| OCR Text |
Show Vintage Devotion These folks love sleeping with nostalgia. By Tim Gurrister Photos by Benjamin Hager Call it a hobby, even a subculture, but there are no secret handshakes or political agendas here. The sight of a 50-year-old restored camper trailer simply means you're about to meet a friend. That Tin Can Tourists sticker on the bumper distinguishes the members of this nationwide club. The Utah chapter numbers about 100, about half of them showing up at a September rally organized by Willard's Watt "Orbie" Mungall at Honeyville's Crystal Hot Springs. The Mungalls brought two of their old trailers — a 1955 Boles-Aero and 1952 Silver Streak — part of a fleet of six Orbie has restored, 12 to 24 feet in length, dated 1947 to 1956. "We just came from a rally in Bend, Oregon," said wife Emmie. "We met the best people and had the best time. "We always hear, 'Oh, my grandparents had one of those,' or, 'My parents used to take us camping in one of those.' Then the next thing we know, they've joined up with us." The Silver Streak, model name Clipper, is the Mungalls' flagship. It had been sitting in a field abandoned for 12 years when Orbie paid a farmer SI,200 for it in 2002. "Built by hand, not by machines," the 65-year-old rejoices. He likes to explain the rivet work, which tends to make the front of the Clipper look like an ancient medieval helmet, or perhaps a spaceship. Riveting is a lost art, he said, the riveter having to keep the aluminum flexed a certain way while fastening the metal so that it lies flat, not just a matter of pounding away. "Maybe 15-20 years ago, they were considered ugly," he said of the rounded metallic design of the original riveted aluminum "skin" on the Clipper. "Now, people like the unique design, almost a Buck Rogers look." lie notes that the Silver Streaks, Air Streams, Boles-Aeros and other trailers of the '50s were built with "aircraft-grade aluminum — the same stuff they use for fighter jets." Which he has emphasized in the Clipper, stripping the paint to burnish the aluminum on the inside, but not so much on the Boles-Aero — the birchwood interior, he said, was much more warm and soothing. The front of the Clipper bears a sign with an actual beaver trap, wired open, holding a red button. It reads: "Salesmen, Missionaries push red button for services." "Just my way of poking fun," said Mungall. lie took up the name Orbie aftt a brain-storming session with college friends almost 50 years ago. "With the name Watt, it always sounds like a question." He spent $800 restoring the Clipper and S500 on the Aero, for materials. "That doesn't include new tires." Then there are the untold hours of manual labor to follow. "You'd just see these things by the side of the road," Orbie says of the antique trailers. "I was a right-of-way officer, or scout as it was called, so I talked to a lot of landowners." He was a seismologist at the time for various oil exploration companies, his 30-year career taking him through 38 states before he moved to Willard in Box Elder County 20 years ago. ("Willard is seismographically interesting.") 28 | November 2015 |
