Today we’ll take a look at cars around trailers, motor homes, and trailer parks. A short collection of images with some neat looking rides that offer glimpses of what life was like around these mobile homes.
I featured a similar gallery a few months ago, in case you missed it. Should you want to see what was to be found on that occasion, here’s the LINK.
The fourth photo down with the Oldsmobile and trailer reminds me of the first episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents entitled Revenge. The opening moments of the episode feature a stunningly beautiful shot of the front right corner of a 1950 Oldsmobile and a travel trailer. Whenever I watch this episode, I pause it on that frame because it is so lovely.
I spent my very early years from 1953-58 in “trailer parks,” but I don’t remember any of them looking like the ones in these pictures, as they are either retirement communities or campgrounds.
My dad was a lineman and “followed the work” thus we were quite mobile. We lived in a “house trailer” that was 8 feet wide and 35 feet long. He pulled it with a 1952 Chrysler Saratoga just like the one in this picture.
Here’s a picture from a somewhat scruffier trailer park – this one in Fairfax, Virginia. The picture’s actually from the mid 1980s, though it’s tough to tell:
For some context, here’s a shot of the trailer park from across the street:
Any idea what’s on the property now a days?
It’s an office building now – the location is on Rte. 29 (Lee Highway) just west of Chain Bridge Rd.
Much respect to the hardy souls who manage the challenges of trailer towing. Crosswinds, limited visibility, bad electrical connections to brake lights, etc. It takes some skills to do it safely and well. A good friend of mine (still alive, thankfully) landed upside down in the median of the New York State Thruway with his–also upside down– vintage airstream along with about 100 feet of scattered camping supplies and clothing.
Me? I’ll rough it in a tent or spend the $$$ for a motel room in town.
Considering most cars didn’t have front disc brakes till the early 70’s, I would imagine it could be very exciting driving down hill even if the trailer had a set of brakes.
Watch “The Long, long Trailer”.
In the next to the last photo, there is a girl in unfirm playing the bagpipes. My question is, “How long before she and her family were asked to leave the campgrounds?” Yours in mirth (and my girth), Tom
In the next to last shot, the girl appearing to plug her ears in front of the bagpiper is funny.
Or is she shouting out “No, you’re still too close. Move back another ten feet.”
In the mid 1960s Dad was looking at new double-wide’s thinking of a weekend get-away in the woods close to some fishing. It never happened but I was fascinated by these mobile homes. About 1971, Dad who was paying my college bills, insisted I leave Miami and go to his old college in NC. A total disaster that lasted one semester. I had two female roommate’s, we shared classes, and we did not want to live in dorms. So we rented a really nice mobile home and all was sweet for a few months. Then one night, up late studying for mid-terms, a fire started in a wall and the place was totally engulfed in ten minutes. We had just filled the 55 gallon heating oil tank and that blew leaving nothing but ashes. I did return to FL after that semester and I did not burn that trailer down just to get out of NC. And the owner of the trailer suggested the fire started because we were having a late-night birthday party (during mid-terms?) and somehow the candles on the cake started the fire. However multiple insurance companies did not buy that story and decided it was an electrical issue. Myself & roommate’s lost everything including our school art projects but our parents home owners insurance covered our clothing loses even though we were not living at home. In a fire, nothing left but ash, when filing an insurance claim try to remember how many socks or underware you had! I am sure modern mobile homes are much safer now and some mobile home retirement communities look sweet, but have become very expensive.
One last memory of that hot night in cold February. Somehow my bag with my car keys was tossed out the front door and I managed to move my 1970 Nova SS away from the side of the fire. It all happened so fast but the Nova was saved.
In the picture with the 63 Rambler, is that an exotic sports car on the left, or am I seeing a trailer in front of a more ordinary car and conflating them?
I wondered about that. I think the “exotic” sports car is the rear of a TR3 with something else behind it that makes the car’s profile look different at first glance. Curious what others see there.
Wow ~ pic. #5 looks like the Buckhorn Campground on Angeles Forest Highway……
Pic. #9 is how I remember them in the 1960’s before they got really bad .
-Nate
My second high school car was a ’55 Ford in those two tone colors except they were reversed. I had a lot of fun with that car and the picture sure brings back memories. I sold it to a friend after graduation and bought a 4 year old ’62 Fairlane to drive to college. The ’55 with it’s 272 Y block V8 was pretty much bullet proof. The Fairlane, unfortunately was not. It had a 170 Six and I blew it up twice in the 2 years I owned it. I traded it for a ’64 Galaxie which was pretty but turned out to be the biggest piece of crap I have ever owned. I traded it in on my ’67 Mustang which was a great car, finally. Maybe I should have kept the ’55 instead of buying the Fairlane. Who knows?
In picture #2; with 2 kids and the Packard tow car: does anyone recognize what the car in the background and behind brush? It looks pre-war.
Most of these older mobile homes were pulled by a bumper mounted trailer hitch. No class 2 hitches to be seen.Those wouldn’t appear till years later Suprising there aren’t more pictures of bent rear bumpers. Must of been interesting slowing a car down towing a trailer with 4 wheel drum brakes. Goes to so that cars were capable of doing the work we all take for granted only a truck or suv can do.
It looks like an early 40’s Hudson.
The pic with the “50’s Caddy”, and “60 Chevy”, wagon is my fav. The one with the blue “Valiant” is the “runner up”.
Lots of interesting things to look at in these photos, cars, trailers, places and people.
#1 Looks wet but apparently it is warm. Interesting concrete pads. I wonder what their use was. I would think to park your trailer in such a fashion that they could be used like a patio, but neither one of these have done that. A ’50 Ford Custom Deluxe Tudor Sedan with a visor towing a Sportcraft trailer. I guess the tent is the second bedroom.
#2 A pair of well behaved youngsters posing for a photo wearing shirts that may say ‘Yellowstone’. The car in the far left background I can’t ID, the one in the foreground is a ’53 Packard Clipper Touring Sedan. Out in the field is a ’42-’47 Hudson Commodore, and on the right is a ’53 or ’54 Plymouth Suburban getting some attention under the hood.
#3 A nice clean trailer park with a nice clean ’55 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan in the foreground and a ’50 Studebaker 2 door sedan under the cover.
#4 A couple of friends or perhaps relatives posing in front of a ’57 Chevrolet Two-Ten 4 door sedan towing a color matched camper trailer. A ’50 Oldsmobile to the right wearing a Washington state license plate used from ’58-’62 and issued in Chelan County.
#5 A nice looking campground with a ’60 Chevrolet Brookwood or Parkwood wagon in the background and a ’58 Cadillac Sixty-Two or Coupe deVille in the foreground with some door damage, at least the molding is missing.
#6 A mobile home that is permanently set up with a ’56 Chevrolet Two-Ten on the left, a ’62 Chrysler Newport in the foreground with a ’62-’67 Volkswagen Type 2 in the background.
#7 Another mobile home in a nice park with a ’60 Valiant V-200 4 door sedan or wagon out front.
#8 A gentleman cleaning the windows of a first year ’60 Ford Falcon 4 door sedan that is not the tow vehicle for the trailer in the background. It has a Michigan license plate used from ’59 to ’61 and was issued in Van Buren County
#9 A not very happy threesome waiting for Pop to figure out how to operate the camera. They are standing in front of a ’63 Rambler Classic 660 4 door sedan with a California plate in a what now is known as a RV lot. There is quite a variety of trailers and several TV antennas. I can’t ID the sports looking car in the background, but further down may be a black first gen Corvair.
#10 A lady posing with some flowers and a ’70 Chevrolet Brookwood or Townsman wagon that does not have a hitch so is not a tow car.
#11 This one is from my teenage years so it brings back all kinds of memories. It looks like an in town camping area for folks attending an event of some sort, possibly music related in this case. It is mainly pop-up campers, with a couple of conventional tents and one cabover camper in sight. Left to right a gold ’68 or ’69 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser wagon just like one my parents had which helps trigger the memories. On the other side of it is a yellow ’68 Impala Sport Coupe. Way in the background is a black ’65 or ’66 Plymouth Fury III or Sport Fury 2 door hardtop, the yellow foreign car has me stumped, a yellow ’65 Ford Custom or Custom 500 2 door sedan, a gold ’71 Chevrolet Kingswood wagon, and a dark blue or black ’70-’72 Chevrolet Nova with a Pontiac wheel cover entering the photo.
#12 A ’74 Plymouth Gold Duster with a Florida plate used from July of ’74 through March of ’77 issued in Pinellas County. It does have a hitch and would do fine towing that older model camp trailer even if it has the standard slant six.
Thanks for the very interesting photos.
Most of the hard trailer shots were well above my family’s pay grade at the time, but the campground with the piper and the 71 Chevy wagon was the kind of stuff our family did. Except for the piper, no escape from bagpipes in a pop up trailer.
Those Chevy wagons used to be quite common, but I think were all destroyed in demolition derbies during the late 1980’s.
Where’s Waldo? In the second-to-last shot (with his sister, being serenaded by a bagpiper). Who says I never contribute anything to the conversation…
I noticed the matching kids too. When my kids were that age, we used to camp with my sister-in-law and her family, and she’d dress her kids in matching, brightly-colored shirts so she could easily spot them from across the campground. Maybe that boy and girl’s mom employed a similar strategy.
Once my little cousin Jimmy walked away from our campsite following a deer. Nobody noticed he was missing until we were driving away (in a ’69 Chevy Kingswood Wagon). When we caught up to him, he didn’t even know he was “MIA.”
It didn’t feel like a huge deal if I remember right. All’s well that ends well. Another time.
Reminiscent of a tragic story that happened here in Southeastern Ontario, in June 1972. A five year old boy wandered away from his family’s lakeside fishing site, and was never seen again. Searches in the following days, by the Ontario Provincial Police, and Canadian Armed Forces, found no trace. As many as eight-hundred people involved in the search, in the immediate following days. Years later, the feeling is that he drowned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Adrien_McNaughton
I got a chuckle out of the woman in a dress in the first photo. I’m old enough to remember people dressing like that all the time. Then there is the woman in the red dress in photo #9 that looks like she’s none too happy about being in the picture 😁.
Those concrete pads you mention probably are intended to be patios. The RV park I live in dates from the 1960s, though it has been redone a couple of times, and it has longer ones for most of the spots. Depending on how easily this campground flooded, that may explain the height above the ground.
And it is neat to revisit these old pictures, and see what trailers used to look like…much smaller and they didn’t need a big block dually to pull them! Though I would figure some of those full size station wagons probably had a big block under the hood….
My aunt and uncle lived in South Austin, and their nextdoor neighbor had a “canned ham” trailer like some of these. Our family borrowed it for a week in the summer when I was a kid, to go camp on the Texas Gulf Coast, and five of us fit in it. My aunt hauled that trailer with the ’67 C10 Chevy stepside they bought from my Dad after he got a new GMC. That Chevy had a six cylinder and 3 on the tree, and towed that trailer just fine; of course we were out on vacation and in no hurry! Grandma and I slept on the front bed and my Mom and aunt slept on the rear bed. My cousin David, being the only male along, decided to sleep on the floor, pocketknives under his pillow, in case the family womenfolk needed protecting. He was twelve…and shorter than me even though I was four years younger.