Where Are They Now?

This morning, while answering an email question about the whereabouts and road-readyness of the house trucks and buses depicted in Rolling Homes, I wrote up a pretty good list of the vehicles and people with whom I am familiar. Since I am a dedicated recycler, and am wont to allow good text to languish barely read in my "out" box, I've decided to blogify my reply for all to share:

Page numbers refer to Rolling Homes pages.

• Al's (cover photo & p.56)
  
  Image courtesy of housetrucks.com
  This is called "OCF Truck" on my site. As of 2005, it was being used as an office by the grounds keeping crew at the Oregon Country Fair. It will never be on the road again, as it is too decrepit. Al himself will forever after be on the road: The Passing of a Brother

 

• Jonathan's: The Institute of Obnoxious Art (pp.12-21)
  
  After Jonathan sold this bus, it bumped between several different owners, eventually ending up in Longview, Texas in 1998, where it was purchased by Eric. By that time, the bus was in pretty rough shape. A full shower installation had been begun, but not finished. Eric finshed that project and remodeled the entire bathroom, added 120 volt wiring and installed air conditioning (it does get warm in Texas, after all). As of 2001, Eric was near completion of the remodel and was getting ready to move in.

 

• The ramshackle bus in page 24 is Larry's
  
  It was transformed with a complete make-over years after this photo was taken and is now considered the "family heirloom". Larry gave the bus to his son, who cherishes it, and all the grandkids are clamoring to be the next in line to inherit it.

  I can tell exactly where that bus was parked when Jane Lidz took the photo in the book, on the street across from John Warren's Sporting Goods in downtown Eugene, OR, right in front of the Saturday Market (weekly hippie shopping experience)

 

• Page 34, at the top. I understand that Doc Webb is still practicing dentistry from his old bus, although it's permanently parked now. He used to be a regular fixture each weekend, parked behind Pat Leonard's Community Health Food Store at 4th and Lawrence.

 

• Silverbear, (pp.38-39)...
  
  ...is purported to have given his bus Patchs to the Smithsonian, although I've never seen any confirmation of that, it may just be an urban legend. I've gotten emails from his kin and ex-girlfriends from time to time.

 

• Pam's truck "Mañana" (pp.50-53) may be long gone, but she popped up in a blog post I read just last week, I think it was Lloyd Kahn's blog... Those basalt columns in the background of the book photo are on the west side of Skinner's Butte, just north of downtown Eugene.

 

• Whiskey Creek String Band (p.57) probably travels by Lexus now, rather than by International Harvester. Fiddlin' Big Sue is still sawing the cat gut, though.

  

  There is a caption balloon below the window in the side
  that says "Don't worry, I won't fall out". This is where
  the band's pet dog would always ride during trips.

 

• Michael, (pp.60-67) still has his truck...

  

  ...which was transported to New Mexico on a lowboy trailer. He's done an extensive restoration and repaint on the truck, and occasionally takes it out for a weekend jaunt. You can't tell much from the image here, but it's really quite nice.

 

• Roger's truck (pp.68-71) sits behind his woodworking shop in west Eugene.

  

  It has dry rot in a bad way, and Roger dreams about taking the cab off the chassis and plopping it onto a modern running gear and rebuilding.

 

• Oney (pp.81-83) still lives in his bus

  
  I lost track of how long now, but I've lived in my Housetruck for 37 years, and he has me beat by quite a number of years, as I recall. Oney has always had problems with the clutch on his old Dodge, and these days, he's hoping the clutch will outlive him so he doesn't have to change it again.

 

• Glen (pp.83-94) and Michael built their trucks side-by-side in the yards of two rented houses on Riverview St. in Eugene.

  

  Glen also has done a complete restoration of his truck and uses it as a guest house and studio at his home in south Eugene.

Of the other trucks and buses in the book, I have no knowledge. I did see the truck depicted in a drawing on the far right side of page 9 sitting derelict in the back of an RV wrecking yard about 15 years ago. Others in the book are probably tucked into side yards and behind garages still being used as habitations.

Over the years, is has been suggested repeatedly that there should be a big "housetruck reunion", and some have actually been planned, but they never really get off the ground. Too many old trucks and buses are no longer road worthy, the owners are aging and have careers and family obligations, and don't have the time or inclination to bother. I understand this, it takes me a full day to pack for an overnight at a friend's beach house. Back in the day, someone would say "Let's take the step van up to the hot springs for the weekend" and I'd say "OK, I'll get my towel"

An interesting aside: Back when Jane Lidz was researching the book as her project for graduation from U of O architecture school, the owner of the Grace bus was visiting from Santa Cruz, CA and staying on the streets around the University. He came home one evening to find a note, including a phone number, stuck in his bus door explaining that the person was writing a book, and asking if would he be interested in being interviewed for it. "Oh no, not another person 'writing a book' " was his response as he threw the note into the fire...

Some people's brush with fame never stood a chance...