When Elvis Costello asks, “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love & Understanding?” I say it’s the vehicles. I mean, who wouldn’t smile at the sight of a converted school bus covered in flowers? Who wouldn’t snicker at the boring sedan with the Jackson Pollock paint job? That’s why I love seeing a ramshackle old van held together with bailing wire and bumper stickers. Not only do these vehicles become a canvas for artistic expression, but also a means for connecting with your tribe. Especially if you’re a Deadhead.
The Grateful Dead is well-represented in my neighborhood and that’s how I like it. My experience of the band is limited by comparison, but I did have the new Warner Bros. GH album when I was 14. Also “American Beauty,” “Workingman’s Dead,” and “Europe ’72” when I was in college. I saw them play once in Seattle just before Jerry died. Not a good show, but a great experience.
I think the 2-gen Dodge Ram Van is owned by a guy in his 60s who can actually remember the ’60s. In addition to the lightning-bolt spare, the rear panel is festooned with bumper stickers and messages. “Box of Rain” is visible in the upper right, along with various references to sasquatch and the “flying eye.” One sticker recalls the words of Chief Sealth (for whom Seattle was named): “The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth.” Dr. Seuss is quoted over the barn doors on the passenger side: “Oh, the Places We’ll Go!” There is no doubt this Ram Van decamped to many a Dead show, from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah…
Just up the street is a converted schoolie that is being used as a tiny home. A cold, tiny, home. The Thomas-built bus has a chimney coming out of a passenger side window and a picture of Uncle Jerry in the window. Tie-dyed curtains and various wind-chimes round out the tableau. Not much to say about this schoolie except yes, that is a classic early Firebird being worked on in the background. Photobomb Alert!
At the end of my alley is another conversion. The GMC started out life as a “short bus,” but is now being used a portable art school. The paint job evokes the sort of “purple mountains majesty” you would expect from the Artshadow Workshop. This schoolie has a dying battery in its smoke detector, which terrifies my little dog whenever we walk past it. I guess that annoying “chirp” reminds her of when our own alarms have gone off in the house. I say get over it, Freddie.
Finally there is this blank canvas, a 3-gen Mitsubishi Express van. No stickers, no super-graphics, no paint job. A friend of mine said he rented one of these in Australia and drove it across the outback. Said it took a terrible beating but was dead-reliable. It probably won’t be long before someone grabs this little guy for a trip to Burning Man or the Gorge. Don’t forget the cooler.
Just the other day I was commenting on Jim Brophy’s post about the RAM van in Japan how this is my favorite iteration of the Dodge van’s design but now I don’t really like this one. Perhaps I like the fender flares that this one doesn’t have or the gold/brown paint, hmm, curious.
I do however love the Mitsu van. If anything they took Toyota’s “van” shape and pushed it even further toward the future…the size is slighly bigger/better as well and they were mostly a little more plush too. That’s a great find that isn’t around much anymore.
Yeah, the Mitsubishi van is rare around here, too. There are many more of the ’80s Toyota vans, ranging from beat to treat. I guess the people who go for the cult-cars are fickle…
Nice Roundup Swede, thanks for the share.
I’m thinking that if the Thomas bus has a wood stove’s chimney poking through a side window, it is NOT a cold tiny home.
Thanks Jim, didn’t think that one through to well. Must have gotten a contact high from being near the bus.
I just missed the Dead: shortly after I arrived at the University of Oregon in faulty condition from the whitebread suburbs of Denver, the deadhead dude from the next dorm block asked if I wanted to join him and his buds (and buds) up to Portland—in his VW Microbus, no less—to see the Dead. Yes, but I was a fraidycat and the worst kind of nerd and I begged off: had a paper to write. They went. I stayed. The paper didn’t get written. Garcia died not long after and all Eugene went into mourning, as it seemed. I don’t beat myself up too much over this missed opportunity (just enough), but it might’ve been good for me. Or not; we’ll never know!
Having recently ended a decade-long period of frequent US/Canada bordercrossings, I shudder to think (in Technicolor VistaVision Cinemascope IMAX) of the experience that would likely await the occupants of the likes of that Ram van at the port of entry in either direction.
Hey Dan, I once missed seeing myself in a Warren Miller ski film because I had a paper to write. Just saw it for the first time on YouTube last month! And as for crossing the border, it’s bad enough doing it stone-cold sober. I wouldn’t even eat a breath-mint before crossing nowadays.
Oh hey Dan, did any of them see the Grateful Dead in Eugene in 1994? I’ve heard it called a peaceful serene Eugene scene and actually got to chat with somebody who was there.
https://kval.com/news/local/from-the-archives-dead-live-in-eugene-1993
Good lord. I think that’s my old house at the end of the block in the second picture… yeah Bellingham is kinda like 1968 never ended. I’m more of a metal guy.
Ha ha! I used to live in the little bungalow across from the Ram Van in the first picture (back in ’80s). Great neighborhood for Metalheads and Deadheads alike…
About 20 years ago, a neighbor on that side of the street had a ’72 GMC and a ’55 Chevy he drove on a regular basis. At the time I had a ’68 F250 and a ’67 Mustang coupe. Had a Mazda Sundowner for a bit. What a slow truck. About two blocks over was a guy who would wash his early ’70’s Nova and leave it parked in the yard and admire it.
I guess Little Feat is in the same general realm…
Little Feat’s first two albums are among my all-time faves. Also Waiting for Columbus (obviously). Good driving songs.
The long-gone Capital Centre in Prince Georges county, Maryland was my local arena when I was a teen and 20-something and where I saw numerous rock shows. I missed the most famous one though, Judas Priest on May 31, 1986. That show was immortalized in the classic cult movie “Heavy Metal Parking Lot”, where filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn interviewed tailgaters in the hours leading up to the show. One oft-quoted fan described the scene as “bare feet, muscle shirts, bare-chested, bleach blonde frizzy perms, mullets from hell, big hair, bad teeth, scar tissue, and by far the largest collection of late ’70s Camaros ever seen in one location”. Krulik and Heyn followed up HMPL with Neil Diamond Parking Lot, Harry Potter Parking Lot, and other variations of the theme (also some non-Parking Lot films though they never were as popular).
I missed all of the Dead’s shows at the Cap Centre, but did catch them at RFK Stadium in D.C. on a 1987 show that also featured Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. Although it was never made, Grateful Dead Parking Lot would have undoubtedly featured the largest collection of ’60s VW buses ever seen in one location…
Mullets from hell! Love it. What a great premise for a series of movies. Especially mixing it up with some Neil Diamond for the counterpoint to metal. I remember a plague of ’70s Camaros at an Aerosmith show in about ’77, at the Kingdome in Seattle. It was an exercise in bad echo and big hair.