Camping trips were one of the highlights of my summer growing up. I loved the campfires, sleeping in a tent (I can still smell the wet canvas), fishing, hiking and those mysterious only-for-camping appliances my Dad used like the Coleman stove and lantern. The sight of watching him add white gas, pump pressure into the tank and finally light it was like magic. Of course, I wasn't allowed to handle them, especially those silk mantles in the lantern that disintegrated on touch.
I found these Coleman owners manuals in the cabinet I blogged about here.
The first up is for the Coleman 425D Camp Stove from 1965.
These instructions for the 220F & 228F lantern date from 1970.
These last instructions actually came with the Coleman oven that was one of my earliest garage sale finds. I've used it numerous times on my own family's camping trips. I've used it for making muffins and cinnamon rolls. The trick is to place the pan on the highest rack position and cover the top with aluminum foil. This dates from 1970 as well.
i think we have almost that exact stove sitting in the garage right now. it didn't come with this amazing instruction manual, alas. : \
ReplyDeleteEver use it?
Deleteoh yeah. we used them for years at burning man, but a few years back our camp grew big enough to force us to upgrade to a bigger, more modern one (four burners!). but we still bring out the small ones as backup.
DeleteAhh...Coleman. I used to get so excited to go camping as a kid when we pulled out the boxes of Coleman paraphernalia we had stockpiled. But the invariable rain that comes with camping in the PNW eventually killed the romance for me.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have my own kids (and my wife is talking about taking 'em camping) I'm going to have to invest in my own Coleman gear. Good, durable stuff (at least it was).
Yeah, JB, rain was invariable in the mid-west too, at least when our family chose to camp. Unfortunately, there isn't much left of the original Coleman company. Their products are outsourced to Chinese manufacturers. They hung onto manufacturing of the lantern up until the 90's I believe.
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