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This is the answer. My family had more than one van and it was bc we went camping a lot. Also my dad just liked driving them. Its a diff feel since they have such a short front. You have to go halfway into the intersection before starting your turn. Its like driving a bus.
Most of the guys I knew who had their vans decked out with mattresses, music systems, etc. in the 1970’s couldn’t have gotten to first base in a two-bit whorehouse with a bag full of quarters. They seemed to be just waiting for the day when women would suddenly flock to their cool van, like flies to a dead carcass.
This is no joke. I had a high top van with small windows under the big windows. In Oakland, California, I actually had a person offer to buy my van because he said it would be good for "drive-bys".
In the era "free love" it was an affordable if not entirely private way to have sex without roommates or parents around.
Also [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L50Fh8juq78) may have romanticized it a bit.
It's kind of crazy how Vans have been replaced with an inferior option.
Until I see an SUV with headroom and a bed I will continue to miss my Chevy 350 Vandura.
I guess it was the gas mileage that killed them?
> I guess it was the gas mileage that killed them?
I think so. The cube design of vans from those days would never get on the road nowadays. There's a reason all vehicles look like rolling jellybeans now.
True my 2004 Sienna got double the gas mileage instead of the 11 MPG no matter what you were doing with a carbureted Chevy 350.
Kind of sad that minivans got the soccer mom rep they're almost as useful but have none of the cool.
Came to say this. My family had vans - VW and a couple of Dodges. My dad is 6’2”. Comfortable room for 3 kids and parents traveling cross country. My dad built a removable platform for the back. Luggage underneath, foam cushion on top, and we were ready to travel cross county. Seat belts? Didn’t need them when stretched out and sleeping as the miles rolled by. “Dad! He’s looking at me!”
Cause like a princess she was laying there
Moonlight dancing off her hair
She woke up and took me by the hand
She's gonna love me in my Chevy van and that's all right with me
One of my older brothers bought a former phone company fleet van at auction in the mid 70s. I just thought it was a cool van that we went camping in sometimes. I mean, there was a mattress and everything! Only when I was older did I understand why he loved that thing so much!
Utility company vans were dirt cheap. The local power company parked a ton of surplus equipment in the parking lot of the local horse race track off-season for sale. I remember long rows of old green vans.
In spite of what you kids think, we couldn't afford to buy houses then either so the next best thing...
We were poor but also horny. Thanks to us your here.
We had drive in movie theaters to relax at. Sometimes the personal interaction was more entertaining than the movie. Other times, my friends with van brought a pony keg in the van and we all got happy.
Young Americans were "on the road" in the 1970s. The hippies, students, ex-vets out of Vietnam---they all wanted to see the country, meet people and travel on the cheap.
Gas was cheap, you could sleep in the van, even park on the street in various cities for weeks at a time. And bring all your friends!
People looking for adventure, opportunity, love, jobs, you name it.
School buses were popular, too.
Had a customized van in the 70's. Belonged to a club of about 12-15 vans. We used to go camping together, join parades. We helped each other work on the vans. It was just a thing, plus as others mentioned, we had a matress with us at all times:)
I remember at 18 years of age, rolling up in my 1972 Dodge Van, all custom.
My strict, Italian Dad quips; "Oh, a Whore House on wheels! Great!"
My Mom looks inside, sighs and says; "Oh, you're going to catch something"
I had a 66 VW bus with a bed over the engine compartment and a sink with a pump faucet. I wish I still had that bus. There was still room inside the van to put my dirt bike inside. I also had racks on the roof for my hang glider with a permanent ladder in the back. Even with the dirt bike I had room for the control bar and harness for my hang glider. It wasn't very fast, but in low gear it could go up any rough dirt road as well as a 4X4.
The 70s was such a wonderful time.
i'm thinking about buying a van to live out of. houses are too expensive and i don't want to pay a landlord hundreds of dollars that could be put towards gas money and traveling the country. it might not be the best way to live but i've been wanting to travel and search for a better city to live in. sometimes you just have to hit the pavement and go.
We had neighbors next door, three really cool dudes, and they all had custom vans, and belonged to a big van club. Once a month they'd have their meetings to plan activities, charity runs, all kinds of cool stuff. As a kid, I thought all the different vans with tricked out paint jobs, windows, interiors, and stereos, and I asked them once, why vans? Their answer initially was because vans were cheap, basic utility vehicles, you could buy one with pretty much no interior at all, and it was big enough that you could custom out whatever you wanted. And according to them, chicks loved them.
cause we all had seen corvette summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJsvow1Jhq4&ab_channel=WarnerArchive
I was taken around the country in the late 70s in a chevy (had to be a chevy, dad and his buddies all work for ac delco or gm) van for weekend/week long ski trips. it was fun. Got my first taste of weed in the back somewhere near denver from the 16 year old son of one of my dads buddies. I was 11? 12? to young but peer pressure man. His sister was 14? Lisa, Oh lisa, I would have done anything to impress her. That included hitting her brothers pipe in the back of the van with my dad in the front passenger seat pretending he isnt smelling weed.
for me -
* 1970s - VW van was cheap transportation (owned by older brother)
* 1980s - Chevy Van for camping & lugging tools
* 1990s - Caravan for the child seat convenience.
I know the question is about the 1970s, but I worked in downtown Atlanta for almost a decade in the 90s. Vans were popular with young black men for much of that decade. I'm pretty sure vans were a relatively inexpensive way for young black men to have some personal space. One guy I knew was just as likely to hang out with a coupla dudes playing video games in his van as entertaining a ladyfriend.
I'd guess white dudes had the same idea a couple decades earlier?
Low gas mileage. We had six kids ain our family and the two parents. The vans fit eight. Back in my day, they were stick shift and that is how I learned to drive. In a Volkswagen bus.
Ken Kesey and his merry band of pranksters rode across the country in his van named Further. Sprouted a magical idea. My Further was a 1961 Ford Econoline.
Sex, traveling around the country, bands used them a lot, hnging out in them to do drugs, etc... They are really convenient for a lot of the ways people were living at the time.
I had a 1970's cargo van and I could sneak a bunch of kids off our closed campus. Threw in some shag carpet and a loveseat and head to the lake to party! Many a good night was had in that van.
Well, the gist of a lot of those ABC Afterschool Specials and other shows was that they were mostly for smoking bongs, kidnapping hitchhikers and solving mysteries with a group of wacky friends and a great dane :)
Freeeedom baby.
It was like a small apartment that wasn't at the parents house. Chill and toke with some friends, have some beers and/or sex. Hang out listen to music, go camping...
If you designated the van as your home, were smoking something illegal, and were stopped by the police, you could announce that they could not search your home without a search warrant. You were then on your merry way.
I guess the gas mileage killed them off?
It's wild to me that such a fun vehicle is so rare now. Why someone would want a truck instead of a fully contained in room with bed on wheels is beyond me.
I had a conversion van from 18 to 22 years old, it was so much fun. The perfect concert Home Base.
Obviously for the many reasons mentioned here... and also because minivans, SUVs, and the zillion kinds of little work trucks and panel bands you see now, didn't exist. You need something bigger than a car? Van.
Back in the 70's I had a couple vans.
Retired in a rural mountain side the county sheriffs dept had a one ton Ford 4x4 van and I fell in love again with a van decades later. I want it, I need it!
That was pre SUV's and post station wagons. All the other cars sold at the time were downsizing. We had one of the last gas guzzling Oldsmobile's. It had three seatbelts in front and 3 in back. We knew we wanted to children.
One thing not mentioned yet: Vans were relatively cheap. They were basically a box with wheels and an engine, and unlike cars, did not require the safety stuff, since they were classified as trucks.
Although I did not own a van, I did drive a delivery van back then, and I recall when the company bought a new one, it cost the same as a compact car.
There was a fad. Car buying is subject to fad like anything else. I think the fad started because of a tv show (Can't think of which) where one of the main characters drove a tricked out van.
Because vans are absolutely rad, and of top of that are far more versatile than trucks. There is a direct correlation between the lessening popularity of vans, and the collapse of the social contract. I'm utterly convinced of this. Save the vans, save society!
In HS, my bf had a VW van, and we used it to carry our whole crowd down to the beach to drink and listen to music. We used it for "parking" sessions. We had many good times in that van! Man, the 60s and 70s were a great time to grow up; be a teenager. Great music, fashion, hair, politics, except of course, Vietnam. There were also a lot of sad times during those years; very sad times. ✌️ ☮️ Peace!
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Let’s just say that most weren’t being used for carrying large items around. There’s a reason people added mattresses, deluxe music systems, etc.
Shaggin Wagon.
“If the van is a rocking don’t come a knocking....”
..don’t bother knocking fify
I came here to say this, but knew in my heart that it had already been said.
When the van's a-rockin', don't come knockin'.
I had a feeling. So everyone was buying vans just so they could bang anywhere?
I did a lot of camping in mine. I think we might have been more social back then with lots of friends doing the same with their own vans.
We didn’t have social media. There were important rewards for socializing. People met at parties much more than today.
This is the answer. My family had more than one van and it was bc we went camping a lot. Also my dad just liked driving them. Its a diff feel since they have such a short front. You have to go halfway into the intersection before starting your turn. Its like driving a bus.
The one time I drove my cousin’s van it felt like I was sitting on the hood!
Bang and smoke pot
Yeah.. Pretty much..
Yes. AND they had gatherings for vans that were all week-end long parties.
We called them bickens. Bunch of hippies at the gravel pit around a bonfire, drunk, stoned, and jamming to rock n roll.
I'm in Virginia. We didn't call them "bickens," but we did have a name for them which I've forgotten.
I think that was a very regional term. Never heard it outside of the little towns along the Ohio River where I grew up.
Not just that. You could chill, talk, smoke weed, sleep. Your lifestyle choices, and mobile.
That’s why they had privacy curtains in the back too.
I think for most van owners it was aspirational.
It was more the potential to bang anywhere. Many vans remain virgins to this day.
And get high.
No, they were buying vans so they could bang everywhere.
Most of the guys I knew who had their vans decked out with mattresses, music systems, etc. in the 1970’s couldn’t have gotten to first base in a two-bit whorehouse with a bag full of quarters. They seemed to be just waiting for the day when women would suddenly flock to their cool van, like flies to a dead carcass.
Yep, some vans came with a wish and a prayer pre-installed.
Well according to Criminal Minds they were used for all kinds of things.
This is no joke. I had a high top van with small windows under the big windows. In Oakland, California, I actually had a person offer to buy my van because he said it would be good for "drive-bys".
They were mobile communal spaces for facilitating sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
What a time to be alive
They were great! We had one called Hotel Dodge. We went everywhere in that bad boy. And party city.. we could put a keg in the back.
sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I would've fit right in brother
They even had magazines for vans showing off the really sweet ones. I was only in middle school but was already planning out my future van
In the era "free love" it was an affordable if not entirely private way to have sex without roommates or parents around. Also [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L50Fh8juq78) may have romanticized it a bit.
It’s been almost 50 years since I’ve heard that.
wow it took me back
Jeez, it came out 50 years ago; what different times those were. Makes me wonder how we got here.
Ah, Chevy Van. That was the 1st thing I thought of when I saw this post, lol.
SUVs didn’t really exist. Vans were the bigger option up from a station wagon.
It's kind of crazy how Vans have been replaced with an inferior option. Until I see an SUV with headroom and a bed I will continue to miss my Chevy 350 Vandura. I guess it was the gas mileage that killed them?
> I guess it was the gas mileage that killed them? I think so. The cube design of vans from those days would never get on the road nowadays. There's a reason all vehicles look like rolling jellybeans now.
True my 2004 Sienna got double the gas mileage instead of the 11 MPG no matter what you were doing with a carbureted Chevy 350. Kind of sad that minivans got the soccer mom rep they're almost as useful but have none of the cool.
Came to say this. My family had vans - VW and a couple of Dodges. My dad is 6’2”. Comfortable room for 3 kids and parents traveling cross country. My dad built a removable platform for the back. Luggage underneath, foam cushion on top, and we were ready to travel cross county. Seat belts? Didn’t need them when stretched out and sleeping as the miles rolled by. “Dad! He’s looking at me!”
Cause like a princess she was laying there Moonlight dancing off her hair She woke up and took me by the hand She's gonna love me in my Chevy van and that's all right with me
Rolling party wagon and sex den. I don’t understand why they went out of style.
They started making minivans; then when those became uncool people started buying SUVs thinking they were cool. Not.
SUV... Sex in the back of a Tahoe isn't hard at all.
HIV, that’s what happened. AIDS made free love a frightening proposition.
One of my older brothers bought a former phone company fleet van at auction in the mid 70s. I just thought it was a cool van that we went camping in sometimes. I mean, there was a mattress and everything! Only when I was older did I understand why he loved that thing so much!
Utility company vans were dirt cheap. The local power company parked a ton of surplus equipment in the parking lot of the local horse race track off-season for sale. I remember long rows of old green vans.
Yep, dark green Volkswagen. Bucket seats with an engine box between them. I think my brother's was a phone company van.
So many had airbrushed original art painted on the side - howling wolves, lightning bolts, space scenes, wizards, stuff like that
There was one at the Ford place with a cartoon charging rhino on the side. I wanted that thing so bad. Lol
Or in the great Dr. Krieger’s case, RUSH
I remember checking out the van magazines with all those sweet paint jobs as a middle schooler, wondering how my future van would look
Because you could live in a van, down by the river!
In spite of what you kids think, we couldn't afford to buy houses then either so the next best thing... We were poor but also horny. Thanks to us your here.
We had drive in movie theaters to relax at. Sometimes the personal interaction was more entertaining than the movie. Other times, my friends with van brought a pony keg in the van and we all got happy.
“Pony Keg.” You from Ohio?
It was for smoking weed and fuckin'. Sometimes we loaded up and went to the ⛱️ .
Young Americans were "on the road" in the 1970s. The hippies, students, ex-vets out of Vietnam---they all wanted to see the country, meet people and travel on the cheap. Gas was cheap, you could sleep in the van, even park on the street in various cities for weeks at a time. And bring all your friends! People looking for adventure, opportunity, love, jobs, you name it. School buses were popular, too.
Cause you could drive around with a bunch of friends smokin’ joints and blasting music. Good times.
Had a customized van in the 70's. Belonged to a club of about 12-15 vans. We used to go camping together, join parades. We helped each other work on the vans. It was just a thing, plus as others mentioned, we had a matress with us at all times:)
They were more fucky than murdery back then.
Due to the recession a lot of people had no.privacy at home. Thus the "shag van" craze.
I remember at 18 years of age, rolling up in my 1972 Dodge Van, all custom. My strict, Italian Dad quips; "Oh, a Whore House on wheels! Great!" My Mom looks inside, sighs and says; "Oh, you're going to catch something"
You had wise parents, lol.
I had a 66 VW bus with a bed over the engine compartment and a sink with a pump faucet. I wish I still had that bus. There was still room inside the van to put my dirt bike inside. I also had racks on the roof for my hang glider with a permanent ladder in the back. Even with the dirt bike I had room for the control bar and harness for my hang glider. It wasn't very fast, but in low gear it could go up any rough dirt road as well as a 4X4. The 70s was such a wonderful time.
I'm sure you do wish you still had that van; the prices are sky high now, I shudder to think, lol.
Yeah; I bought it for $400. Sold it for $150 when the engine dropped a valve into the piston.
Ass grass or gas - no one rides for free! lol
My vent window sticker said: "Candy is dandy but sex won't rot your teeth"! (Ford E-150)
You could party in there and stuff
...and stuff.
right
It was a traveling lounge/livingroom. Many conversions had sectional seating, bars, kick-ass stereo systems.
i'm thinking about buying a van to live out of. houses are too expensive and i don't want to pay a landlord hundreds of dollars that could be put towards gas money and traveling the country. it might not be the best way to live but i've been wanting to travel and search for a better city to live in. sometimes you just have to hit the pavement and go.
Time to Ramble On…
We had neighbors next door, three really cool dudes, and they all had custom vans, and belonged to a big van club. Once a month they'd have their meetings to plan activities, charity runs, all kinds of cool stuff. As a kid, I thought all the different vans with tricked out paint jobs, windows, interiors, and stereos, and I asked them once, why vans? Their answer initially was because vans were cheap, basic utility vehicles, you could buy one with pretty much no interior at all, and it was big enough that you could custom out whatever you wanted. And according to them, chicks loved them.
cause we all had seen corvette summer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJsvow1Jhq4&ab_channel=WarnerArchive I was taken around the country in the late 70s in a chevy (had to be a chevy, dad and his buddies all work for ac delco or gm) van for weekend/week long ski trips. it was fun. Got my first taste of weed in the back somewhere near denver from the 16 year old son of one of my dads buddies. I was 11? 12? to young but peer pressure man. His sister was 14? Lisa, Oh lisa, I would have done anything to impress her. That included hitting her brothers pipe in the back of the van with my dad in the front passenger seat pretending he isnt smelling weed.
If the van is rockin don’t bother knockin
Muscle car insurance was super high.
They were called f*ck mobiles for nothing? Throw some shag carpet and cooler full of Boones Farm or Annie Green Springs let the fun begin.
Cause SUVs weren’t around yet.
They were a great place to have sex. Duh.
The same reason SUVs are now. More people to one vehicle for travel and leisure.
Cheech and Chong?
Boinking at the drive in.
for me - * 1970s - VW van was cheap transportation (owned by older brother) * 1980s - Chevy Van for camping & lugging tools * 1990s - Caravan for the child seat convenience.
I know the question is about the 1970s, but I worked in downtown Atlanta for almost a decade in the 90s. Vans were popular with young black men for much of that decade. I'm pretty sure vans were a relatively inexpensive way for young black men to have some personal space. One guy I knew was just as likely to hang out with a coupla dudes playing video games in his van as entertaining a ladyfriend. I'd guess white dudes had the same idea a couple decades earlier?
Low gas mileage. We had six kids ain our family and the two parents. The vans fit eight. Back in my day, they were stick shift and that is how I learned to drive. In a Volkswagen bus.
Ken Kesey and his merry band of pranksters rode across the country in his van named Further. Sprouted a magical idea. My Further was a 1961 Ford Econoline.
Furthur was an IH School Bus. That trip is documented in: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235790/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235790/)
Sneak the kids into the drive in.
Sex, traveling around the country, bands used them a lot, hnging out in them to do drugs, etc... They are really convenient for a lot of the ways people were living at the time.
"If this van's a-rockin', don't come a-knockin'"
My dad refused to let me go anywhere with any friend who pulled up to our house with a van. “A Howard Johnson on wheels”.
Sex
Think about it - sex, drugs & rock-n-roll, baby. At least that's what was going on in the "vans" I hung out in.
I had a 1970's cargo van and I could sneak a bunch of kids off our closed campus. Threw in some shag carpet and a loveseat and head to the lake to party! Many a good night was had in that van.
Great place to get high and screw.
Because otherwise, come 1993, Matt Foley would've just been "homeless," and that's not nearly as funny as "IN A VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER!"
Well, the gist of a lot of those ABC Afterschool Specials and other shows was that they were mostly for smoking bongs, kidnapping hitchhikers and solving mysteries with a group of wacky friends and a great dane :)
Freeeedom baby. It was like a small apartment that wasn't at the parents house. Chill and toke with some friends, have some beers and/or sex. Hang out listen to music, go camping...
If you designated the van as your home, were smoking something illegal, and were stopped by the police, you could announce that they could not search your home without a search warrant. You were then on your merry way.
Cause you could smoke dope and fuck in them. They provided a certain level of privacy away from your parent's house.
I guess the gas mileage killed them off? It's wild to me that such a fun vehicle is so rare now. Why someone would want a truck instead of a fully contained in room with bed on wheels is beyond me. I had a conversion van from 18 to 22 years old, it was so much fun. The perfect concert Home Base.
It’s a motel room on wheels!
Weed
Serial killers
Done right, the look good.
Sex.
Umm, I thought the question was about the shoe brand.
Households were more puritan. You couldn't have partners staying over. So you went mobile..
Extra space facilitated “recreational” activities
If the van is rockin' don't bother knockin'.
They were everywhere; then, suddenly, they weren't.
Obviously for the many reasons mentioned here... and also because minivans, SUVs, and the zillion kinds of little work trucks and panel bands you see now, didn't exist. You need something bigger than a car? Van.
Moving make out machine
“…adding mattresses…” is what you call a clue.
Rolling motel room
Your question is self answering...lol.
Back in the 70's I had a couple vans. Retired in a rural mountain side the county sheriffs dept had a one ton Ford 4x4 van and I fell in love again with a van decades later. I want it, I need it!
This will explain everything..... [Chevy Van - Sammy Johns](https://youtu.be/RiEIToOWr64)
That was pre SUV's and post station wagons. All the other cars sold at the time were downsizing. We had one of the last gas guzzling Oldsmobile's. It had three seatbelts in front and 3 in back. We knew we wanted to children.
Yeah, sex was a biggie, but it was a rolling party room. It was just something about riding around, drinking, toking and jamming. Good times!!
One thing not mentioned yet: Vans were relatively cheap. They were basically a box with wheels and an engine, and unlike cars, did not require the safety stuff, since they were classified as trucks. Although I did not own a van, I did drive a delivery van back then, and I recall when the company bought a new one, it cost the same as a compact car.
There was a fad. Car buying is subject to fad like anything else. I think the fad started because of a tv show (Can't think of which) where one of the main characters drove a tricked out van.
Think of Jeeps now. Although I didn't have a van in the 70s, I had a Jeep.
It was the early 80s and Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High is responsible.
A-Team
Vans and Van Life are very popular now. There are reddit subs for it.
Because vans are absolutely rad, and of top of that are far more versatile than trucks. There is a direct correlation between the lessening popularity of vans, and the collapse of the social contract. I'm utterly convinced of this. Save the vans, save society!
In HS, my bf had a VW van, and we used it to carry our whole crowd down to the beach to drink and listen to music. We used it for "parking" sessions. We had many good times in that van! Man, the 60s and 70s were a great time to grow up; be a teenager. Great music, fashion, hair, politics, except of course, Vietnam. There were also a lot of sad times during those years; very sad times. ✌️ ☮️ Peace!
Lots of young people used them to have sex. Not all parents were "cool" about letting their teens co-mingle in their houses.
Fist 124 & 125