Sunday, August 3, 2008

Airstream Spirit

This piece of paper has touched me tremendously. It is the instructions printed in 1958, then revised in 1962, as to caring for and maintaining the burner and Klixson tongue on my gas only Dometic refrigerator. These instructions did not come with my trailer, they were found in a 1966 Airstream out in California.

When I broke the tongue a while back, a fellow Airstreamer heard my plight and knew he could help. He had bought a 1966, I believe TradeWind, and these instructions came with it. The irony is that the fridge in John's trailer does not have this system in it. It was instructions that had no purpose, but there they were. They had no purpose until John heard me tell about my misfortunes on the VAP episode 73. So John sends this little piece of paper to me in between being evacuated from wildfires and trying to live his life.
If you have knowledge you have power. My fridge has probably not run so well in 46 years. Everything is adjusted correctly and it keeps things very cold. The story does not end there... Since receiving this piece of paper that had no purpose, not only has it helped me, but I have passed it on to others. Over the the past three weeks four people have contacted me and I have mailed them copies of it. One random act of kindness, turned to many acts of kindness. If anyone out there needs these instructions, please feel free to contact me and I will mail you one out.

It is acts like this that make this hobby so wonderful. One guy helps another guy and he helps someone else so they can do something for somebody and the next thing you know, some stranger has become your friend and has also pulled you out of a pickle barrel. I hope that this Airstream Spirit continues to occure to me and I hope to be able to do the same for someone else out there.

4 comments:

FlossiFur said...

Hey Frank, We heard that episode! It was most definitely a warm and fuzzy one! I love knowing that there are many, many others who have gone thru or are going thru the frustrations and triumphs that we are! Kudos to you to say it on the VAP!
Carol and Bobby

John Kwasnik said...

I love saying Klixson tongue. I had never heard it talked about on the VAP until you brought it up. Never before.

crowldawg said...

Hey Frank send me a copy of that will you please.PM me at airstream forums
tom

nmbosa said...

Frank, this is a great blog. I've found a ton of helpful information that I plan to put to use as I begin restoring a 1959 Overlander International that we bought last week. I was especially glad to read about your experience with your Dometic refrigerator. I have the exact same refrigerator in my trailer. I'm still a few weeks away from testing the systems, but based on your experience, I'm hopeful I can get it working well.