on the road Photos: Courtesy of Tin Can Tourists
Tin Can Tourists BY greg girard
T
he secret handshake, well, isn’t so much of a secret. It was at one time but these days it’s a less furtive part of member initiation. That goes for the secret sign and password too. But don’t let that fool you. Tin Can Tourists is still dedicated to preserving its history, just with a strong emphasis on community. And while the club is for vintage trailers and motor homes, the founders of the second iteration of Tin Can Tourists (TCT), Forrest and Jeri Bone, say everyone is welcome. The original TCT, before the Bones resurrected the club 16 years ago, started in 1919 as the first recreational travel club in the U.S. Established in Tampa, Fla., the club’s goal was to bring together “all auto campers,” and its existence was a boon for tourism in Florida and spearheaded one of the first “snowbird” migrations to the Sunshine State. Members of the club were quickly recognized by the tin can soldered onto their automobiles’ radiator caps and by the early 1930s membership had soared to estimates ranging from 30,000 to 100,000. But by the 1940s various factors, including World War II, saw a steady decline in club membership until the last formal meeting of TCT in 1968. The Bones, who had been attending vintage Airstream rallies for years, were starting to admire many of the other vintage
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makes out on the road but were limited in their opportunities to see them because of the exclusivity of Airstream rallies. “It has been the practice of Airstream to allow local units and interclub to only hold one ‘Buddy Rally’ per year that would allow other brand trailers to participate,” explains Forrest on the TCT website. “We decided we’d like to have a rally that involved all makes and models,” says Forrest. So after a conversation that hap-
pened to mention the history of TCT, the Bones started digging to see if they could reinstate the club. “We were able to trace the group’s demise,” says Forrest, adding that their research led them to the Florida Historical Library to comb through archives and the last group they could find that met under the TCT name was in Florida in the mid-1980s. “So we went through all these trademark lawyers to make sure we weren’t infringing Tin Can Tourists has more than 1,600 members.
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