Tin can camper & vintage Pontiac

[By Marcia Milner-Brage, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA]

 I saw this old faded red camper for the first time parked on the street, hitched to a pickup. It was in front of the owner’s house, down the street from me. Taking a break from painting his house, he told me it was a ’65 Santa Fe. He was going to fix it up, bring it back to its former glory. His face washed with a faraway look, I could see him envisioning the freedom of hitting the road and heading west in his spiffed up “tin can”. It would be like Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in the 1953 film classic The Long, Long Trailer. Oh, the romance of it! Meanwhile, he got back on the ladder to scrap and prime the trim on his house.

A few weeks later, I returned, looking to draw the trailer. But it wasn’t in the front anymore. It was in the back, along the alley, crammed behind a big white car and a stand of scrappy trees. Like the camper it was from another era. It was a boat of a car, with a formidable front hood and grillwork, darkened windows, large wheel wells with extra large, white trimmed tires. A 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix. It also had lots of rust, a peeling vinyl roof, and a strange, blotchy pinkish tinge to its now chalky finish.

Another keeper. Another project. Something else to dream on and bring back to its former glory.

Seems like there are quite a few others in my town who have love affairs with vintage trailers. Other’s that I’ve drawn:  a tricolor parked in vacant lot near the power plant. And a ’57 Lil’ Abe, stowed for many a season behind someone’s house.