HOW TO OPEN A KOZY KAMP

Here is myself (Mary Strachan Scriver) pretending to be Miss America demonstrating a refrigerator, except that this is a stabilized Kozy Kamp (legs down) with the top down, showing that one can still stow luggage and so on in the space between the two beds. The location of this event is our backyard and I suspect that the dark “river” to the right comes from emptying the water tank so it won’t freeze over the winter. This is 1953. I’m just starting high school.

First step is always the hardest: heaving up the top on it’s hinges. Then there are locks to snap into place so the top won’t collapse backdown.



The two beds fold in half and are then folded into the interior with the tent top attached.



The end product with my brother Paul alongside for “scale.” We often set up this Kozy Kamp out in the backyard as an extra bedroom for company. Aside from that, it was a popular place for a nap or to hide out if you were mad at the family.


This is the long winding road up out of Hell’s Canyon which severely taxed our faithful green Ford. (We always drove faithful green Fords.) We carried lots of water to replenish the radiator and even then had to stop and cool off enough for the boiling to stop so we could add more water without cracking the system. Of course, it was courtesy to use the frequent pull-offs to let other vehicles pass. It was very hot and tense, but we finally made it out.



This is where we had camped the night before. Sometimes we detached the trailer and sometimes we didn’t. There were no formal campgrounds as there are now, but on the other hand there were few people on the road and the locals were a little more tolerant of strangers staying alongside the road.