The Okie Legacy: Vacations & Covered Wagons of 1950's...

Soaring eagle logo. Okie Legacy Banner. Click here for homepage.

Moderated by NW Okie!

Volume 8 , Issue 23

2006

Weekly eZine: (364 subscribers)
Subscribe | Unsubscribe
Using Desktop...

Sections
Alva Mystery
Opera House Mystery

Albums...
1920 Alva PowWow
1917 Ranger
1926 Ranger
1937 Ranger
Castle On the Hill

Stories Containing...

Blogs / WebCams / Photos
NW Okie's FB
OkieJournal FB
OkieLegacy Blog
Ancestry (paristimes)
NW Okie Instagram
Flickr Gallery
1960 Politcal Legacy
1933 WIRangeManuel
Volume 8
1999  Vol 1
2000  Vol 2
2001  Vol 3
2002  Vol 4
2003  Vol 5
2004  Vol 6
2005  Vol 7
2006  Vol 8
2007  Vol 9
2008  Vol 10
2009  Vol 11
2010  Vol 12
2011  Vol 13
2012  Vol 14
2013  Vol 15
2014  Vol 16
2015  Vol 17
2016  Vol 18
2017  Vol 19
2018  Vol 20
2021  Vol 21
Issues 23
Iss 1  1-7 
Iss 2  1-14 
Iss 3  1-21 
Iss 4  1-28 
Iss 5  2-4 
Iss 6  2-11 
Iss 7  2-18 
Iss 8  2-25 
Iss 9  3-4 
Iss 10  3-11 
Iss 11  3-18 
Iss 12  3-25 
Iss 13  4-1 
Iss 14  4-8 
Iss 15  4-15 
Iss 16  4-22 
Iss 17  4-29 
Iss 18  5-6 
Iss 19  5-13 
Iss 20  5-20 
Iss 21  5-27 
Iss 22  6-3 
Iss 23  6-10 
Iss 24  6-17 
Iss 25  6-24 
Iss 26  7-1 
Iss 27  7-8 
Iss 28  7-15 
Iss 29  7-22 
Iss 30  7-29 
Iss 31  8-8 
Iss 32  8-12 
Iss 33  8-19 
Iss 34  8-26 
Iss 35  9-2 
Iss 36  9-9 
Iss 37  9-16 
Iss 38  9-23 
Iss 39  9-30 
Iss 40  10-7 
Iss 41  10-14 
Iss 42  10-21 
Iss 43  10-28 
Iss 44  11-4 
Iss 45  11-11 
Iss 46  11-18 
Iss 47  11-25 
Iss 48  12-2 
Iss 49  12-9 
Iss 50  12-16 
Iss 51  12-23 
Iss 52  12-30 
Other Resources
NWOkie JukeBox

Vacations & Covered Wagons of 1950's...

This is the time of year that families pack their motorhomes (covered wagons) for summer vacations. We were looking through our old photos of the mid-1950's and found this photograph of a 1951 Plymouth Suburban Wagon that we used one summer to take a summer vacation to the Rockies. We think it might have been when the young girl in the picture was 14 years of age or so, but with no date on the photo its hard to state the exact date. Gene McGill is atop the roof of the Plymouth wagon, while his oldest daughter (Connie Jean) is pulling tight a rope of some sort along side the wagon. If you see Connie Jean, ask her how old she was in this old photo with the 1951 blue Plymouth Suburban Wagon.

We think that this blue '51 Plymouth wagon was the old blue station wagon that Vada (Paris) McGill traded in for a newer light blue Oldsmobile that she bought at an auto dealer in Waynoka, Oklahoma while Gene was on a fishing trip with his buddies. We have forgotten the year of that transaction, but Vada had come to the end of her road with that old (1951) Plymouth wagon which (we are told) should have come to the end of its road a year or two earlier. We did a web search through Google and found this likeness of our Plymouth wagon on the web of the another 1951 Plymouth suburban wagon on an old vintage car site. 1951 Plymouth suburban wagon. It looks similar to the '51 Plymouth wagon of ours with an almost identical same dent near the front, right fender.

Speaking of motorhomes and covered wagons, checkout this 1955 photo of our makeshift Pontiac station wagon with homemade matching teardrop trailer. Cooking supplies were stored in the backend with storage of tent, bedding and camping supplies stored inside this little trailer. This covered wagon was orangish and white and was used during the summer of '55 on our trip from northwest Oklahoma to the Yukon Territory of Alaska. We journeyed to Alaska with the six of us in this Pontiac station wagon and teardrop trailer rig in 1955, the year one of my sisters (Dorthy) turned 12. Seems to this NW Okie, that we ate a lot of doctored, "Dinty Moore Stew" on that Alaska trip in '55 -- something about "corn clam chowder" comes to mind, also. We left on our journey soon after school was out and did not return until September, a week or so after school had already started. This shy NW Okie remembers having to walk into a full classroom of Mrs. Van Pelts second grade class at Washington Elementary school -- scared to death. (We wonder if that is why this NW Okie doesn't like being late!) AND... We are reminded that the the reasons for the '55 summer long trip was that 1954 was a bad year for polio in Alva (Oklahoma) and they were expecting an even worse outbreak in 1955. Also, We spent the summer of 1954 at the ranch north of Waynoka to keep us away from the swimming pool and from other kids.

While we were in the Yukon Territory near Whitehorse and Dawson, Yukon Territory during the Summer of 1955, we took this photo of "The Yukoner" that had been sitting there for ... not sure how long after its last journey up the Yukon River. The name on the wheelhouse of this sternwheeler reads, "AKSALA" (ALASKA in reverse). It was the first boat up the Yukon river from whitehorse to Dawson. We wonder if the Yukoner is still setting in this same spot or has been restored or completely demolished. Whitehorse is capitol of Yukon Territory.
  |  View or Add Comments (1 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe


© . Linda Mcgill Wagner - began © 1999 Contact Me