Music and Stories by Frank McKinnon at Robin's Lockmith Services; A Locksmith in Roswell, New Mexico (575) 420-8199



S.S. Yellar Goose

I was 4 years old in 1966. The school district would sell buses that were more than 10 years old. My father bought one of those buses, painted it canary yellow, built a luggage rack on top, built a back porch on it, took out most of the seats, and painted "SS Yellar Goose" on a lifesaver that he put it on the back door of the bus. Then, the day after school was out, about 40 junior high school students got on the bus with duffle bags and sleeping bags to travel as far as we could and camp in many interesting places.

In the 1960s, the summer trips were 90 days long. The trips we took in Mid Year Breaks and Spring Breaks were a week or two long. While going with my father on his trips, I camped in every state in the United States except for Alaska and Hawaii. I, also, camped in parts of Mexico and Canada. On days when we traveled for many hours, it seems like we were singing most of the time. We, also, had many campfire sings.