This is a picture that appeared in Travelin Vans magazine in 1978.
It started out as a white 1974 Chevy 20 long wheel base cargo van I had purchased to carry tools for auto and truck repair business. After a back injury which made me unable to do heavy work. I started to change it so that my family and I could use it to go camping. With 2 adults and 7 children, it got crowded sleeping in the van. We thought of buying a motorhome, but it was too big to get into the areas that we liked to visit. I was going to get a fiberglass top put on so the children could sleep in it. After checking out a few, it was still not enough room for all of us to sleep comfortably.While riding around one day a van with a large top drove by us. I told my girlfriend that was what we needed. We flagged the van down and he let us look inside. It had a lot of room. We asked where he had bought it, and he explained that the company wouldn't build anymore, because of the liability risk. We were dissapointed cause this was what we needed. We went home and I thought about it. I could build it. I have a friend that has a camper shell company so I'll ask him. He too addressed the liability issue. Then we figured out a way. He would build the shell, and I could build the platform on the van and put the shell on myself. That sounded good to me. We didn't make the shell as big as the one we seen, but we could all sleep in it comfortably. So we did it. It had a large kingsize bedroom in the front and a small double size bedroom accross the rear. The children were still small so they all fit in the rear bedroom. I fixed up the interior and made it very usefull with everything we needed when we were away. We would go to the mountians every weekend. On one weekend when we decided to just cruze around the airport. While at a stop light we saw a caravan of vans all customizes with beautiful paint jobs all heading toward the beach. We decided to follow them and see where they were going. When we got to the beach we were told that they were having a van run. We decided to go in and see what it was all about. There must have been about 300 vans all parked side by side and having a good time. We parked in the rear and walked around. There was bands playing and people were dancing. Children were playing games. There was also a van show and the winners won trophys. Everyone was having a good time even us. Several vanners came by to check out our van. The said it looked good inside and was a real nice camper. I got a lot of ideas that day. We started going to all the van runs and joined a club. After several months my girlfriend and I decided to go seperate ways. I had started my own van shop and spent a lot of time working on my van. She later moved out of state. My 3 children were staying with their mother and this gave me time to work on the van. The Van was coming along great. My business partner and I customized the grille and prept it for paint. Another friend painted it and an artist I saw on the beach did the murals. It was during this time that I met Clyde Orange of the Commodores. I spent some time at Motown studios while they were recording their album. I was still trying to think of a name for the van and Clyde was giving me some suggestions. William King came into the studio and said that the album they were working on will be called "Natural High" Clyde and I just looked at each other and he said "There it is" It worked with the murals. The artist had did Franzetti's flying man of the mountain on one side and a gladiator with a sword on the other. He had lightning coming out of his sword, but we gave him wings and no lightning. That completed it the first time. I changed it in 1981 and it is being refurbished and updated now.
