Retro Friday: Load em up!
Posted by phil
Perhaps the fastest way to transport a group of boys to the river, or another lake would be on the back of a flt bed truck. This mode of transportation wouldn’t exactly fly these days at Camp Ridgecrest for Boys. But it is neat to look back at the truck loads of kids having a blast at camp! Below is an old flat bed truck that camp used to tow canoes and tote people. Does anyone remember this truck, or one like it? We still have an old flat bed we use for maintenance etc. Below is also a picture of some canoes on a trailer, being pulled by the same old truck. Did these canoes stay close to Ridgecrest, or were they taken down the french broad river? If you remember a trip like this one, comment below and tell us about it.
Posted in News | Tagged Camp Ridgecrest, Retro Friday, Ridgecrest Alumni, Ridgecrest Summer Camps
They’re not even sitting on the wheel well. Ron, what the heck?
Truck must be pre-WWII and the guys wearing cuffed pants, wouldn’t be cool in the 50’s – Looks like they are wearing Bass CampMocs except one looks like he is wearing black & white dress shoes, definitely not cool later on after WWII. (all though the campMoc came back cool as “weejuns”)
I do remember riding in the back of the flatbed truck in the 50’s. Was out principle means of transportation, other than the station wagon for small groups. Seems like one time we got chased out of a camping trip by a storm in the middle of the night and remember careening around the curves in the back of the truck, in the black night with rain pouring, lightening flashing and singing “Rabbit Ain’t Got No Tail At All”
Riding in the back of the truck songs went from “Rabbit Ain’t Got No Tail At All”, “John Jacob Jingleheimersmith” to “99 Bottles”
It’s a shame, what with the current litigious climate, a big part of living life came from riding in the back of the truck.
Nice words there, Wee Willie. I agree that we should all experience the gift of open truckbed and wind in our hair. Not seat belted luxury in individually cushioned chairs in a van. I can still feel the steel as we roared down the rode. And we groaned when it pelted with rain. Open truck beds are a right rite of passage.
It was standard procedure in 60’s and 70’s to pile up a dozen of lads into the pickup and travel to Asheville.
In 75, we had a big flatbed, with 4 foot high walls of green painted plywood. We called her the Green Goose. We used it to transport the Trailblazers on our camping trips. Driving that truck was like wrasslin’ a monster… that beast had five forward gears. We took that truck to some really rough places. We parked it of course at Trailblazer Inn.
As for canoes, we had about eight or so, standard issue aluminum. There was a traditional trip to Lake James for staffers after camp season was over.
Is the green “boathouse” that held life jackets and paddles still there?