Mid century metal lawn chairs

I found these mid century metal lawn chairs at an antique store yesterday.  I bought the rounded back one first.  This morning I took my coffee out on my deck and sat in my new old chair and and thought, this chair needs its fellow old chairs on my deck.  I told myself, to heck with plastic molded chairs I have.  I want mid century coolness on my deck.  So at noon I drove back down wishing nobody else had purchased them, and with luck they were still there.  So I bought the matching pair.

One of them is a rocker, but they all kind of bounce.  I really like the fiesta orange color but the blue one probably should be painted.  I've been looking for some of these for the longest time.  I suspect they are from the 1940s, but they've been painted a few times.  I think the original color on the pair was green seat and back with white arm rails.  I might paint the pair but I'm going to leave the single one with the rounded back just the way it is.

Westinghouse roaster oven

I scored this vintage Westinghouse roaster oven at a thrift for $15.  It will match the retro kitchen  in the Gochenour cabin nicely.  It works great!  I almost didn't buy it and I walked away from it once.  But I took a second look and thought,. I gotta have that!  It's just way too cool and the price was right.

The knob lights up red when it's on, and the whole grey pan and rack lift out for cleaning.  There's also a window in the lid to look down and see what's going on inside.  First thing I'm going to do is roast a chicken in it on the 4th of July weekend.  A nice addition to the Gochenour collection!

* I reserve the rights to my photos, do not use without permission *

Mid Century coolness

I've been thrifting as usual.. I just don't have enough old stuff, so here are my latest finds.  My mom had a set of this stardust flatwear and I've been looking and looking for a set but its sort of hard to come by.  I found this spoon at a thrift store in Montana.  I like spoons with holes in them for making poached eggs, and this one is perfect for the travel trailer.  One of my favorite things for breakfast is poached egg hummus and pita.  I fish the egg out of the water with a spoon like this, and this one has cool stardust holes.

Also I picked up a set of mid century wall art ducks to go with my similar pheasants.  There is only one duck in this picture, but there are three matching ducks and I have two pheasants.  All three ducks have their wings in different positions. I was pretty stoked when I found these ducks! You can check out my pheasants at this link.
mid century wall art pheasants 

Also I picked up this mid century lamp at an antique mall which goes nicely.  It wasn't exactly cheap but that's just it.  It isn't cheap, it's well made and you can have one two or all three of the lights on. I'm going to have the ducks fly around my Monte Dolack Suburban Refuge print (which I picked up framed for $5 in a Canadian thrift shop) and I'm going to use the lamp as a studio lamp.  The ducks and the lamp will be nice additions to the Gochenour collection.

Aristocrat Travel Trailer in Banff National Park

Here are a couple of more pictures from our summer vacation in Banff and Kootenay National Parks Canada.  Man that sounded long winded.. Part of the fun for me actually and I'm sure for Queenie was playing with our old Aristocrat Travel Trailer, and what better place than the Canadian parks?  Bow Valley above with a giant copy right stamp on it.

Queenie took this picture as the Aristocrat went under a tunnel.  Of course when you go through a tunnel on vacation you have to honk the horn.  Bad form if you don't.

To end things off proper,  we got to hang at Flathead Lake on the last long weekend of the summer for some boating, sailing and guitar playing. Hey that could be a western song!..  Who rocks the party? We rock the party!

Aristocrat in Kootenay Park

I loved this picture Queenie took of the Aristocrat Travel trailer as we decended into Kootenay National Park.  And who knows, perhaps this old trailer has been up here before way back in the late 1960s.  

Queenie and I met up there so she followed along in her car and we talked on the little family radios as we drove along together.  It didn't take too long to move from one camp to another and it was nice to have the car to go on longer trips out of camp.  Plus it was a nice safety factor to have the car in the event the truck or trailer broke down, which thankfully never happened. 

Aristocrat travel trailer in Canada

Queenie and I camped with the Aristocrat travel trailer in Canada last week.   We had four different campsites from Radium Hot Springs to North of Lake Louise. The picture above is from Redstreak on the hill above the town of Radium.  You can see my shadow in the picture on the right. Below is our camp at Marble Canyon.

We had a great time as usual, and it was a great way to escape the heat down in the states.  The 1979 Ford F250 purred like a cat towning the trailer, and one dude driving a new F350 even complimented us on old yeller. They just don't paint trucks yellow like that any more. The 1968 Aristocrat travel trailer worked well too.  We stayed comfy and and warm as temps dipped down into the 40s F at night.  The picture below is our last camp at McLead Meadows.  I didn't get a good one of the camp at Mosquito Creek. ( it had less mosquitos than Marble Canyon actually)

I almost hesitate to post any of my photos now as I don't want them ending up on someone else's site.., but it's hard to go into the Canadian parks and not be inspired.  It's a great place to do some vintage camping, and there's nothing like the smell of propane and coffee in the morning.  Has to be in Melmac to get the full effect...

Bird is the word

So I was in the thrift store last week looking for Melmac and other various mid century things and I came across one of these vintage wall art birds.  I'm looking at this thing deciding how cool it is and this lady comes up and says "here's another one that goes with it."  So then there were two..

I walked out of the store without the birds and I thought, If I don't buy these birds, I'm always going to regret it.  So I looked in my wallet and found the ten bucks I needed and went back in and bought them.

I have to wonder a little about the old bird who used to own these birds..  The wing is coming loose on one of them but it just needs a machine screw nut. They say Style House, Japan on the back of them.  They're gonna ad style to my house!  I'll add them to the Gochenour collection. 

Mid Century Desk Lamp

My mom downsized and I just had to have this mid century desk lamp that is in the shape of a flower.  There's something really corny about it, maybe the green leaf, but at the same time there something really cool about it.  It's not trying to convince you it's a real plant or even a good representation of a real plant.  There's a certian honesty to it in that respect.  And if you put this lamp in your home, it wasn't like you were trying to impress everyone.  It was just fun and it's still just fun.

I can imagine sitting around back in the early 1960s watching the Judy Garland show on a black and white TV with this lamp on the end table.  And of course you'd want an ashtray right next to it in case someone wanted to smoke..  Where's my ashtray?

Mid Century Coolness

Mom had these mid century milk glasses so I appropriated them for the 1968 Aristocrat travel trailer. They will be perfect for camping.  At the end of a long day on the hiking trail we can pop open a carton of milk and relax by the camp fire.

Queenie picked up this cool retro Coleman water cooler.  It was made in Canada and that might explain why I've never seen another one exactly like it.  We can put our, Tang, Kool-Aid or even just cold water in it.

Retro camping retro cooking

So I've been thinking,. We have the vintage Aristocrat travel trailer,.  We have the vintage Melmac dishes,. Queenie loves to cook for me,. We just need vintage food for when we go camping!

I recently got a couple of vintage cook books that are small and will travel well:  
7-up Goes to a party, (everthing is made with 7-up in it, how fun!) and it includes a savory jello recipe that I'm curious to try: Shrimp Aspic Ring.

 And I also got a vintage Presto pressure cooker recipe book.  I have a pressure cooker, and with it you can make a fast and hearty meal in minutes including a recipe for squirrel that will be handy for camping as there are squirrels everywhere!  Here's all you need to make it:

1 squirrel

salt and pepper

1/4 cup of fat

1 cup of water

2 tbsp. flour

Wait a minute,. a quarter cup of fat?  Where in the heck are we gonna get a quarter cup of fat when we are camping!?  I'm not even sure if you can buy just plain old fat any more.  I guess we will substitute the fat with olive oil.  Or substitute the squirrel with a more fatty rodent, like beaver or marmot. Of course you'd probably only need half a beaver for two servings, and you'll have to fight over who gets the tail! 

The flour is in case you want to thicken your squirrel au jus, so you don't even need the flour really.

Aristocrat travel trailer water system repair

I've been working on the water system in the vintage Aristocrat travel trailer.  I've camped a lot in vintage campers and have come to realize that all you really need is one of those large green plastic water containers.  They will last forever and it's easy to manage them, but I wanted the water system in the Aristocrat to work.  I've been trying to get all of the trailer's systems to work.  The water pump was disconnected when I got the trailer and when I put it back together it didn't suck.  Which sucked..

So I took it out and took the pump apart.  The gasket was pretty much shot and the blades on the impeller were somewhat bent over.  Still I thought it should work because the motor ran, and it's a simple device.  Plus the pump is a 4+ gallon per min pump which is a lot just for a sink by todays standards.  We have scrap gasket material at work so I cut out a new gasket.  The main thing was getting the diameter right which was 1.75 inch.  I got it to fit perfect and tight, and then I drilled the holes for the screws.  Then tried to make the blades on the impeller straight by bending them back.  After a day or so I put the pump back together with the new home made gasket and used clear silicone to seal it.  I let that dry over night.

It had to work right?  I gave it about a 60% chance and Queenie crossed her fingers.  I did not like the idea of buying a new pump if I didn't have to.  So I soldered all of the electrical connections, wrapped the water connections with teflon tape, and shazam! we have water in the sink!

Oh yeah.  I used a 1967 Ford pickup gas cap for the missing water tank fill lid.  It fit the existing fixture perfect and looks retro.  I had to grind down the inside flange a little but then it fit like a glove and locks into place.

And for drinking water I recently picked up a vintage Coleman water cooler.  It will sit ontop of the fridge cabinet.

Melmac dishes

I found myself hunting through a new thrift store (after I made a deposite) and came across this set of vintage Melmac dishes for our vintage Aristocrat travel trailer.  We found a gold set earlier that is more complete, but I couldn't pass this up. It will match our mid century trailer decor perfectly.  The picture shows the Melmac on our an old dinette not in the trailer.  Works pretty well there too!

Aristocrat bumper sticker

I've been goofing around with the Aristocrat travel trailer and getting excited to take it out.  Haven't really done anything lately except yard work but I thought this bumper sticker would be fun on the trailer.  Not sure what the authorities will think..

It looks pretty serious..

Retro Raffiaware Melmac coffee cups

A couple of more retro Raffiaware Melmac coffee cups for the vintage Aristocrat travel trailer.  I already had two of these so now there are four and they should work with the Melmac nicely.  These are a little bigger than the Melmac cups we've been using.

Aristocrat travel trailer

Here's a picture of our Aristocrat travel trailer.  From what I can tell it's a Mainliner model.  Love the heck out of it.  I forgot I had this picture from when we camped at Two Medicine in Glacier. 

You can see the improvised sliding door handle thing we made for the screen door.  It should be made out of metal and it slides back and forth and allows you to close the outside door, and then when the main door is open you slide it over to keep out bugs.  The problem is you forget it is slid over to keep bugs out and you close the main door.  Then the door handle bends the little slider thing.   So we made one out of some cardboard and covered it with duct tape.  It works slick.  Since we made it, we both forgot it was slid closed and then shut the main door.  With the cardboard version it just pops out and no problem.  If you did that with a metal slider it would bend and be a problem.

It seems that now everyone is towing great big huge trailers.  I can't imagine doing that unless you were going to spend a lot of time out on the road.  This little Aristocrat has everything we need.  Honestly, sometimes bigger isn't better.

Canned Ham Travel Trailer

I noticed the unmistakable shape of a vintage canned ham travel trailer ahead of me on the highway as I drove to Thanksgiving dinner.  I wanted to get a good look at it and I had to speed to catch up.  I just managed to snap this picture as it took an exit off of the road.  Of course I had my camera set wrong, but I still got this image.  BUM it said on the back.. Bum, I thought.. Hmm,..

I've often felt like a bum going to someone else's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  And I do like vintage travel trailers that others might consider junk.  I finally got to my exit and left the freeway.  At the stoplight there was a homeless guy.  As I looked at a text on my phone, he flipped the cardboard sign over he was holding and on the other side it said "Drive Safe"..  Is this guy a bum I wondered?  He probably lives in a cool vintage travel trailer, I thought as the light turned green and I drove off to get my free turkey dinner.

Aristocrat Travel Trailer

Here's a picture of our 1968 Aristocrat travel trailer on it's happy summer parking spot.  I'm pretty sure it is a Mainliner model based on what I can see from the Tin Can Tourist website.  They have the exact floor plan in a Mainliner publication.  This one looks like a Loliner from the outside though.  It has the dropped axle and it's low to the ground, but it's not like any Loliner I've seen on the inside.  It doesn't have the lowered center floor and doesn't have the kitchen in the center.  The kitchen on this one is in the rear and it has a toilet room with a recirculation toilet.  Having the toilet is a big bonus in the middle of the night when camping in bear country..

Anyway this thing is a pleasure to camp in.  There's plenty of room to lounge around and lots of windows to look out of.

I miss camping season already. What a care free thing to do.. I just can't get enough of it.

Retro Camping with the Aristocrat travel trailer

Here are some pictures of the 1969 Aristocrat travel trailer and 1979 Ford F250.  Just some retro fall camping in Montana.  Sometimes I wish things weren't changing all of the time.  I don't want to sound "old" but some things were better back when.  Now it seems if you want a travel trailer it has to be huge.  WTH? (what the heck?)  I pulled into Cascaed Campground along the Clark Fork River in western Montana late Saturday night and had a hard enough time backing the little Aristocrat travel trailer into this spot in the dark.  (and I can really back up a trailer,..)

Anyway I wish they'd stop changing blogger too.  This is my first post since they changed the editor so we will see.  I have no idea what this post is going to look like.

There is of course a lot of forest fire smoke in the air throughout the west.  It made for some very warm lighting.  It's also been sort of hard to put up with all of this smoke as i have a very hard time breathing in it.  None the less I had a nice time camping.  Played guitar a little and got to read a little too.

Vintage Schwinn Varsity

Here's a picture of my vintage Schwinn Varsity. I found this bike at the dump in Montana a few years ago and had to make a dumpster dive to get it. It's an early Varsity as it has the drop tube shifters, and had a 1963 if I remember Bozeman bike license on it, which was actually like a small metal license plate. I've modified it so I could ride it but I did keep all of the original parts.

Like any bike, wheels and tires make all of the difference. These wheels which were off of a newer Schwinn Continental and are like new, and the tires are new 27 inch Continentals. That makes this old dumpster find ride like new. It's going to be a great town bike, and the cockpit is now comfortable enough for me to go on distance rides with. Other changes I made were; saddle, bars stem and brake levers and pads, pedals, clips, chain and cables. Lastly I found some NOS Varsity fenders on Craigslist. It sounds like a lot but I had most of the parts I needed on hand. Oh,. and I put some white Benotto cello tape on the bars. It's hard to find cello tape nowdays. Never thought I'd see that day...

Varsities aren't that bad. They got a bad reputation when lighter more high tech bikes came to the states in the bicycle boom of the 70s but I think they make great casual retro rides. I've always wanted one and after I get the rack on it, I'll be riding this bike to and from work the rest of this year. It really has a nice feel, and was far too nice to just throw away. It just needed some attention..

And now I have two red bikes.  My Gitane Tour de France is below.

Replacing the roof vent on the Aristocrat travel trailer

I had to replace the roof vent on our vintage Aristocrat travel trailer. The old one did not have the proper lid which was just taped in place, so of course you couldn't open or close it. Thankfully it didn't leak. First I had to grind and cut away the goop that covered all of the screw heads so I could get a socket on them. That took forever and was a difficult task. I used my Dremel tool to grind around them and then an Xacto knife to cut the screw head free.

After I removed all of the screws, I pulled the old vent out and then cleaned the opening removing all of the old putty tape.

After I cleaned off the old goop and putty tape I scrubbed the area with steel wool and then cleaned the area with rubbing alcohol. Then I positioned the new vent in the opening and marked where it would be centered. I drew around the vent flashing with a marking pen. That mark also allowed me to position the new putty tape.
I positioned the new putty tape inside the lines I had drawn with the marking pen. I overlapped the tape in the corners and squished it together with my fingers.
I attached the new vent using #8 by 3/4 sheet metal screws. The wood was perfect in the framing and the screws went in well. Next I need to go around the edge of the flange with a sealant I got at the RV place. I'll do that tonight.
Here's what it looks like from the inside. I left the original metal interior trim in place and didn't use the plastic one provided with the new vent. I think it looks more retro with the metal interior flashing. Aristocrats seem to have this wire for lighting going along the walls and ceiling. My parents Aristocrat had this same sort of wiring also. Anyway, now I have the vent and rear window fixed. There's still more work to be done, but the only thing I really need to do now is fix one of the window screens and we will be able to use the trailer for our vacation in Glacier.