeans bring back lots of memories.
Until I did some digging in order to write this comment, I was completely unaware that in 1964 your Chevrolet dealer offered *both* front- and rear-engine vans. I’m pretty sure that was a unique situation. If I recall correctly, though, the Corvair-based vans and pickups were selling in minuscule quantities by 1964.
Think you’re right on that one..
Here’s my wife in 1973 (?) when she got her masters degree:
Nice .
I had more than a few old vans from various manufacturers .
They were commonly used as school transports in the 1960’s too .
-Nate
That last pic; “Dodge ” van , in front of “Honse” furniture store, is taken at Main & Cunningham Streets. Its my home town. ((Butler PA))
Anyone know the year.. Guessing “early-mid 70’s”.
“Honse” is long gone. The buildings in that block are , largely, still there.
Went to Denver Colorado for a wedding once, and rented a 4 wheel drive SUV in case I wanted to go into the mountains. Drove up this trail where I was thinking, sure glad I rented this 4 wheel drive SUV. Got to the top and there was a 2 wheel drive Econline van just like that one up there.
lololol
The first gen domestic vans, designed to compete with the VW bus, were near vanished from Southern Ontario roads when I started car spotting circa 1974. Combination of rust and obsolescence. They had their fans, still keeping them on the road. But they were very rare. I’d suggest Bell Canada was the last high profile fleet, stilling using the early ’60’s Econolines, into the ’70’s.
I thought the Chevy Van design, aged the best.
Here’s a picture of my cousin with their Dodge van!
Very cool with the windows and the custom rims!
Nice paint details too!
Some friends of my sister/brother in law had a “silver/black/burgundy”, version of this van.
Their other car was a “VW, KG”.
Absolutely love these vintage pics. A reminder that life didn’t always suck. Damm you social media LOL Seriously love these vintage pics. One shows mom loading up the VW westfalia Van for a camping trip. Good times