The 1970s were bad, if you were into honest-to-God performance, muscular car designs, or hated the opera, where it seemed that everybody was going to wind up at if they had class and high social status. The 1970s were good if you liked pickup trucks, vans, rock music, and living a lifestyle that had many questionable facets. And the 1970s were weird if you were born after 1980. Seriously…for every cool thing like a Trans Am or Cheryl Tiegs or Boston blasting out of the speakers, there is a considerable amount of weird that must be dealt with as well. And there is no better target than van culture, is there?
Van culture in the 1970s isn’t the same as the #vanlife movement of current times. All those Instagram posters are doing is highlighting whatever adventure awaits them while they make some second-hand van their home. There’s a bit of romantic view to that, in the same way that one might dream about train-hopping their way across the country, enjoying a sunsest with their feet dangling off of the side of a grain hopper as the prairies pass by. That is nothing like the 1970s van culture that we get to witness every now and then. If you were there and living it, feel free to correct my viewpoint, but the deal was to basically build the most wild party den on wheels you could, and whatever happened inside, happened…be that getting high with your friends or putting the built-in couches and beds to good use while parked somewhere nice and discreet.
Sound like I’m ripping into the older generation a bit? This is a real Ford commercial for the Econoline. You be the judge. But we bet that Morton Grundy here has been telling his grandkids some wild stories for a few years now…
I don’t remember vans around here much. We had muscle cars and 4X4s.
“If the vans a rockin’ don’t come a knocking”. Yeah I lived through the 70’s (some would say I really didn’t ‘cause I remember it ) and the van culture was pretty much as you describe it. Muscle cars and HP was dead thanks to insurance companies and government/smog regulations. The van culture was the sad response to this. Wild paint, shag carpet, lava lamps, bongs and water beds included.
Lived it in the 70’s & 80’s and still driving a Van!!!
Old hippies never die they just drive nicer vans