They're hee-re! Boler bash begins
Boler trailers and their owners are in Winnipeg for a 50th anniversary party
Hundreds of nostalgic boomers and hipster glampers have taken over exhibition grounds just outside Winnipeg to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boler trailer — and in many cases, the owners are as quirky as their campers.
Paul and Sonya Dwyer and their two teenaged girls are believed to have travelled the farthest for this celebration – 10,300 kilometres from Corner Brook, N.L., through the United States to British Columbia, and then east to Winnipeg.
"It's been a long drive!" Paul said as they started unpacking their 1978 Boler, named Benny.
"I want to see all the other Bolers — how they customized them, how they're restored, how they're all glamped up. Maybe we'll get some ideas for ours," Sonya added, looking around at some of the trailers parked around them.
Right now, their Boler is a charming mixture of Boler kitsch and Newfoundland culture – complete with a macramé tire cover, a hook rug of a Boler and Boler pillow covers.
"We want her to look loved, like she is," Sonya said as she put up a banner with a provincial flag.
Riding by on a vintage-looking bike, Amanda Hoppe invited us to her compound, surrounded by campers filled with self-proclaimed Boler Bitches.
"I tell my husband they're cheaper than houses so if you get to decorate it and do how you want it, you can make it all your own and it's like a doll house. But then the guys, it's like their man-cave on wheels," Hoppe said, holding up a book she's written on the subject.
"I'll never be homeless," she said. "I own a Boler. I'll never be homeless, I can take my trailer wherever I go."
A little walk down the lane, Angela Durand was tuning up her banjo and singing Yellow Submarine.
Her Boler is vintage: the 17th trailer made in 1968, the first year of production.
"The reason why I painted it as a yellow submarine is because I was born the year the song game out and the Boler was built the year the movie came out," Durand said, pointing to the submarine periscope at the top of her camper, the propeller on the back, and the portholes on the side.
Durand has tricked out the inside of her Boler with '60s nostalgia and covers of albums that came out in 1968.
The Boler was the brainchild of Winnipegger Ray Olecko. He and his wife Lorraine were avid campers and hunters, says their daughter, Aileen George.
"We tented when it rained and in the middle of the summer one time it snowed," she reminisced with a laugh.
"But the clincher was when we were at Child's Lake. When we woke up in the morning, we – and I mean my sister and myself, we were about six, seven, eight years old – were blue. And my dad just said 'That's enough, we can't do this. No more tenting.'"
Olecko and a colleague created a mould for the 450-kilogram, four-metre long trailer, complete with a countertop, fridge, stove and closet.
The first one sold for about $1,500.
By the 1970s, the demand was so high Olecko set up franchise manufacturers in other parts of Canada and the United States. More than 10,000 were produced over the next 20 years.
"It took off, probably even better than they expected," George said. "They were low cost and pulled by anybody's car. That was the big thing: You could have a little Volkswagon Beetle and still pull a Boler."
Five decades later, these "eggs on wheels" have become sought-after collector's items.
"They're increasing in value every year," said Boler owner John Templeman.
"It's more of a collectible thing, it's more like a Mustang or Volkswagon Beetle or bus. People are into those groups and it's no different with the Bolers. It's the same disease."
If you can find one, they sell for $6,000-$8,000, says Ian Giles, a Boler owner and organizer of the 50th anniversary.
"They're memory-makers," he said. "Either making memories for current owners or they have made memories in the past. They're also blank canvasses. Everyone is fixing them up and making them our own, from sewing curtains and adding a few accessories, right through to full customization with a matching hot-rod pulling them.
"The cuteness factor is awesome. You can't get a cuter trailer than a Boler," Giles added.
It has inspired a whole new generation of fibreglass trailers. More than 40 trailer manufacturers have used the technology and manufacturing process of the Boler – with about 14 are still in business.
There's even a 3-D printer prototype on display at the event.
"I have North America's biggest machine," said Randy Janes, owner of Saskatoon-based Wave of the Future.
"So I figured, how can I design something as in a trailer like this that's never going to rot, mould or mildew? Never have water damage no matter how long you own it and it will have twice the life expectancy of an Airstream or any other unit in the industry?"
Weighing in at about 905 kilograms Janes's version, made of recycled pop bottles, is heavier than the Boler but about half the weight of a regular trailer. It took almost 10 days to print, but he's hoping eventually to print one in about two days. They'll sell for approximately $25,000.
"In the industry what I've heard for years is why did they do this or I wish they would have done this or made it that way. This is the first time … you can pick what size, what everything you want to 100-per-cent custom," he said.
The public is invited to come check out the Bolers during an open house Saturday starting at 10 a.m.
With files by Brett Purdy
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