Letter: Island Vanners article brought back great memories

To the editor:

Great job with the article of the Island Vanners’ history. Those guys all told the story like it was. 

I was only 14 years of age then, but everything was clear as day when I started reading this story. I was Charlie Silvia’s daughter. This was history in the making, true to the 1970s’ vans, music, hippies.

My father Charlie loved fun and was of a mischievous nature and also loved to ruffle a few feathers at the same time, all in good fun. He wanted the vans guys to have a great time, wet T-shirt contests and all. It brought me to tears when I was reading this article and then it made me laugh when the “bombfire” was mentioned. I remember him saying, “Those damn kids are lucky they didn’t blow themselves up!” 

I saved two articles written about the van meets. One headline was “Strong opposition arises to rock fete in Portsmouth.” The other was “Art and music festival considered in Portsmouth.”

Thank you for the memories and history.

Kerrie (Silvia) Schoenbucher

89 Bramans Lane

Portsmouth