(first posted 8/13/2013) It’s summer, so its time to trot out some more old photos of the Not-Niedermeyers on vacation. All the ingredients are here: camping; my relaxed and cheerful pipe-smoking ascot-wearing father; Mom enjoying an after-dinner drink while the dishwasher runs; no siblings; a dog; and even a boat! The only thing not-pictured is the little pup tent my parents slept in, since the Westfalia was reserved exclusively for me.
The guy has a grin like a goat in a garden, thats not tobacco.
Hey, it’s a 1960s Kombi, Bryce, what do you expect? Damn hippies!
Those are some of the most awkwardly frozen people. Was this a brochure pic?
A VW publicity shot, like the 12 passenger bus. The kind of thing that was endlessly sent out to newspapers and magazines by the PR Dept. Obviously shot in Germany, in an indoor setting. Even the dog looks stuffed (I’m quite sure it is, actually). Maybe that’s a young Bertel Schmitt in the picture…
…..and the youngster banned his parents from sleeping in the bus.
Pretty sure that’s a girl, judging from the sandals and high waist pants.
I think its a boy, boys and girls “activity” clothes used to be very similar with the exception of colors….
Reminds me of the epilogues in the TV comedy series “Police Squad !”.
Here they are, all of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_3rJqHWYjs
Would be funny if the oranges rolled off the table.
Or the dog starts to bark. Or something with Janet involved….
is that table supported on the spare tire? If so, it’s a sort of, perhaps, maybe, a nice idea. But a pain to haul out the spare when you want a place for your fruit bowl and Tom Collins.
alistair
Yes it is. There’s a plate that the table threads into.
Whether you like VWs or not, you have to appreciate the ingenious space utilization that the campers had.
…and the dog is hiding the fact that mom and dad are playing footsie, in anticipation of the time when the little one will finally wear out and go to sleep!!!
You mean the stuffed dog. It can’t be real, like almost everything else on this set.
The fake sapling tree in the foreground is a nice touch.
No tyre tracks they just dropped in
Ahhhh – a perfect 72 degrees (F) and, of course, no insects. “Honey, would you mix me another cocktail while I turn the record over on the Hi-Fi?”
Looks like ‘Reefer Madness’ to me. Later on Mom puts the propane heater on her head, thinking it would make a cool hat, and then they barbecue the dog.
They don’t look Korean to me….
Hey hey, there’s a Korean lurking here! Btw, we usually don’t barbeque dogs. I think it’s usually made as a stew (Bo sin tang).
Dad’s listening to Firesign Theater, and just about to get the munchies………..
listening to “I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus”
“The future is fun! … The future is fair! … You may already have won! … You may already be there!”
Thank you Mr. Uh,Clem. Back from the shadows again….where the vegetables are green, and you can pee right into the stream, and that’s important.
“with the look of real wood”
…”Where’s Dave?”….
“Dave’s not here!”
OMG – all of Firesign Theatre is available on Rdio! And I think there are some cookies at the bottom of the freezer.
They look like really good mannequins, as if the VW dealer had a department store display window. Weird.
This looks like the inspiration for that recent Camry commercial… “What’s wrong, son?” “I’m not your son, LARRY!”
I had that exact VW camper bus in the early 70s. Mine was a 1962. It was green, with the same plaid upholstery and flip up sunroof as the one in the picture. This style of camper is kind of unusual. The front bench seat actually folds to become part of the bed. You can see the seat back through the passenger window. It’s in a raised horizontal position; your legs went under it for sleeping. Or, it could be flipped so the seat faced the table. The table could be removed, and inserted into the spare wheel for use outside, like in the picture.
This layout did not have a stove, but it did have a refrigerator that ran off of propane. It came with it’s own little ice cube tray. There was a cabinet that held metal cups, which I assume were intended for cocktails.
I camped in my bus all over the Colorado Rockies. It was very comfortable and cozy. And very slow. I learned to just relax, put my foot to the floor in second gear, and move over to the shoulder of the road to let people pass. I could really get it moving on the way down, though.
In the winter, I wore a heavy parka to keep from freezing to death. I remember keeping an ice scraper handy, to scrape the frost off of the inside of the windshield. I always ran snow tires on the rear, and it was a tank, even in deep snow.
The SO-34 (Flipseat westy) models are pretty rare now days. Not as rare as the dealer brochure with the photo above on the cover….
Mother always lived in some sort of Hollywood movie. She saw us all as one happy family. Life was wonderful. I should have been Andy Hardy.
She saw the VW camper and wanted one. She dragged my father to the showroom floor with us three kids in tow. How much fun we could all have together.
My father said NO. In a rare loud voice. And had such a weird expression on his face. Then I knew he knew.
I think this must be why I have such an appreciation for F. Scott Fitzgerald
Is that the Mom’s hat on the van floor? Or Dad’s bongo drum?
It’s a bong.
Oh. 🙂
Good thing Pop Not-Niedermeyer brought along a fancy lighting system to light up the whole campsite. It made for a nice night photography shot.
I’m sure you had a good not-time being not there with your not parents.
Ah yes. That was back in those heady days circa 23 BBR (Before Bob Ross) when Bill Alexander invented campgrounds. Fire In!™
That Korean feller was right. Ate it myself during the Korean War. Grain-fed dog is right tasty. At Chosin eveything was frozen,so I didn’t know what it was. Had kinda urine smell to it. But I was too hungry to care.Found out later from my BAR man that it was dog. Some joke,Eddy.R.I.P.