Thursday, April 28, 2011

Goodbye, Decals


Back in February 2010 during the demo phase of our restoration we discovered some travel decals in our trailer.  We were delighted by the decals, feeling like our trailer was telling us part of its story.

Now, it's almost time to paint the interior skins.

Because I'm so sentimental about our decals I wanted to take our last opportunity to get the gang back together for a photo.


Ok, I confess.
I'm really "getting the gang back together" because I had a total hard drive failure in December. 
I couldn't stomach the thought of having zero pictures of the decals.
The cost for pictures?  Stripping the endcap after it was installed.
(Yikes!  Look out for falling stripper!!!)

We have a total of 61 decals. 
There are only 16 that we can't decipher.  

Here are the gratuitous close-ups with all the gory details:

Boy Scouts, unknown (2), Yellowstone

Mt. Rushmore, Black Hills S. Dakota
The Castle on Cedar Pass Badlands Monument South Dakota , 
Boy Scouts of America

Wisconsin, Minnesota, No. Dakota, Illinois
 

Iowa, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon
 

Washington, Seattle 1962, Grand Coulee, (Canada), Banff Canada
 
Lake Louise Banff Pk Canada, unknown (2),
Tri-State Mich/Penn/Ohio, Michigan


Michigan, "Prevent Forest Fires," Ontario Canal, 
Arkansas, Key West, FL, unknown

unknown, New Mexico,  Painted Desert Arizona,
Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon California, Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco Chinatown, Hawaii, Kauai, Maui,
Grand Tetons NP Wyoming, Jackson Hole

Tampico Mexico, Vera Cruz

Any guesses?  The second one says '68.

 Around the door:
unknown, Maine
Indiana, unknown
(2) unknown, Laborers Local 534

unknown, Canada, unknown
When I stripped the paint off of the decals we were delighted to figure out 3 decals we couldn't previously decoded:  the first Boy Scouts decal, Key West, FL, and Maui

It was sad to see them go:

see the paint bubble

Goodbye, decals.
Someday I hope that all of us will have an extensive travel portfolio like our trailer.

8 comments:

  1. That is really an incredible travel portfolio. Whoever owned this trailer back in the day must have been a serious Wally Byam fan. I can't wait to start checking off some of those locations. By the way, the Seattle 1962 sticker is from the World's Fair year. The Space Needle was built for that World's Fair.
    Norm

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  2. I really like the World's Fair sticker. Steve's trailer was at the World's Fair... makes me wonder if our trailers were there together.

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  3. A great record - nice work.

    Its the double-edged sword of digital photography; immediate but a bit more elusive to store than dusty old negatives.

    Hope your own family collection soon matches the old one.

    Chris

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  4. These photos of the decals being stripped look like modern art I’ve seen in museums.
    Spike

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  5. That is so cool!

    I can just see our two trailers parked next to each other near Seattle in 1962. I'm going to believe they were together.

    -steve

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  6. I have the decal you seek along with about 2,000 others. I have been collecting them for years. Send me an email with your address.

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  7. That is SO cool! Sad though, that you couldn't figure out what some of them were...AND that you are now having to bid them a farewell. But the good news is, you will be able to make your own family "SOMEDAY" memories!

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  8. Water decal archeology in your own trailer. How cool is that! If Frank doesn't have matches, you might find some on eBay. You have the perfect documentation of Someday's history all right there.

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