by Good Sam Club Member: Abe and Judy
In 1957, I was three years old. Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States, Sputnik was launched by the Russians, and my grandparents decided to retire and do a little traveling. Gramps bought a new Cadillac to pull their new Dalton travel trailer and show their grandkids what the world was about. Every year they packed as many of them as they could and take them on summer trips across the Southwestern states and into Mexico.
My first camping trip was as exciting for me as it was for my brother, Art, and my cousins, Steve and Richard. We were headed south into Mexico to visit distant family and friends of my grandparents. Gramps was very proud of his family and was eager to show his good fortune and 21 grandchildren to everyone. I don’t remember how cramped we were during this trip, because I was so excited about going on summer vacation and “seeing the world.”
Our first camping trip in the travel trailer was to Mazatlan, Mexico, to visit with our grandparents’ friends and family. We enjoyed the adventure for two weeks and then returned to our homes in the Los Angeles area. Gramps realized that this was a little too small for his brood, so he upsized to a 24-foot Boles-Aero trailer. When our turns to travel came again, we had more room than before to stretch out, as we had done some stretching ourselves. Gramps bought a new International Harvester pickup truck and added a slide-out over the cab camper. Now he could really pack in the grandkids and cover more ground on each trip.
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