The Street Van Man (Part 2)

Me with my van near Los Angeles, CA

Summer of 1977

Imagine a go anywhere, park anywhere, play anywhere private room. Like a study on wheels –no not a study. I carried no books and I read no books in my van that I can remember.  It was more like a very hip living room, bedroom combination where I sometimes entertained guests to the sound of cool music. My van was my only vehicle so naturally I drove it to work and everywhere else.  I considered it to be a truck –larger and roomier than any minivan used today for domestic errands. Of course it was not like a big eighteen wheeler either but on the highway, I did get their respect. The truckers probably thought, “Man, when I’m not hauling for work, I’d rather be in one of those party vans!”  Oh yeah some people thought it was just that, a party van.  I drove my street van like a truck too. Driving, parking and backing up using only my two door mounted rear view mirrors.  I followed trucker rules of the road too; I always used my turn signals, stayed to the right and at night I flashed my head lights to give the big rigs the all clear to change lanes. 

My van while air conditioned, was not equipped with any power accessories or with cruise control. But get me on the highway and I would cruise along just fine by using a method I developed that I call, “The Magic Foot.” The "Magic Foot" was what I called my unique ability to maintain a steady speed over a long stretch of highway -without mechanical help. Maybe I imagined that my ability to keep a steady speed is somehow unique. But I'm not so sure, people on the highway pass me all the time then slow up forcing me to have to go slower than I was going. That's so annoying, so then I have to pass them all over again do you know what I mean?

I loved driving that street van and I eventually took it coast to coast from the Jersey shore to Malibu beach California. I had one of the best times of my life on that cross country road trip and the experience, changed me forever. Maybe I'll do a latter post to share more about my road odyssey -stay tuned.

By the way, I met several Ford and Chevy van owners who also called their wheels a Street Van. The term therefore was not just limited to Dodge vans.

Three of my friends Victor, Debbie and Peg on a lunch break from work 

in East Orange, NJ sitting on the couch inside my van just prior to my road trip out west in 1977.

The Street Van Man (Part 1)

                                                

The Street Van Man

There was quite a Vanning craze going on in the Seventies that I am proud to say I was a part of. I’m talking about customized full sized vans that owned the roads before there were any mini vans.

I traded my 1972 Chevy Vega to my older brother for his 1975 Dodge Tradesman 100 Van in October of 1976.  Plus I took over his payments on the van which had about three thousand dollars remaining on the bank note. The reason I got such a great deal was because my brother had joined the Peace Corp and was going to be shipping out soon for Togo in Africa.  Obviously he couldn't take the van with him and obviously he could no longer pay for it. The van was a cargo model with windows but otherwise just an empty shell.  Neither my brother nor I did much customizing on the exterior of the van other than to put wider tires on it. I liked the color though; it was a deep copper color with white bumpers and looked cool with smoked black windows all around. Customizing the outside was something I was interested in doing but events in life overtook me and I never got around to doing it. However, my brother had done allot of customizing in the interior of the van. He added wood paneling on the ceiling and along the sides including each door panel.  He also carpeted the floor in the back in a burnt orange color. The van had two rear doors with windows, two side doors that opened like French doors with windows and the front driver and passenger doors. My brother had also installed dark window tint film on all the windows except for the rear door windows to which he applied one way see through patterned decals. He also covered each window with working curtains except for the driving compartment area. Also he built a wooden platform for a bed in the rear of the cargo van space and a platform for a couch along the side of the van opposite the side doors. Above and just a little forward of the bed he installed a bubble top vent that could be cranked open for ventilation. In addition to all of that, he installed a cassette tape deck with FM radio along with four speakers. Below is a black and white photograph of the the interior customizing of the van under construction. You can clearly see the two platforms for the bed and side couch through the open side doors. Note the added insulation inside of the doors and the curtains.

 It was already awesome, but once I became the owner of the Dodge Tradesman, I got right to work on making it even more awesome.  The first thing I did was to replace the factory driver’s and passenger chairs with two rich brown imitation leather captain’s chairs that swiveled and reclined -how about that? Also I replaced the front door trim with leather look vinyl coverings that matched the captain’s chairs and painted the headliner black.  I also changed the rear window decals to dark smoke tint matching the other windows; added an oscillating electric fan in the back; added a dashboard caddy for drinks and stuff; added molded backrest cushions for the bed and rear couch; added a portable black & white TV and table; added some special mood lighting to the ceiling and the piece the resistance was a curtain to completely shut off the rear compartment from the front cabin. When the front dividing curtain was drawn and all the window curtains closed the back of the van became very private.  You could not see inside from the outside even at night with the interior lights on.

Did owning a custom van change me? Definitely, what I now had on my hands was a “Street Van,” a rolling apartment which my dad cynically called the “pot wagon.” I became cooler to my friends, more independent from my parents and more confident all around.  I was still in college when I got these wheels and the road was calling me.  I was faithful to that call as you shall see by my adventures to follow.