Camping In The 1940's

History lesson for the day!

Still digging through our stacks of very old photos. This one is circa 1947 when the family took a traveling vacation, driving from Oakland, CA to Yellowstone National Park in our 1942 Pontiac. We took with a heavy canvas "umbrella tent" for camping. In those bygone days there were few, if any, commercial campgrounds. In the vast empty expanses of the eastern Oregon desert, we just pulled over to the side of the two-lane highway and set up camp for the night. 

 

Cars didn't have built in air conditioning back then; notice the strange looking cylinder hung off the "rain gutter" at the edge of the car roof on the passenger side. You filled it with water. Inside, there was a smaller wire-mesh cylindrical cage filled with shredded wood fiber that was partially submerged in the water reservoir. there was a cord hanging out on the inside of the car. When you pulled it gently, the cylinder would rotate in the water, soaking the excelsior. while driving, the scoop on the front would force air through the wet shavings, cooling the air through evaporation. We kids took great delight in occasionally yanking hard on the cord, rotating the cylinder so rapidly that a shower of water drops would come shooting into the car, soaking whoever was sitting in the passenger seat (usually Mom!)