


     Just What Is An RV?

                                             By Gary Bryant


 
          Some of us own them, the rest of us have driven  down the
     highway behind them at one time or another.  They come in all
     shapes and sizes.  Some are expensive,  some are not.  We are
     talking about RV's, or  Recreational Vehicles.  They can be seen
     each summer,  bumper to bumper, making their way along the highways 
     and byways of North America, seeking out decent fish &  chips and
     sanitation pump-out stations.  I've often  wondered as to the
     beginnings of this American pastime.

         I know that some of you are probably thinking of  buying one
     of these movable monuments to American vacations.  As a matter of
     fact, it was my sense of  responsibility that has led me to write
     about this  famed recreational wonder.  Its origins and history 
     are the subjects of this article.  Where after all, do
     RV's come from? 

         The term recreational vehicle comes from the Roman
     phrase Recreativitus Vehiculum which, when loosely
     translated means 'Unemployed relatives on wagon coming
     to eat house'.    

         The first known RV was a converted Roman chariot  illegally
     camped at a open air fruit market several  cubits from the
     Coliseum.  Dentistini Retirentiri had  taken his frail elderly
     mother-in-law on her first trip  to a Shoppers Maul at the Coliseum
     only to be  apprehended for illegally disposing of treated sewage
     in a RAW SEWAGE ONLY street. 

         The modern RV can be traced to the mid forties.  Returning
     GI's, home from the rough and tough  experience of World War II
     were not eager to give up  the outdoor adventure they enjoyed in
     the fields o f Europe and beaches of the Pacific Islands.   They
     soon missed the camaraderie and excitement of  war life.  During
     their vacations, they attempted to  fashion tanks and other armored
     vehicles from old  pick-up trucks and big Buicks.  

         Their sensible wives  soon put a stop to their childish
     antics by refusing to  let their husbands back into the house until
     these  contraptions were  dismantled. 
 
         Brave former soldiers that these men were, they decided  not
     to take this challenge standing up.  They began  modifying their
     homemade tanks to accommodate sleeping  cots and cooking gear, thus
     sprouting the modern RV,  where many of these same men still sleep
     today.    





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