Porky's Hole Thoughts: Cardboard Box 'Camper' Makes the Trip
In the late '60s, we attended the Florida Water Well Exposition in Orlando, Fla. We were living in Adel, Ga., at the time. There wasn’t much room for the four of us in our 1967 Ford F-100 single cab pickup, as it had two factory installed Mustang bucket seats. We had just purchased a microwave oven and went by the appliance store to pick it up. While there, we saw a big refrigerator cardboard box and the appliance dealer said we could have it.
The box just fit in our pickup bed like a camper. We loaded the box in the pickup and the microwave oven (still in its box) inside the refrigerator box to keep the big box from blowing away. Now we had a big box with a small box (microwave) and our suitcases inside. Lots of spare room!
IDEA! Put the boys in the box. We cut little windows in the sides and ends of the box so the boys could see out and also get air. Bess and I had the truck cab to ourselves and the boys had the box.
We arrived at our motel, checked in, got our keys and went to our room. Our key wouldn’t open the door. After jiggling the key for some time, someone pulled back the room curtain … it was occupied! We went back to the check-in desk and requested a room with no one in it. Quite embarrassed, they gave us another (larger) room.
Once we had moved in, we went to eat. Meals were expensive, so we went to a grocery store and bought groceries and took them back to our room. We cooked our meals with our new microwave oven.
The next day, we were registering for the well exposition and they wanted us to pay full registration for all four of us (our sons were 8 and 10 at the time). Disney World was close and much less expensive, so we just spent two days at Disney World and forgot about the well exposition. Needless to say we all had a great time.
A few years later, we purchased an over-the-cab slide-in camper. Bess and myself could ride in comfort while the boys could ride on the over cab bed and see out, and with an intercom we could communicate back and forth with no problem. The boys could move around and not be so confined to a little cardboard box. Everyone was much happier!
We later added a dune buggy that we built from a kit. We would tow it with us almost everywhere we went on weekends and holidays.
These are just some of the days that this family remembers and cherishes today.
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