Vintage Caravan Magazine Issue 36 | Page 34

With energy and enthusiasm of someone half her age, Mary Corrington, 74 from Eugene, Oregon is a veritable powerhouse of achievements. After our initial meeting at a Sisters on the Fly dinner, Mary and I organized to caravan together to Hot August Nights Vintage Trailer Rally Trailer Revival in Reno. We met up again soon after at the Roseburg Graffiti Weekend in July where her 1959 Shasta Airflyte “Shy Ann” took out the Vintage Trailer Award. After the show was over we headed over to River Forks Park so I could get some nice photos of her cool duo. A car show regular with a long history of successfully restoring and showing cars, trucks, airplanes and also rebuilding a teardrop trailer, Mary says her “true love” is her multi-trophy winning 1949 Chevy pickup. Unfortunately, as a stock restoration and only six-volt powered, the pickup was not suitable to pull the 16-foot Shasta with its 12-volt trailer brakes. Mary now uses her 1986 Caprice station wagon that she converted into a woody reminiscent of the National Lampoon’s Holiday movies and the pair look absolutely awesome together. Mary told me that how it was that after many years camping out of her teardrop, she wanted something bigger so she could camp with her beloved cat Nikko. “I have always preferred the quality and looks of the older cars and trailers. In my opinion, the modern ones seem to lack the individuality and class of the older models. Also I appreciate real metal and wood, the modern ones have too much plastic for my taste. I have always loved the look of the Shasta with her iconic wings, so I was looking for one for a few months when I found this one for sale in New Mexico for $7,000 and fell in love”. But in a classic case of “buyer beware”, Mary found that what she has been sold as “camp ready” was hiding a whole world of rot. 32 | vintagetrailermagazine