The Gypsy Rogers

In looking for photos of the forms of transportation my family has used, I found mainly cars.
And these were mainly Studebakers.

Once upon a blog, I posted about the history of the family Studebaker. HERE. 

And in 2014 I posted about some of the cars where our family portraits frequently had a car "in the picture." Here.

So I'll try to not repost the same family photos...but some may sneak in.

First I want to acknowledge real gypsies...with some great photos that I didn't take.  I don't think the Rogers family ever was truly a wandering family.  But the urge to see new sights, to live in new places, and to have new adventures is deep in our blood.

The Reading type of wagon at Barnet, Hertz, 1921

Bow top wagon 1912

Heron family vardo, 1911

My ancestors did travel, from Europe to the east coast of America to Tennessee, then to Texas.  My own family then moved to Missouri, and since then I've moved from one place to another all my life.  I'm working on sharing more photos of those homes with you, in manageable doses.

More cars, so lets start with the current dear old Toy Yoda...a 1996 Corolla. It has over 175,000 miles on it, and keeps on truckin'.  That's probably my motto as well. I've owned it since 2000.

Before this, I drove a Subaru and a Ford. Before that a Pontiac which had been my fathers, and a Datsun.  But before that! Ah, for 11 years I drove a Chevy Open Road conversion van.

This is when I was a true gypsy. I had a manual typewriter, which my oldest son is here depicted trying out.  I tried to write a journal of our journey of 10,000 miles over the 3 months of summer vacation. I wasn't entirely successful. (I posted a bit about this vehicle in my post about my various residences...HERE)

Before the van, I drove a yellow Ford for about a year...as my half of a divorce.  My husband and I had a Mustang before that, and a Chevy, and a Rambler, and even an MG.

I actually didn't own any cars on my own until I got married.  Our first car was a little Ford Fairlane.

But while I lived with my parents, that's the Studebaker family.  However, they had at least one Plymouth, as shown above with my sister in a pretty dancing dress. And after I left home they had different kinds of cars.

But let's fast forward to some other cars, more recently.

My oldest son, all grown up and his daughter playing with one of those race cars at an amusement park.

She even got to drive a car herself, years before she was old enough to get her license this year.

 When my grandchildren visited me, they weren't interested in walking up to the tallest peek in the eastern US, (Mt. Mitchell).  They sat in the rental car and waited for me and their dad.  Somehow these Floridian children have little interest in the great outdoors!

However, they do like nice cars.
Here's my grandson with his high school graduation present, a Mustang.

And I'll finish this post with a familiar scene that happens here in Black Mountain frequently.

I'm sharing this post with Sepia Saturday this week.  Come on over there and see what other people have come up with about older means of transportation.

Today's Quote:


The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.

-Pablo Picasso

Where did our young family live in the 60s-70s?

My husband and I arrived in Connecticut, where his parents lived.  I soon realized my mother-in-law was a sweet woman who wanted me to do things "her way." Thus it ever was with MIL's...which I hope I have not passed on to my daughters-in-law.

First we lived in a town house apartment in Hartford, CT - raising a one year old.

Woodland, used to be Dauntless Lane.  We had back corner that's partially hidden by trees, and in 1965 it was too!

Jean St, Thompsonville, CT - The first house we owned.  My second son was born when we lived here.

 The fenced back yard was great for kids to play in, and the woods behind the house are still there since 1967!

Hartford, CT

 I worked in the "boat" building downtown, when I was pregnant with my second son.  In his 30s he also worked there!  (He and I had both moved many times before then!)

Sunset St., Windsor, CT - Our second home was a Cape Cod.  Again, the house has been painted a few times in the 30+ years since we lived there, but looks very much the same.

I worked for about a year in the Art School at the University of Hartford, Connecticut

Chalet Apartments, Temple Terrace, FL  - We moved the family to Florida, after being really sick and tired of winter storms. I liked living in a luxury apartment with a pool, where we would frequently have happy hour.

Chalet Apartments (somewhat like this)

W. Jean St. Tampa, FL - our third home.  A four bedroom home, to which I added a pool.

 But...
soon we divorced and I didn't want to keep up the large house, so the kids and I moved to a mobile home which had a recreation building with a game room and a pool that someone else cleaned.

Fountainhead Mobile Homes, Tampa, FL -   I also bought a camper van, which provided my oldest 2 sons and myself a home away from home for a whole summer. (I was amazed a bank gave me a 5 year loan on it, the amount was one years' worth of my salary at the time.)

This very van but with a fiber glass raised roof...thus...

But wait, there's more!
Where did I move with my sons after our 10,000 mile summer of living in the van, without air conditioning?