Peace Vans!

[Tin Can]

https://www.peacevans.com/

[ericantonio]

Nice. There's a company here in SoCal called EV West. They stick Tesla motors/batteries in old cars. They did one to a VW bus. I think it was like 0-60 in less than 3 seconds. I would get an old F100 or something like that from the 70's and convert it with e-motor battery.

[Drew Wiley]

I guess that would be OK if the batteries remain hidden from sight. But to be an authentic love n' peace van you'd still cosmetically need to have a wood shingle roof with a piece of stove pipe coming out of it, tie-died curtains, and the rear window plastered with Turista stickers and bullet holes.

[ericantonio]

I guess that would be OK if the batteries remain hidden from sight. But to be an authentic love n' peace van you'd still cosmetically need to have a wood shingle roof with a piece of stove pipe coming out of it, tie-died curtains, and the rear window plastered with Turista stickers and bullet holes.

I was reading this and said to my self "sounds like SF...., then looked at your location". Hahaha.

“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”

[Drew Wiley]

I forgot to mention the mandatory generator-run record player inside, replete with a Creedence Clearwater album. It was all "back to the land" at that time, a good healthy off the grid "agricultural" lifestyle, log cabin n' all. Great era for PVC irrigation pipe sales. They routinely came back into town for that. You could smell those vans fifty yards away. So could the cops; but they were largely ignoring the implications by that point. It was reviving rural economies. My favorite "documentary" on that lifestyle is "Homegrown" with Billy Bob Thornton. Believable. And quite a few real murders did occur. It shore warn't all love n peace, nope. It was all about competition, even if that involved racing down the highway at 22mph in an old van desperately in need of an engine overhaul. A few of those classic old hippie vans are still around town, lovingly maintained by some ex-hippie or another who is now a phD running a tech corporation, perhaps manufacturing legit pharmaceuticals instead.

[John Kasaian]

Somebody say pizza van?
https://youtu.be/nvUQDdGrv-U

[Drew Wiley]

I think drones are going to take over pizza deliveries. That way you can blame them for spilling goop all over your clothing, instead of yourself. Yep, sitting out there on your integral $10,000 tailgate deck to your $400,000 Unimog conversion replacing your dilapidated 60's VW hippie-mobile, picking up your cell phone out in the desert 150 miles from the nearest town and - voila - Round Table delivers just as disgusting a pepperoni pizza from the air as it does from a Bonda hatchback (half Honda, half Bondo).

[Willie]

Looking at the range for a converted van. A lot of money for something that won't get me to the store and back on a single charge.

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah. Something should turn up affordable soon, Willie. I'm telling all those moth-eaten old hippies to move to North Dakota where the cost of living is lower, and they'll be welcome by everyone, tie-died VW bus curtains n' all (yuk, yuk).

[Tin Can]

Yep, all fools those back to the landers

My 2 friends, lived in a teepee at first on their densely wooded hills, as they got useful degrees in mining and I forget, no kids, but good retirements

In their spare time they self built a very nice pole home on a hill, then made a fish pond, with a dam that is part of the 1 mile gravel long driveway. Stocked with Bluegill, the water moccasins stay in the weeds.

2 horses, 3 dogs usually

and all the water they will ever need

There are Rednecks all over this country, good thing I fit in


stop hating!





4 WD or know how to drive

We had Willie Nelson type parties

We had the Air Force low slow strafe us with movie cameras as we skinny dipped and waved

[Drew Wiley]

Had a long-term cabinet shop customer who remained in hippie attire his whole life. He was an exceptionally tall thin guy who piled his hair way up even higher, and sometimes added a peaked cap to that, cumulatively about seven and a half feet tall. His was efficient at his work, and hired his son out of college as his business manager. His son showed up clean shaven with short hair, in a business blazer, even shiny shoes. After he left, his father lamented, "I don't know what I did wrong ... now he won't even smoke pot with me anymore". Every generation rebels.

[Jody_S]

Electric or not, you couldn't pay me to drive one of those deathtraps. There are some modern conveniences I'm rather fond of. Like airbags and crumple zones and not dying horribly mangled and strewn across a road.

[Willie]

Yeah. Something should turn up affordable soon, Willie. I'm telling all those moth-eaten old hippies to move to North Dakota where the cost of living is lower, and they'll be welcome by everyone, tie-died VW bus curtains n' all (yuk, yuk).

A saying up here you might tell them as you encourage their migration.

"40 below keeps the Riff Raff out".

https://open.spotify.com/track/0QK0xSY2YmNlUpwwu9UOEZ#login


Another wag put it this way.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about
48 degrees North Latitude, 90% most of the world's social problems

evaporate."

Hard to run fast with 5 layers of clothing while holding a bank bag or a case of bud & a carton of cigs.

Hard to hold a handgun with wool mittens.

Hard to get a DUI when the car battery is dead.

Anyways, during the winter the riff-raffer's stay in warm climes thus reducing the crime stats by 80%.

AND if you don't have a 4x4 PU as many riff-raff types don't you will likely find yourself freeze dried in a road side ditch until a local finds your foozen carcuss.

[LabRat]

I was a volunteer in the local Civil Defense unit as a teen...

One of the "Cold War" relics we had at our disposal was a old orange and blue VW van equipped as a first (or last) responder vehicle, complete with air raid siren, massive PA horns on the roof (with big tube PA amplifier), roof platform (for surveying devastation), multiple truck batteries, big heavy inverter for 110VAC, high-output generator (with large diesel tank), large heavy ham radio rig (with large "flyswatter" antenna on roof), small telephone switchboard, fire axes, chainsaws, and undersized engine...

Problem was with all this weight, it had a top speed of 27mph on a level surface, and even on the slightest hill, it would bog down until it started to roll backwards (at full throttle)... And dangerously top-heavy...

But as a 16 year old, could drive it around (without a license) and the cops would stare at me, but not pull me over...

I ask myself today if I wanted to own it as a collector, but my answer is NO!!! Belongs in a Cold War museum, but maybe a small scale metal model of it on the shelf... ;-)

Steve K

[LabRat]

Electric or not, you couldn't pay me to drive one of those deathtraps. There are some modern conveniences I'm rather fond of. Like airbags and crumple zones and not dying horribly mangled and strewn across a road.

Front end impact usually ment someone flying through the windshield...

Steve K

[Tin Can]

They are very collectable. especially the Samba 23 window (https://www.hagerty.com/media/valuation/1950-67-volkswagen-bus-values-continue-to-impress/)

All old cars are very dangerous and some new ones are too

Be a good driver


Front end impact usually ment someone flying through the windshield...

Steve K

[Greg]

They are very collectable.

Probably some 25+ years ago I had a 1971 Weekender. Was put up FS from a used car dealer in Western Massachusetts and came with boxes of spare parts. If I recall I paid less than 2K for it delivered to my driveway. Something like a 2180cc (or thereabouts) powered the Type II. Also came with the OEM engine. Plenty of pickup, but the drum brakes left a lot of stopping power to be desired. A cluster of auxiliary gauges let me know how the engine was running. Rust free having come out to New England from California. After several years an offer was made that I couldn't resist, and switched to driving a beautifully restored 1974 Beetle. As many others do, I now regret selling it. Another early 1970s one popped up FS in our town. Wasn't in as good of condition as my '71. Owner was looking for 30K plus for it. I passed but later heard that the seller found a buyer for that 30K plus.

[Drew Wiley]

Willie - one of my favorite movies is Fargo. She certainly managed to aim the shot well with her big mittens on. A little bit of creative fiction always helps.

[Tin Can]

There you go, Dr Drew

I hated that movie and still sorry I saw it, the violence

Another problem was the accent, which is the same as my youth and extended family, one was Sheriff asshole

I see many movies twice, like 'HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER' however I will never again view 'Fargo'

I used to drink with John McNaughton




Willie - one of my favorite movies is Fargo. She certainly managed to aim the shot well with her big mittens on. A little bit of creative fiction always helps.

[Ironage]

I really want one of these. I’ved owned every type of vw van camper. Four of them. Loved them all and miss them. BTW I am not hippie but don’t mind their company. The last one I sold for $10,000. Thought I did alright but now I think othrwise.

[neil poulsen]

Willie - one of my favorite movies is Fargo. She certainly managed to aim the shot well with her big mittens on. A little bit of creative fiction always helps.

And she was pregnant! :)

I enjoyed Fargo; I've watched it often enough. It had some violence. But the mid-western humor helped to balance that out. What do ya think 'bout that. Hmm?

[Willie]

FARGO, the movie.

A dark comedy that many up here do NOT like at all. The Yooper Accent (Upper Peninsula - UP) is real. Some so bad it is almost impossible to understand them.

Coen Brothers are from Minnesota and it was poking fun at home.

Former Governor of North Dakota John Hoeven was on billboards and many visiting would look and comment "Jerry Lundegaard" - if they had seen the movie.

Schools here make sure to teach kids how to spell Bismarck, the State Capitol.

And yes, I do have a wood chipper... just in case?

On Photography, you might check out the Photo Workshop Tillman Crane offers here. Through Maine Media Workshops. Tillman has a son who attended University of North Dakota. Place has the top Drone program in the nation in conjunction with Grand F orks Air Base.

https://www.mainemedia.edu/workshops/item/spirit-of-structure-celebrating-north-dakota/

[Drew Wiley]

Well, I thought it was a wonderfully quirky, brilliantly overstated melodramatic morality play : Crime doesn't pay, things unravel, don't get cocky, most criminals are actually stupid, and never buy a used wood-chipper from one. Actually far less violent than the Res I grew up beside, which wasn't fiction, though they did throw in a token Shep Proudfoot (great actor - that look in his eyes when he got questioned in the repair shop); Jerry Lundegaard - the quintessential weasel car dealership manager - throwing his windshield scraper in a fit of frustration; the Japanese guy with the Swedish accent. One thing after another. The violence was just a plot line - the disgusted wrinkle on McDormand's nose when she saw the chipper in action was the point. Stereotypes at their best, fair or not.