CHANGES SEEN OVER THE YEARS GOOD, BAD, INDIFFERENT

[RV_]

Now that is a great idea too Linda! WooHoo we still use a pen and magnetic paper pad on the wall! Thanks!

[theeyres]

I think more of my father, who was a true pioneer RVer and actually built the Cascade brand of trailers in the late '50's that touted being the first 16 foot trailers with a full bath and a full couch. He finally discontinued the brand because it was getting so popular that they had to build them all year and hope to sell them mainly in the summer and he simply didn't have the capital to do that. And the time he was visiting us: my wife and I went to work, he left our home and in the afternoon I got a call at work from him asking if we had missed our dog. When I said I hadn't been home yet, it seems our dog jumped in his trailer when they were packing up and he didn't discover it until they stopped for lunch and he used a payphone at a service station. Freckles got a month long vacation!! Times have certainly changed since then.

[Mariner]

Things I don't miss...the old ice box, Coleman stoves & lanterns (the old white gas ones), or how about carrying around all those state maps you used to get free at gas stations, and then fighting them to get 'em folded again. I wonder how my grandparents did it, they were full timers in the mid 50's pulling their Airstream behind a Chevy Carryall, and they traveled all over the U.S. and Mexico.

[Kirk W]

Things I don't miss...the old ice box, Coleman stoves & lanterns (the old white gas ones), or how about carrying around all those state maps you used to get free at gas stations, and then fighting them to get 'em folded again. I wonder how my grandparents did it, they were full timers in the mid 50's pulling their Airstream behind a Chevy Carryall, and they traveled all over the U.S. and Mexico.

The ice box for sure! Buying ice was a real pain and the old stove fuel always ran out at the wrong time. My parents had their collection of highway maps, marked in pen where they had been and those were still there when we sold the house after dad died and mother was moving into elder care. I hated to part with them, but there were so many and what would we do with them??

 

In recent years I think what has changed most and continues to do so is the electronic side of things. It isn't just "smart phones" but smart appliances and most everything. We were much more self-sufficient back in those days.

[Jack Mayer]

 

Dang! I never realized how much I depend on it now. Jack and the rest you can tell me I told you so any time.

Yeah, well.....we become more and more dependent....

 

So Derek, now we just have to get you using Google....

[RV_]

Jack!

[FULLTIMEWANABE]

Enjoyed reading, as I'm sure others will, and reminiscing about some of the things we'd forgotten we used to do: Ice chests, coleman stoves and lanterns (that white cloth wick used to catch fire/fall apart on us as it aged LOL). Arguments about who forgot to buy extra mini canisters and reverting to cooking on the fire at times. Now we have residential fridges, convection microwaves, underfloor heating, iPad controlled shades, lights and so much more eh? As for the comments on the maps - something's I'm just too conditioned about, with albeit we do use tech quite a bit today for searching = we have two map books = oldest is highlighted in different colours of trips we've been and done with dates (WOW's us today when we glimpse back to add the latest, other more current for referencing when plotting routes in laptop.

 

Don't know about you folks, but in all aspects in our lives we often turn around to each other and say "the best days of our lives were when we had a lot less monetarily and "stuff" wise, and we were at our happiest". Obviously today's new age won't know any different to compare to and probably some reading this will be like "what are they talking about" so ............ YIKES! Don't you hate it when you realise, you sound more and more like your parents and grandparents did as the years roll on!

 

As always, happy and safe travels to us all.

[RV_]

Wannabe,

I hear ya bud.

 

There will soon no longer be analog readers using ambient light like the digital Kindles used to without backlight. Explain an 8 track or album to a tweener.

 

I anticipate LEO Satellite Internet and voice comm cheap within 5 years. It will replace the big GEOS satellite dishes with tiny rubber ducky antennas or similar. RVs too. No need for WiFi for your TV and Internet at Parks or Boondocking.

 

Trying to explain smog and places that sell flammable and explosive liquid and gas fuels to be used at high speeds in a few decades will be like explaining why we have gas stations instead of livery stables today.

 

I'd forgotten about the Coleman mantle lanterns and ice blocks. Old TVs to LED Flat screens in our rigs and HD right OTA!

 

Not to mention way better suspension options and power options.

[Dutch_12078]

We were at Midway Campground on the Tamiami Trail in southern, FL in January, when a young tent camper asked if I knew where the nearest grocery store was. I told him there was a small one about 30 miles away in Everglades City, and he lamented that this was their first time camping, and his wife had packed a bunch of those 90 second microwave meals for dinners without considering that they would not have a microwave along, thus the need to go shopping. I asked him if they had a small pan along, and he said they did. I suggested opening the 90 second meal containers, scooping the contents into the pan and heating it on the camp stove or fire. He just stared at me for moment and said he didn't know you could do that, the directions don't mention it!

[RV_]

Good one Dutch!

[Barbaraok]

And these are the people who will be wiping our rear ends when we are senile & in the rest home. Oh dear.

[Dutch_12078]

And these are the people who will be wiping our rear ends when we are senile & in the rest home. Oh dear.

 

And they vote!

[sandsys]

My parents had their collection of highway maps, marked in pen where they had been and those were still there when we sold the house after dad died and mother was moving into elder care. I hated to part with them, but there were so many and what would we do with them??

If the care facility allowed it, I would have papered a wall with them. Your Mom might have enjoyed seeing them long after she could travel.

 

Linda Sand

[Kirk W]

If the care facility allowed it, I would have papered a wall with them. Your Mom might have enjoyed seeing them long after she could travel.

That wasn't really an option, but might have been nice, at least for a time until the dementia progressed too far.

 

One thing that I believe has been a major improvement in the RV life is our ability to stay in contact with both family and friends and especially to know when we and an RV friend are in close proximity. I remember in our early days there were several times when we discovered that we had crossed paths with or spent the night near to people we would have loved to have seen, but didn't know they were nearby until after traveling down the road. Not only the proliferation of cell phones and such, but also the availability of internet forums such as this one, so that we know when those things happen or are about to happen. As I look back, I can recall having met dozens of people from Escapee's or and other RV folks because we or they mentioned on a forum where we were going to be or our route of travel. I can't recall having met a member of Escapee's who I truly disliked and many of them have become long term friends. Just in the past 10 days we have had the good fortune to be visited by two different members of Escapees who are citizens of countries other than the US or Canada. About 10 years ago we met a Canadian couple though this forum who we became very close friends with.

 

To me, the best part of the changes in RV travel since we first began to participate has been the expansion of our ability to meet our fellow RV travelers!

[sandsys]

That wasn't really an option, but might have been nice, at least for a time until the dementia progressed too far.

It might have been a source of pleasure way longer than you might have realized. I was astonished to discover Dave's mother could read aloud years after she could no longer recall our names. And she still enjoyed singing even though she couldn't remember that a hymnal is read differently than a book so she sang the first line of all four verses before she sang the second line of the verses. But the smile on her face as she did that made it worth having taken her from her locked floor downstairs to the Sunday service at her care center.

 

Plus, taking my own Mom for a ride in our RV brought huge smiles to her face even though we didn't actually go anywhere--just from my brother's house to Mom's care center. I can only hope she was remembering her own years RVing. Even though she introduced me to her care family as her sister instead of her daughter.

 

Linda Sand

[RV_]

Linda,

Sorry you are going through it too. We are heading there fast with my FIL, our only remaining parent. He is already seeing people that aren't there but recognizes us. Lynn runs over there daily almost and takes care of the bills and his accounts. Her brother lives on my FIL's property and is 100 yards away, and is "too busy" with work to help next door. Lynn drives across to towns to get there. Go figure. I don't know if we can get him in but we are going to start home health care and meals on wheels. He started drinking when Mom died last August. He never drank most of the time I knew him but very rarely. He said they used to drink a case a week when he started in the military in the mid 40s. It is sad to see them go down so fast. We can't leave him there much longer alone, without a sitter full time.

[Kirk W]

Plus, taking my own Mom for a ride in our RV brought huge smiles to her face even though we didn't actually go anywhere--just from my brother's house to Mom's care center. I can only hope she was remembering her own years RVing. Even though she introduced me to her care family as her sister instead of her daughter.

In later years my mother took me to be my dad, coming to take her on a date. Even so, she lead a pretty happy life and was socially active up to near the end. Am I correct that yours has passed now also? We never cease to miss them.

[sandsys]

In later years my mother took me to be my dad, coming to take her on a date. Even so, she lead a pretty happy life and was socially active up to near the end. Am I correct that yours has passed now also? We never cease to miss them.

Yes, both Mothers are gone now as well as Dave's Father. But my Dad is alive and kicking at 93 and he and my stepmother are still living in the house they and friends all built when I was about 10.

 

Linda Sand