During the summer between my junior and senior years in college, I was fortunate enough to find work at the Airstream factory in Santa Fe Springs, CA.
I had always been told “work is what you have to do, so do it well.” Now I didn't know too much about fiberglass insulation when I started, but it wasn’t too long before I was introduced to its finer qualities.
How fine, you ask? Try little glass needles penetrating all the pores in your skin. At night, even after a long shower, you’d go to bed knowing somewhere under the covers there’d be a tiny little porcupine just waiting to stick you and make you start scratching.
During the day, temperatures climbed above 85 degrees, and that was on top of the off-shore Pacific Ocean humidity and breathing in ogre smog. During breaks, we played Pinochle and ate bran muffins from the famous Helms Bakery truck.
Summer began, and ended.
Years later, when I left the Army, I came back to Airstream. The office management scrutinized my every move for five years. Plant employees, knowing I’d done the nastiest job on the line, accepted me as a co-worker who’d held his own, who didn’t quibble, and who kept up with the line.
As I look back at my acceptance by the Airstream production workers, I think of it as special and humbling. To them, I wasn’t a relative of Wally Byam’s. I wasn’t the son of Helen Byam Schwamborn. I was just an employee succeeding at the nastiest job in the plant.
In 2007, I began to tour, speaking on Airstream history. Topics were varied: Wally Byam, my mother, the evolution of Airstream, the Wally Byam Caravan Club, the Airstream Wally Byam African Caravan, and other areas dealing with the Airstream World.
At first I did Q&A sessions. The first one in Breckinridge, Colorado lasted almost three hours. After several Q&A sessions I began to use pictures with my commentaries.
Currently I’m in my fifth revision, cataloguing Airstream history. Last year in Sarasota, Florida I presented the African Caravan as a standalone one-hour talk. The one for Wally Byam, 1931 to 1962, lasted more than an hour and a half.
Always, someone will walk up to me or raise their hand in a presentation and ask me “which is the best Airstream ever made?” They are searching to have their own Airstream stamped as sterling silver. Could it be Ohio? Could it be California? Is it possible that it is one of the years 1952, 1964, 1976 or some other year?
Thank you for asking. As for the best Airstreams ever manufactured you need one manufactured during the summer of 1961, when I installed fiberglass insulation! They were built with my love and care. (And sweat!) So let my personal pride shine from accomplishment for the Airstreams I helped build, and pass them on to new Airstreamers.
Dale “Pee Wee” Schwamborn has silver in his blood. His mother, Helen Byam Schwamborn, was the cousin of Airstream founder Wally Byam, and founded the Wally Byam Caravan Club. Each week, Pee Wee shares one of his many stories, including his experiences on the iconic Airstream Caravans, his time spent working in the Airstream factory, and the many Airstreamers he’s befriended, far and wide.
