My travel heritage...Nov 5, 2011
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"old home place"
| In 1950, my father took a job with a company that renovated base housing on Air Force bases. It required moving from California to Texas. My mom talked dad into buying a house trailer (back then, they were not called mobile homes) because we would be moving an average of every six months from base to base. We started out with a small trailer and a 1949 Studebaker pickup. By the time we got to Phoenix, dad decided the Stude’s engine wasn’t strong enough and traded for a 1949 GMC pickup with the workhorse six and low/low, granny gear. The GMC towed our trailer all the way to Texas as if it wasn’t there! It didn’t take my parents long to realize a small trailer just wasn’t big enough for them and two kids, so they bought the longest trailer on the road at that time, a 52 foot Travelite. It was built to last and I suspect it is still lived in by someone, somewhere. Because it was built to live in, the Travelite was very heavy. However, the Jimmy was definitely up to the task, aided by a two-wheel dolly that took a lot of weight off the truck, allowing it to ride level. It was quite a sight to see going down the road, 52 feet of trailer, another six feet between trailer and truck, and the length of the bright red GMC. Even though we took our home with us when we moved to another town, preparing to move or set up was a lot of hard work with a heavy duty hydraulic jack and all the blocks that were required. My dad did a lot of straining to get the job done. Being a kid, I wasn’t a lot of help so my dad did all the heavy stuff. My wife and I thoroughly enjoy traveling with our 5th wheel. However, for me, a lot of the enjoyment is what I suppose is the thrill of traveling, especially among others who are on the road. There is a spirit of freedom and an easy familiarity, gained I’m sure from those years on the road with my parents… p.s. the photo isn’t an actual one of the Travelite and GMC even though they depict what they looked like (except the color of the truck)…I put it together from what I found on the net. |
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