Sunday, December 12, 2010

the Housecar

.
Today's find.

The Spring 1963 issue of "Clues to Successful Truck Operation" (along with about fifteen other editions).

But this one, what a treasure.

The reason? Because the lead article is about a gentleman who got the opportunity to test out a new Ford Condor. Huh? I've never heard of a Condor. It was manufactured by Kelson Engineering of El Monte, California (just a hop skip and a jump from Lazy Daze).

Here's a photo.

But what's such a hoot is the writing.

This was from a period when motorhomes had yet to enter the American psyche, so throughout the article, the vehicle is referred to as a housecar!

Is that a riot? From now on, I'm going to call Cholula Red a housecar.

And here's a few quotes from the article.

"This sleek looking housecar is BIG-26 feet from stem to stern"

"With all its equipment built in, overloading a housecar is never a problem"

". . . Sudden storms hold no terror for the Condor operator. He merely gets out of bed, dons a robe and drives away."

Huh? I would think he'd much rather stay warm in his bed till the storm passes, but that's just me. Maybe that's the difference between travel in a housecar and a motorhome?

Here's some other pictures from the article (and I apologize, they're not as clear as they could be, but hey, they're informational, not art).

Look how big they make the front look!
This thing must be fifteen feet wide.


And that sink looks like it belongs
in a stick house.
(I want one).


And forget about lack of power,
just bring along the toaster,
and the electric coffee pot.
I can't tell whether that's a refrigerator
or an electric dishwasher below he counter.


I must admit, I like their dishes a lot.
(Sorry this one is so blurry).


Well, it looks kind of cute,
but I think I like Cholula better!

While I was digging through a bunch of my paper, I must have come across at least fifteen old postcard folders. Remember those? Some were artist's renderings, some old photos, but there would be anywhere from ten to fifteen images of a single attraction, all folded up into the size of one postcard.

I love these, have for years and now I'm finding them all over the house. That’s sort of my process here, trying to put everything that's similar in one place (a huge job). Anyhow, when I saw how many I had, it got me to thinking.

Some are from New Mexico, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, New York, Iowa . . .

And I told Terry "You know what? Maybe we should plan an RV trip around these postcards, taking current pictures of all these sites?"

He likes the idea, so maybe that's what we'll do.

If we ever finish here.

3 comments:

Sue Malone said...

Omigosh, Kate, the "housecar" is just too much fun! Thanks for the story

photowannabe said...

Love the Housecar. Dream and reality.

Unknown said...

We have been given a Condor to restore. I LOVED your blog entry! I never knew it was called a housecar. What a hoot!