By Patricia Guthrie
South Whidbey Record
WHIDBEY ISLAND — Rain pounded the Tear Jerkers but didn’t drown their “Last Bash” plans to visit John Norris’ sprawling property on South Whidbey.
They cooked, they ate, they drank, they chatted, they drank some more and carried on as usual before folding themselves into thimble-size bedrooms.
They are trailer people and proud of it.
“I love it, the simplicity, the compactness and the people I meet camping,” said Jim Johnson, of Ellensburg.
Under a tarp extending out from his tiny blue home, Johnson sipped coffee with others who converged in his rustic living room furnished with lawn chairs.
Meet the members of the northwest chapter of Tear Jerkers, an international organization celebrating the tiny traveling contraptions and the people who pull them.
The club motto: “Life moves a little slower on teardrop time.”
They plan trips together, share meals and camaraderie at campgrounds or just strike up a conversation when they spot one of their own kind on the road.
“We’re outside people,” said Ed Showacy, of Puyallup. “At campgrounds when it rains, we’re still outside while all the RVers are inside their huge campers.”
John Norris stands beside “Miss Piggy,” a camping trailer built from many spare parts of cars, trucks and motorcycles. It was assembled by Brian Woods of British Columbia. (Patricia Guthrie/Whidbey News Group)
Teardrop trailers are streamlined, compact, lightweight travel trailers, which get the name from their teardrop profile. They’re light, usually less than 1,000 pounds, so just about any vehicle can tow one.
What’s the best tow vehicle for a teardrop — a Subaru Outback or a Ford Ranger— fuels conversations late into the night.
For the last organized outing of the year for the Northwest chapter, which includes British Columbia, the group was hosted by John Norris and Tracy Cunningham on the last weekend of October.
Norris fixes up and restores campers on his expansive swath of property. The ones he restores to a second life are generally old beat-up small campers that have seen better days.
“I’ve sold 300 vintage trailers,” Norris said.
Color, style, size, painted exterior scenes and wraparound art distinguished the roundup.
“Tink” is the nickname of Cunningham’s royal blue teardrop wrapped in a “wonderland” theme. A statute of Tinkerbell stood out front.
“The skyline is Seattle,” she pointed out. “Here’s the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, the Great Wheel and on the back is Mount Rainier.”
A pink Tinkerbell flits across the snow-capped peak and blue sky with the words, “Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.”
Enthusiasts of small-trailer camping from around the Northwest met in Clinton over the weekend for their last campout of the season. (Patricia Guthrie/Whidbey News Group)
Among the teardrops, one small camper trailer stood out with its shape, size and painted prairie scene.
“That’s called a standee,” said Ted Hoefer, of Camano Island. “Because you can stand up in it.”
Teardrop trailers evolved in the 1930s and became popular after World War II when there was a surplus of aircraft aluminum, Hoefer said.
First introduced as a “honeymoon house trailer,” the teardrop is designed with a raise-up lid in back that usually contains a kitchenette. Its interior is generally all bed, room for two humans, sort of, or a dog or two.
“I’ve dreamed about owning one of these for years,” said Jimmy Smith, who drove here from Idaho. “I just picked it up last spring.”
Like many small-trailer travelers, Smith’s figuring out that tight quarters mean minimal possessions and learning to live like a sailor at sea. Not much stuff, but much contentment.
“I want to get to the point that if I don’t have it then I don’t need it,” Smith said.
Brian and Sandi Woods are the Canadians of the club who started the Northwest chapter a few years ago. Their trip to Whidbey Island from British Columbia marked their 52nd road trip of 2018, a 70,000-mile year.
Wherever they go, double-takes follow.
Their one-of-a-kind trailer resembles a vintage car — smooth, sleek and creamy white with a Studebaker front that sticks out like an airplane nose.
“I pieced it together it from 11 cars, four trucks and two motorcycles,” Brian Woods said. “When I was building it, I thought, ‘It looks like a pig.’ So I went inside and asked my wife and she said, ‘It looks like a pig.’”
“So her name is Miss Piggy.”
This story originally appeared in the South Whidbey Record, a sibling paper of The Daily Herald.
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