I read this story and it made me think about our family vacations when I was a kid. Most of those took place in the fifties and sixties. Those driving trips weren't up to National Lampoon's adventure level but we had fun.
My father was a fearless traveler when I was a kid. Among other trips I can remember two different driving trips to San Antonio to visit my aunt. Both of those trips were made before Interstate highways were in existence and also before automobile air-conditioning was standard. I think one was made in a 1950 Ford and the other a 1955 Ford. It's hard to imagine now that we actually drove that far and back under those conditions. Just try to imagine driving to Texas from East Tennessee today without using the Interstate highway system or air-conditioning. I remember the '55 Ford had triangular vent windows so you could direct air into the car from outside.
We were of course subject to every stoplight between here and San Antonio. That alone would stop me from doing it today. I'm pretty sure there weren't many four-lane highways, if any. There were no McDonalds or any other chain restaurant back then that I remember. And the same was true for motels and hotels. Basically you had no standards that you could trust. Everything was local unless you had been there before. Sometimes that worked out good if you were able to get some good home cooking.
I also remember many trips to Myrtle Beach and to south Georgia where big sister lived after she got married. I can still remember driving down Highway 41 in Georgia and smelling chitterlings cooking as we passed through the neighborhoods. Try doing that on an Interstate highway today. You'll only get a big dose of diesel fumes and hurricane like wind in your window.
Driving long distances wasn't the most comfortable back then but it had its advantages. You could literally see the country better for one. The article in USA Today quotes Calvin Trillin, "Americans drive cross country as if someone's chasing them." I think that's even more true today. And we miss a lot of culture doing so.
July 25, 2008 in
Life |
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Myrtle Beach....sigh. My dad ALWAYS got lost in Greensboro and had us headed right back home.
Posted by: Cielo at Jul 26, 2008 6:18:03 PM
I had to write in the atlas (which has finally fallen apart) Go East, Idiot! When we came off Rt 13 in Norfolk and I couldn't figure out which way on 64. I miss a great deal of Rt 13 on the DelMar penninsula but I also notice that if you look really closely you can see beyond the mini malls.
Posted by: Alecto at Jul 28, 2008 3:25:58 PM
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