“They drive tin cans and they eat outa tin cans and they leave a trail of tin cans behind ‘em. They’re tin-can tourists”. So joked Floridians in the early decades of this century when they spotted the new breed of middle-class travelers who came south each winter to find a temporary place in the sun.
The first generation of motorized campers were a far cry from today’s recreational vehicles. Some were just ordinary sedans, loaded down with tents, stoves, blankets, and as much house-keeping paraphernalia as could be strapped to the roof and running boards. Others were one-of-a-kind campers, home-built or customized on an automobile chassis. And campsites in those early years were equally casual – a sandy beach, a schoolyard, a clearing by the side of the road.
As for the “tin-can tourist” epithet, most motor campers wore it with pride. In 1920 a few stalwarts even organized a TCT club, complete with a chief executive (the Royal Can Opener), a secret password (nit nac), and two social get-togethers a year. Within 10 years some 100,000 motorized free spirits had joined. Honor-bound to help fellow TCT’s in trouble, they signified membership by driving with an empty soup can hanging from the radiator cap.
The rigors of travel in these homemade “RV’s” left many tourists wishing for greater comfort. The answer came in the late 1920’s when Detroit businessman Arthur Sherman introduced a humble sortof two-wheeled camp trailer that could be hitched to the family car. While a few elegantly appointed “land yachts” were already in use by the rich, Sherman’s compact six-by nine-foot box on wheels - complete with bunk beds and cooking facilities - could be mass-produced at a price that ordinary people could afford.
Known as the Sherman Covered Wagon, the prototype was introduced at the 1930 Detroit Auto Show, and its inventor came home with a fistful of orders. But scarcely had Sherman launched his new business when the bottom fell out of the American economy, taking any enthusiasm for house trailers with it. Suddenly, the notion of being “on the road”, of living at casual campsites, no longer seemed a happy adventure. Too many unemployed Americans were already doing just that out of painful necessity.
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