That Trailer!

 My Daddy had been a machinist for Callaway Mills as a young man. He learned welding and metalworking. So when he became student pastor on the Mackville-Antioch charge smack dab in the middle of very rural 1952 Kentucky, and made friends with the owner of the little machine shop in Mackville he soon came up with a project. He found the junked remains of an ancient Ford pickup, salvaged about half of the chassis -- an axle with two wheels and enough of the frame as a base -- and built a sturdy floor with high sides. He welded on a tongue at the front, added a little wiring and brake lights, and with appropriate hitch parts for it and the car, had himself a right respectable utility trailer. 

In 2021 it is a bit shocking to see the photographic evidence of the utility to which my creative Dad put that trailer. In an era before seatbelts it seemed a barrel of fun to me when Daddy loaded me into the trailer, told me to hold on tight, and then slowly toured all the dusty country roads between Mackville and Perryville picking up farm kids and hauling them to Bible School at Antioch Methodist Church.

That's me standing tall at the back on the trailer and my beautiful big sister, Janice, standing on Terra Firma. There's likely another Shaw or two aboard but I can't pick 'em out for sure. The eldest person in the picture is now in her early eighties. I am among the youngest and I am 74. If you recognize another of the passengers on this luxury transport please comment below!

Terrell Shaw at Antioch in 2019

Antioch United Methodist Church 2019

That trailer was useful for a Methodist preacher, since in that era pastorates rarely extended longer than three of four years. We loaded it down with our belongings and hauled it from Mackville to Griffin GA when Daddy was assigned to the Midway-Sunnyside-Vaughn circuit there in 1954. We stacked it high again for the move to Ellijay in 1958. At Ellijay it came in handy for the frequent trips with household garbage to the city dump. And in 1962 it drug our belongings away from that Blue Ridge town to Trinity Methodist's spanking new parsonage in Summerville Park here in Rome. 

In Rome Daddy met a kindred spirit in Bobby Storey. Bobby was not only a gregarious member of our church, but also a fellow WWII vet and camping enthusiast. The two of them took a second-look at that trailer and thought it could be converted to a camping trailer. Soon they had  given it a completely new look. Much lower with compartments for camping equipment built into the sides, extensions that could be folded out at front and back, and a canvas roof and sides that could be raised above it. We camped in that trailer at FDR park near Callaway Gardens and at assorted state parks in North Carolina. 

Somewhere during my college years I lost track of it. I don't remember whatever became of it in the end. 

I wonder if we have a picture of the camper? If I find one I'll add it here.