To us Thomson children the VW Camper Van seemed as big as a bus.
We, meaning the three older siblings, were all under the age of 10 when our parents introduced us to this mode of family transport in the late 1960's. (Chris was born in 1969 and Mark 1975 in the later LE and Variant period).
It was a second hand purchase as I seem to remember that it was a C or D suffix in classic white or in the days of poor UVA resistant auto paints a bit creamy off white and with a dark green panel around the iconic front badge.
It just turned up one day on the driveway. We were a bit excitable and it was quite an effort to clamber up into the vehicle. We needed help becuase we were not able to even move the sliding side door because of its combined weight and the height of the chrome handle.
In the back in which we could stand up with ease we were amazed to see a fitted kitchen with a sink and tap and large upholstered bench seats and right at the rear tailgate door another section which seemed as big as a double bed. Up front the driver could sit with two other passengers on another flat and plush cushioned arrangement in a very continental fashion. The steering wheel was immense and with our father struggling to get any response from the notoriously heavy handling characteristics of the model we felt even more like being on a form of public transport. The dashboard had very little by way of a display apart from a speedometer and petrol guage. A vivid memory is of the steering wheel being draped with old £1 notes and other paper denominations and being left to dry out in the hot summer air after a family trip out in a rowing boat during which we had all got a good soaking.
It was a marvellous vehicle for the journeys to visit grandparents as in the days before compulsory seat belts us children could just crawl about amongst the soft furnishings, stick our tongues out at following motorists from the refuge of the back seat or stop off and enjoy a freshly brewed cup of tea or hot orange squash.
In addition to the expansive interior there was that characteristic soundtrack of an aircooled VW engine. The engine which was at best a 1600cc although in reality more likely to be a 1300 cc version ear shatteringly laboured to propel about two tons of aggregated weight but gave out a terrific rattle and rasp. Tightly closed juvenile eyes made it easy to imagine a sporty porsche discounting of course the on-board catering arrangements and wall cupboards.
There was a bit of a downside in that all of us kids, bar none, were always prone to be violently travel sick with the rolling and unpredictable motion during any duration or length of a journey. I think that it was down to being completely unrestrained and sat either sideways on facing backwards.
Out and about we must have looked a bit like a hippy commune and I clearly recall seeing Flower Power people of that period looking at us in passing for any common interests.
Such was the spatial interior that I lost, for a few weeks, my best Action Man figure. It was explained to me, in my distressed state upon realising that the figure in its 1970 England World Cup was apparently lost, that it had probably fallen out on Newmarket Heath during a picnic outing. We did actually return there to search in vain. Imagine my joy upon finding it deep down inbetween the seating and the flimsy cardboard panel over the engine compartment.
I am not that sure how long the camper van was in use with our family but it must have only been a couple of years before purchase of the brand new 1971 Variant Squareback which my brother Mark has now restored to full noisy operation.
I have been saddened by the news that production of the Type 2 camper, or Kombi ceased recently at the last manufacturing plant in Brazil. Our old camper was one of the ten million that rolled off the line at Wolfsburg, Germany before the Boys from Brazil took over the model up until the cessation of activity some 64 years later.
It is the passing of an era but at least other generations will be saved from throwing up on a road trip so it is not all bad.
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