I was obviously not in your kindergarten class, but I did spend the summers of 1979 and 1980 riding across North America on a bus with George Auerbach's Teen Caravan! Though I never did the famous "Southern California" trip (Western Canada/Dakotas in 1979 and Northern California to San Francisco in 1980) your snapshots -- and the people in them! -- are dead ringers for my old pictures (which, I think, are in a box in my mother's basement).

As I still live in Toronto, I have run into George Auerbach from time to time over the years but I haven't seen him in a while and don't know if he runs the trips anymore. He does, however, still live in the suburbs just north of the city. Though I occasionally run into a couple of people from my two trips, there is only one person (from 1979) that I still make an effort to see. In fact, my wife and I get together with her and her husband for dinner two or three times a year. I actually just phoned her before e-mailing you, and she said to ask if you remember George's dreaded "No Coupling Off" rule, though judging by your remarks, it sounds like you ignored it too!--Eric Zweig (Toronto, Canada)

1. Southern California (your trip, and as I recall, "the one that started it all." I'd say at least half the people when I went on the Western Canada trip had been to Southern California the year before).

2. Western Canada (First offered in 1979, when I went. George orginally offered a short trip across Canada, or a longer trip that would dip down into the northern states. Turned out not enough people signed up for both, so it was merged into one trip. We had 33 people in all).

3. Northern California (I think this was also a first when I went in 1980. My guess is that George had to come up with something new to keep "old" campers coming back. Again, at least half the people I went with had been on the Western Canada trip the year before, and many of those were the same people who'd also been to Southern Cal. We had 42 people on the trip).

4. Baseball Trip. (I'm sure you must have gone to a ballgame or two on your trip. George is a huge baseball fan and began offering this trip in the mid 80s. Basically up and down the Eastern Seaboard for three weeks, going to a game in a major league city practically every night. My youngest (of two) brothers was a councillor (note Canadian spelling!) on this trip in about 1989.

As for my trip, here goes:

1979 Western Canada

Being from Detroit, you might not have taken part in this, but in the weeks leading up to the trips, we had three "Get-togethers" so that the kids would get to know each other. We also had an initial meeting with the parents included (but I can't remember if this counted as one of the three or not). What I remember about the parents meeting was that George would ask us about medications, allergies, etc. and one girl kept putting up her hand. She's the girl I still keep in touch with today!

All I remember about the other meetings (without parents) is that we all sat in a circle and introduced ourselves. You would say your name and then something you liked that started with the same letter. "I'm Eric and I like the Expos." There was a kid named Shelly who'd been on the trip the year before, so he knew what you could get away with. He said "my name's Shelly and I like Shit." We all thought that was pretty funny.

These meetings were the first time we had to "Count off." I'm sure you remember that all the kids would have to count off when we got back on the bus so you'd know everyone was there. As my last name is Zweig, with a Z-W I was last in the count-off. (That's how I know for sure how many people were on each trip). As you'll probably remember, it always took about eight run-throughs before the count used to reach the end. Even if I'd gotten lost, I would have always had enough time to get back, and I used to get SOOOO bored listening to all the counting before it finally got to me. Everyone could imitate the sleepy way I would finally finish the counting off. There are probably people to this day who don't remember me anymore but could still say "33" or "42" with the same "Whatever…" tone in their voice.

My family had (still has) a cottage north of the city near the route our trip began on, and my father arranged to have the bus stop at the gas station near the highway to pick me up, rather than have us come back to the city. I'm sure everyone was thinking "who the Hell is this guy" as they pulled off the road to pick me up. We then drove north to Sudbury, where we stopped for lunch, and continued on to Sault Ste. Marie for our first night. It was about 12 hours on the bus that day!

Sarah Broder, Naomi (?), Sharon (?) and Jane Shmelzer
perform in front of our Transtario bus during an evening program.

Our next stop was Thunder Bay, where we visted Old Fort William (an old fur trading site that the city had grown up around. I have a bunch of pictures from there. After Thunder Bay, I think we stayed at a campsite on the Lake of the Woods near Kenora.

Group shot at Old Fort William outside Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The four people in the front row are the councillors.
The only one who's name I remember is Steve Waldman.
He later married one of the girls from the trip
(so much for George's "no coupling up" rule!--rd).
Names I can recall are (l-r): Jane Shmelzer, ?, Sharon (?), Mark Lash,
Adrienne Ziegler, Shelly Adler, Sarah Broder, ?, Naomi (?) ---

Soon after we crossed into Manitoba. We stayed in our first hotel in Winnipeg. We stayed in Winnipeg for a few days, but the only thing I really remember was the day we spent at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I have pictures of that too.

We crossed Manitoba and into Saskatchewan, staying at a gorgeous campgrounds in Cypress Hills Provincial Park. A few days later, we were into Alberta. We camped in Calgary for a couple of days, then in Banff for a few more. (I was back in both those places this past spring for the first time since 1979).

Main entrance to the Calgary Stampede. Note all the
ugly yellow Caravan t-shirts behind the policeman.

Ron (Colb?) and Debbie (Brillstein?) in the old-time prison in the
museum section at the RCMP headquarters in Regina.

Me at age 16 (most people on both my trips were 15 or 16 years old),
picking George Washington's nose on the minature replica of
Mount Rushmore in the town of Wall, South Dakota.
This is actually from the 1980 trip.

Then we went to Wisconsin. All throughout the trip, George had been telling us that we'd ride on ducks when we got to Wisconsin. None of us knew that the hell that could been. Turned out they were some sort of old army surplus amphibious vehicles at an amusement park in Wisconsin Dells. I also remember a really cool mini motor bike track we could race on and the fact that Shelly got knocked down at the plate by a batting practice pitching machine! We stayed at a campground called Jellystone Park and Sheldon Crystal and I saw a guy in a Yogi Bear suit. No one else saw him, and no one else ever believed we actually did!

From Wisconsin, it was a short ride to Chicago, where we stayed in the seediest hotel I had ever (or have ever) stayed in. I think it was called the Ascot (I thought it was the Essex?--rd). Other than my two Caravan trips, I've never been back to Chicago, though I really loved it there!

I also remember that we travelled overnight for a couple of days through parts of Nevada and Utah. It was really hot and the air conditioning in the bus had broken down. You could barely sit in the thing during the day! My memories of Nevada are that we stayed at campgrounds in towns called Elko and Winnemucca. We also stayed in a motel in Carson City. What a hole! Can't believe it's the state capitol! (Which RV is the governor's mansion?). Reno's pretty seedy too. We also stayed in a motel in Salt Lake City. What a strange place! The area around the Mormon Tabernacle is beautiful, but what I remember most is that you can't get anyone to deliver pizza in Salt Lake City after 10 pm!

Ricky Herlick performing the ceremonial cutting of the sanitary ribbon on the
toilet of our hotel room in Salt Lake City.

Mount Rushmore. You don't usually see it pictured like this.
When you're actually there the President's heads take up a
much smaller section of the mountain than most people expect.
Also, there's all that rubble from the carving.

A group shot in front of the sulphur fields at Yellowstone National Park.
We are, from l-r: (Standing) ?, Gail Greenberg, Bev Stitt, ?, ?, Cheryl Rosen.
(The guys in this row were from suburban Detroit, but I can't remember their names!).
(Seated), Me, Andi Sterling, Sheldon Crystal, David (last name ???).

Finally, thought I'd give you some of the names I can recall from my two trips. There was (in no particular order, except how they pop back into my mind): Shelly Adler, Adrian Ziegler, Debbie Ziegler, Janice Lester, Laura Wolfson, Jeff Weiss, Bobby Bloom, Sheldon Crystal, Ron Colb, Felice Jaeger, Jane Shmelzer, Sarah Broder, Franklin Young, Jeffrey Pike, Nina Heft, Andi Sperling, Cheryl Rosen, Zev and Chaim (two brothers, whose last name I can't recall), Ricky Herlick, Gail Greenberg.