Los Angeles — When I’m in Los Angeles, I stay in my vintage 1960s Boles Aero 23-foot camper, in a trailer park populated with mid-century and newer rigs. We’ve got fifth-wheels, post-war park models, motorhomes, and a mix of campers that are true oldies, retro, and recent makes. The park is a throwback to a lifestyle that is fast disappearing from mainstream America. I love it.
The newer trailers and goosenecks are sleek, mostly white with big, bold brand emblems splashed on the sides. I needed a place to stay after leaving my house of 30+ years, and I looked at a lot of those, and at the retro Shasta’s et al. None had the charm of the actual vintage ones, at least not for me. The newer ones are mostly open floorplan. I prefer a little segmentation, separation between “rooms.”
The Boles Aero became available, in situ, and I jumped at the chance to buy and rent the space underneath. It had been modified a bit for the practicalities of full-time living, but apparently hadn’t been moved from its spot for over 50 years. With a few exceptions, the interior and exterior were largely intact. (Well, except that somewhere along the line someone decided to paint over the original gold accents with baby blue. Gonna fix that some day!)
It kind of breaks my heart when I see these old coaches gutted and updated inside, because I like recapturing and preserving the past. But I get it. Repurposing/upcycling is not always a bad thing, even if in some cases it’s a sad thing. (To me, not to the rest of the world.) Sometimes it’s the only choice. Like when you need a water heater that works. For fixer-up projects that keep the spirt of the original, my go-to source is Vintage Trailer Supply. They get it.
Little by little, I have had some repairs done. I’ve had to change things. This is a work in progress. And that’s OK.
I’m a DIY’er in spirit without any real fixit skills. I read a lot, watch a lot of youtube videos, and talk to people. My biggest takeaway here is how awesome neighbors can be. Same in my small community in rural Montana.
Thirty years of living in a nice suburban house in L.A., and I knew very few people in the same block, let alone the wider neighborhood when I left. For all the problems and bass-ackwards thinking that we went through in the ’50s and ’60s and beyond — and that hopefully we have overcome or at least are recognizing and trying to overcome — people used to talk to each other face to face.
Flashback Garage is about happy reminiscing. It’s about everyday things, decor, art, vehicles, and the built environment that evoke nostalgia and bring a smile, recapturing the odd forgotten memory.
Certainly, the past, collective or individual, throughout history, has never been idyllic even if it’s been whitewashed, glossed over, selectively exclusive, pushed into obscurity, or just forgotten. I doubt even Pollyanna could categorically deny that much of it has been downright horrendous.
But we’re going for smiles here at the Garage, focusing on the good stuff! So enter in the spirt of lighthearted curiosity, for what we hope will be delightful discoveries and serendipitous connections. Welcome, new friends! Enjoy your visit. — Adele
P.S. If you’d like to see more of life at my trailer — from a child’s point of view — I published a short children’s book, Grandma’s Trailer. I’ve written another one, the second in the series, “Lunch and Vegetables at Grandma’s Trailer,” to be published when the illustrations are finished!
Adele Field is a writer and editor based in rural eastern Montana.