We had a car-top carrier just like that one, same color, shape and size. It held five Coleman sleeping bags (from the Green Stamp store), five army green air mattresses, and two Thermos Pop Tents (one large 3 person, and one smaller 2 person).
That luscious wagon was made by UAW hands, probably assembled at the Wixom plant in MI. Back then, a working man in MT could afford to take his family on a three week vacation. They probably barbecued steaks and grabbed for all the gusto they could later that day.
Oh man! I remember those days. We took many many family vacations in our station wagon pulling a small camp trailer behind to stop and spend the nights.
We were so free then. Not just us. All of society. No seat belts, so we kids weren't strapped in,immobile in the back seat like mental patients. The back of the wagon was a fun playground with pillows, blankets, games, toys. We could while away the hours across Route 66 playing games, lounging and snacking on food that is forbidden now by the government or just stretch out and nap if we got tired. No food police. No thought police.
No one was lecturing us on a daily basis on what to eat, how we are destroying the planet by driving to look at the Painted Desert. There wasn't any internet. It wasn't even dreamed of. AM radio was it. No FM radio. No smart phones. No Ipads. No in car videos. No freaking texting. We spent FAMILY time together. We had to. We spent our time talking to each other, singing songs, or playing games to pass the time. I Spy. I'm thinking of a thing. 20 questions. Reading the Burma Shave signs. Eagerly waiting for each new sign to finish the jingle.
It wasn't all roses though. My brother and I did get bored after about 7 to 10 hours of driving and began to pick at each other. My father did the obligatory....Don't make me stop this car and come back there I bet they seriously considered dropping us off at some gas station in Arizona a time or two. It was HOT. We didn't have A/C so we used one of those car window swamp cooler thingies and canvas bags on the front of the car to cool the radiator. Bliss was stopping at a gas station and getting an ice cold Squirt floating with grapefruit pulp or Coca Cola (both cane sugar sweetened of course)and some really really salty snacks to go with.
Freedom to go where we wanted and do what we wanted with no government guilt trips. Ah. Well. That was the good life. I'm glad we had it. I'm sorry for this generation of tight ass panty wadded wimps that they will never experience such freedom.
Great car. Great Falls is not my favorite place in Montana, but it is a reasonably close drive to other great spots there. That would be the vehicle to take the family in.
My family had a robin egg blue '64 Fairlane wagon. Three on the tree. I remember going with my dad to a dealer in Madison to look at it. I believe it was the first and last new car he ever bought. Station wagons got terrible gas mileage and were so-named because you drove from station to station.
We almost went crazy in the car on one trip. El Paso the song had just been released (1959) and so ALL the AM stations were playing it all over the Southwest. Rt 66 again.
So across the desert on the radio we would hear it many times over the miles. It was very popular. Then we got out of range and would have to dial to find a new station if one wa in range....and LO an BEHOLD.....El Paso again! Over and over until we were all going GAH!!!!!! is this the only song on the radio!!!!!!
It became a family joke like ... "Yes yes yes....we have enough gas to get to Navojoa Don't ask :-D
Ahh, I see we are of the approx same age and experience except I was an only child. In 1960 at the end of my soph yr in HS we took a 6000 mi family vacation starting out in RT 66 in Illinois down thru Joplin Mizzou, Okla City, Tucimcari, Gallup, Albuquerque, NM, Flagstaff Ariz, & Grand Canyon, then Las Vegas, down to LA and Disney Land, then up PCH thru Carmel, then to Central valley thru Bakersville up to visit my Aunt in Dinuba and visit Sequoia Nat park. Then over to tour SF where we stayed high up on San Pablo ridge over-looking the Bay at an Army Nike Ajax/Hercules AA missile base guarding SF Bay commanded by a cousin-in law (my mother was 20 years younger than the rest of her clan-he had married the sister of his West Point '43 roommate who went Air Force and was my first cousin) We returned at the end of the three months via Salt Lake, Laramie, Wyo, then dropped down to visit the AFA in Colorado Springs before returning east via KC and St. Louis back to our home in eastern Illinois. (One advantage over you: We had AC--Thank God-- in our VERY 1950s big tail-finned, two-tone black and turquoise green 4-door big engine hemi-head push-button shift 1959 Dodge. AC was usually Dealer installed option only in those days in most cars sold outside the Deep South)
Oh man! I remember those days. We took many many family vacations in our station wagon pulling a small camp trailer behind to stop and spend the nights.
We were so free then. Not just us. All of society. No seat belts, so we kids weren't strapped in,immobile in the back seat like mental patients. The back of the wagon was a fun playground with pillows, blankets, games, toys. We could while away the hours across Route 66 playing games, lounging and snacking on food that is forbidden now by the government or just stretch out and nap if we got tired. No food police. No thought police.
Oh, baby, you nailed it.
The next time you see "North By Northwest", look at those location shots* at the Rushmore park with all the station wagons outside the Visitors Center. That's what America looked like in '59.
And people were happy then!
* Thank you, Mr Hitchcock for giving us a record of what it was like back then (the whole picture is like that, if you've never seen it; I get a lump in my throat at the New York scenes, my aunt and grandmother lived right outside Gotham in Ridgewood NJ, like going back in time)
An yes, I remember Dad and I hugely arguing over what kind of music to listen to on the car radio--R&R vs Big Band, , Sinatra, etc.--with Mother refereeing the fights/arguments, lol. And the cost of gas!IIRC it was 26 cents/gal then back in Illinois and when we hit one of those dusty little stations in the middle of Ariz we were outraged at the "price gouging" cost of 64 cents/gal! LOL! (Or was it 26 and 42?--or 42 and 64? Memory fails..)
It was 1960, all 6 family members were crammed into a 1959 Ford wagon, destination - Sandwich, Mass. Popular tune, in heavy rotation, "Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini". I can still recite the lyrics. And I still don't like it. It was years until the Beatles arrived and that pop pap was displaced.
But the memorable car was the one our neighbors drove - they joined us on that road trip in their 1959 Chevrolet convertible. White with a red interior. Great looking ride - much more stylish than a wagon.
Jesus, that has been 56 years and I can still recall it as if it were yesterday. The country didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.
You DO realize, don't you, that the Parks service tore down that wonderful 30' era wooden & glass building shown in N by NW --the one with the Panoramic view of Mount Rushmore from the cafeteria that so blended in with the surroundings--and replaced it with an "improved" Nazi-like stone bunker in the early 90s? "Progress."
An yes, I remember Dad and I hugely arguing over what kind of music to listen to on the car radio--R&R vs Big Band, , Sinatra, etc.--with Mother refereeing the fights/arguments, lol. And the cost of gas!IIRC it was 26 cents/gal then back in Illinois
Next time you see "Goldfinger", keep you eye on the CIA agents as they go after Oddjob and the mob boss. As they wheel around the corner (this is in Louisville), there's a gas station and, if you squint, you see the price is 28 (remember, this is '63).
What really sends me back is the S&H Green Stamps sign
Sixty said: Popular tune, in heavy rotation, "Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini". I can still recite the lyrics
Could have been worse. It might have been this one I think my parents were probably considering suicide about then :-D
Several reasons that we were so happy and free then. IMO
Our parents either participated in or remembered WWII. It was still in the rear view mirror and the Great Depression was still a factor in our parents childhood experiences and world view.
The US had not experienced the decimation of war after war. The Civil War was the last big conflict on our soil and was a distant memory. Our country was intact and peaceful in general. Sure, there were still inequalities that needed to be corrected. I remember and lived briefly as a small child the segregated south. But people were not grief merchants wallowing in their imagined or exaggerated victimhood as today. People were just happy to BE alive. People were HOPEFUL.
After WWII the government was still small and not in our faces. Not omnipresent like now. The economy was recovering greatly from the war expenses and most people had enough food, jobs, cars, housing compared to the rest of the world. We didn't expect or demand as much in the way of material goods as people do now so that disappointment and envy were not force fed to us.
You could get a manufacturing job or a job that would support you and your family. A high school diploma was good enough and not even required. You could easily start your own business. The crushing regulations we have today didn't exist. A man could support his family on his income and a mother could stay home take care of the children and manage the house.... and life would be livable. People were allowed to have pride. Children were left to be children and not smothered or scheduled to death. Free to ride bikes without being in a protective bubble, explore, play games, fight with each other and learn by their failures.
WWII is something that is unfathomable now to our current generation of precious snowflakes who are traumatized by chalk and need to cower in safe spaces when confronted with ideas that are icky.
I hate to say it but a stretch of some hard times might just make the next generations stronger and better.
Sixty said: Popular tune, in heavy rotation, "Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini". I can still recite the lyrics
Could have been worse. It might have been this one I think my parents were probably considering suicide about then :-D
A week before Christmas '57. Drive time between Bryn Mawr PA and Ridgewood NJ ~ 2 hours. The trip, however, seemed longer for our parents, as the airwaves were full of "The Chipmunk Song" (from the man who gave you "The Witch Doctor").
I learned much from my parents. I was blessed w/ 2 great parents. Not perfect, but unconditional love. One of the things I learned was family vacations are precious and kids always remember them. Sixty went to Sandwich on Cape Cod, we went further up the Cape to Eastham. We were blue collar, typical 2 weeks in August when my dad's factory would shut down. One year, we vacationed w/ another family of 3 boys. So, my older sister had to bring a female friend. Well, w/ the friend and our dog, Duchess, the car was full. I was maybe 14. The other family offered to have their 16 year old son ride the bus w/ me to the Cape. All my mom's sisters thought it was horrible that she would put her dog in the car and her son on the bus. My mom told them to "go shit in your hat." Both my parents knew this would be a fun adventure and help make me independent. My parents understood, on a profound level, it is a parents job to make themselves obsolete. I remember that trip in detail. Getting on the bus in Hartford. Switching buses in Providence. Buying cigs from a machine and smoking Kent cigs.
With this emotion and knowledge I knew that vacations would be important for our kids. My parents couldn't afford much travel, but my bride and I could. We focused on the US and mostly cities. We took our kids to NYC, Boston, Miami, Florida Gulf, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Austin, KC, Chicago, New Orleans, Denver, LA, San Diego, Seattle. We also took them to Mexico, Bahamas and Europe. There is no better education than travel. NONE. It not only provides knowledge, it also provides wisdom, that the world is large, and exploring it is exciting.
Mama, I collect S&H Green stamps and A&P Plaid Stamps. My mom would just give them to me to put in the books and let me buy what I wanted. I was the kid who would go w/ her to the store and laundromat to help and that was my reward. I got my first pair of Ray Bans @ age 16 w/ Plaid Stamps. Been wearing those classic black Ray Bans since then.
Nick said: My parents understood, on a profound level, it is a parents job to make themselves obsolete
This is a truth that all parents need to learn.
If you do your job right, your children will grow up to be independent, functioning, contributing individual beings. Doesn't mean you are cut out of their lives, but as a parent you need to realize that at some point your job is done as the parent role. You can then move on into other roles of friend, confidant, grandparent. The best was when I realized my parents were probably my best friends, the people I could relate to best and we interacted like adults without the parent child dynamic. Just equals and friends who shared a lifetime of memories.
A bus ride I remember vividly was from Jackson Mississippi to Greenwood, at the age of 9, solo. We were in Jackson visiting my mother's family, then they sent me to visit my paternal grandparents up the road a piece.
Nine years old, ridin' the bus, all by myself. Wasn't lookin' for America, but I did see a lot of The Delta while lookin' out of that Greyhound window.
Buses used to be a thing, I guess. On a bus ride from central Maryland to Woodstock Virginia I fell in with a group of soldiers bound for, well, it was '67, so we can imagine what their ultimate destination was, and they taught me how to shoot craps. Kids these days are so sheltered...
S&H Green Stamps. LORD YES!! My Mother collected them religiously as a very middle-middle class of two school-teachers. Oh. and Ray-Bans. When I was in college (62-66) a new pair cost $26 dollars! I know because I had two; a bronze translucent pair and a dark red translucent pair. The cost today? Some 200/pair plus, no?
Sixty, Now only ex convicts and semi homeless ride Greyhound. I routinely took Frank Martz Trailways from Wilkes-Barre to New Haven, changing buses @ Port Authority in Manhattan, when I was in school. Loved the journey. I often enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Sometimes even more.
virgil, I bet your frugal mom, when people @ the supermarket didn't want their stamps after checking out, would politely ask if she could take them. My mom was like a hawk, never missing an opportunity for extra stamps.
My sis and I used to take the Greyhound about an hour away, probably longer with the stops, to see our Grandmother. It felt cool to be on our own 'traveling.'
36 comments:
The Good Old Days really were.
Vibrant Red paint job, I like the aqua blue house next door, and the green of the grass is like astroturf. love it.
We had a car-top carrier just like that one, same color, shape and size. It held five Coleman sleeping bags (from the Green Stamp store), five army green air mattresses, and two Thermos Pop Tents (one large 3 person, and one smaller 2 person).
That wagon is luscious.
Lots of chrome and whitewalls -- stuff you don't see anymore.
That luscious wagon was made by UAW hands, probably assembled at the Wixom plant in MI. Back then, a working man in MT could afford to take his family on a three week vacation. They probably barbecued steaks and grabbed for all the gusto they could later that day.
Oh man! I remember those days. We took many many family vacations in our station wagon pulling a small camp trailer behind to stop and spend the nights.
We were so free then. Not just us. All of society. No seat belts, so we kids weren't strapped in,immobile in the back seat like mental patients. The back of the wagon was a fun playground with pillows, blankets, games, toys. We could while away the hours across Route 66 playing games, lounging and snacking on food that is forbidden now by the government or just stretch out and nap if we got tired. No food police. No thought police.
No one was lecturing us on a daily basis on what to eat, how we are destroying the planet by driving to look at the Painted Desert. There wasn't any internet. It wasn't even dreamed of. AM radio was it. No FM radio. No smart phones. No Ipads. No in car videos. No freaking texting. We spent FAMILY time together. We had to. We spent our time talking to each other, singing songs, or playing games to pass the time. I Spy. I'm thinking of a thing. 20 questions. Reading the Burma Shave signs. Eagerly waiting for each new sign to finish the jingle.
It wasn't all roses though. My brother and I did get bored after about 7 to 10 hours of driving and began to pick at each other. My father did the obligatory....Don't make me stop this car and come back there I bet they seriously considered dropping us off at some gas station in Arizona a time or two. It was HOT. We didn't have A/C so we used one of those car window swamp cooler thingies and canvas bags on the front of the car to cool the radiator. Bliss was stopping at a gas station and getting an ice cold Squirt floating with grapefruit pulp or Coca Cola (both cane sugar sweetened of course)and some really really salty snacks to go with.
Freedom to go where we wanted and do what we wanted with no government guilt trips. Ah. Well. That was the good life. I'm glad we had it. I'm sorry for this generation of tight ass panty wadded wimps that they will never experience such freedom.
Great car. Great Falls is not my favorite place in Montana, but it is a reasonably close drive to other great spots there. That would be the vehicle to take the family in.
Boy what fifty years+ will do.
You can't go home again.
My family had a robin egg blue '64 Fairlane wagon. Three on the tree. I remember going with my dad to a dealer in Madison to look at it. I believe it was the first and last new car he ever bought. Station wagons got terrible gas mileage and were so-named because you drove from station to station.
I read somewhere that Millenials don't even want to drive a car!
We almost went crazy in the car on one trip. El Paso the song had just been released (1959) and so ALL the AM stations were playing it all over the Southwest. Rt 66 again.
So across the desert on the radio we would hear it many times over the miles. It was very popular. Then we got out of range and would have to dial to find a new station if one wa in range....and LO an BEHOLD.....El Paso again! Over and over until we were all going GAH!!!!!! is this the only song on the radio!!!!!!
It became a family joke like ... "Yes yes yes....we have enough gas to get to Navojoa Don't ask :-D
Edward Scissorhands pokes out from a corner, just looks, disappears.
@DBQ/
Ahh, I see we are of the approx same age and experience except I was an only child. In 1960 at the end of my soph yr in HS we took a 6000 mi family vacation starting out in RT 66 in Illinois down thru Joplin Mizzou, Okla City, Tucimcari, Gallup, Albuquerque, NM, Flagstaff Ariz, & Grand Canyon, then Las Vegas, down to LA and Disney Land, then up PCH thru Carmel, then to Central valley thru Bakersville up to visit my Aunt in Dinuba and visit Sequoia Nat park. Then over to tour SF where we stayed high up on San Pablo ridge over-looking the Bay at an Army Nike Ajax/Hercules AA missile base guarding SF Bay commanded by a cousin-in law (my mother was 20 years younger than the rest of her clan-he had married the sister of his West Point '43 roommate who went Air Force and was my first cousin) We returned at the end of the three months via Salt Lake, Laramie, Wyo, then dropped down to visit the AFA in Colorado Springs before returning east via KC and St. Louis back to our home in eastern Illinois. (One advantage over you: We had AC--Thank God-- in our VERY 1950s big tail-finned, two-tone black and turquoise green 4-door big engine hemi-head push-button shift 1959 Dodge. AC was usually Dealer installed option only in those days in most cars sold outside the Deep South)
Memories...
Dust Bunny Queen said...
Oh man! I remember those days. We took many many family vacations in our station wagon pulling a small camp trailer behind to stop and spend the nights.
We were so free then. Not just us. All of society. No seat belts, so we kids weren't strapped in,immobile in the back seat like mental patients. The back of the wagon was a fun playground with pillows, blankets, games, toys. We could while away the hours across Route 66 playing games, lounging and snacking on food that is forbidden now by the government or just stretch out and nap if we got tired. No food police. No thought police.
Oh, baby, you nailed it.
The next time you see "North By Northwest", look at those location shots* at the Rushmore park with all the station wagons outside the Visitors Center. That's what America looked like in '59.
And people were happy then!
* Thank you, Mr Hitchcock for giving us a record of what it was like back then (the whole picture is like that, if you've never seen it; I get a lump in my throat at the New York scenes, my aunt and grandmother lived right outside Gotham in Ridgewood NJ, like going back in time)
PS to DBQ/
An yes, I remember Dad and I hugely arguing over what kind of music to listen to on the car radio--R&R vs Big Band, , Sinatra, etc.--with Mother refereeing the fights/arguments, lol. And the cost of gas!IIRC it was 26 cents/gal then back in Illinois and when we hit one of those dusty little stations in the middle of Ariz we were outraged at the "price gouging" cost of 64 cents/gal! LOL! (Or was it 26 and 42?--or 42 and 64? Memory fails..)
It was 1960, all 6 family members were crammed into a 1959 Ford wagon, destination - Sandwich, Mass. Popular tune, in heavy rotation, "Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini". I can still recite the lyrics. And I still don't like it. It was years until the Beatles arrived and that pop pap was displaced.
But the memorable car was the one our neighbors drove - they joined us on that road trip in their 1959 Chevrolet convertible. White with a red interior. Great looking ride - much more stylish than a wagon.
Jesus, that has been 56 years and I can still recall it as if it were yesterday. The country didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.
@edutcher/
You DO realize, don't you, that the Parks service tore down that wonderful 30' era wooden & glass building shown in N by NW --the one with the Panoramic view of Mount Rushmore from the cafeteria that so blended in with the surroundings--and replaced it with an "improved" Nazi-like stone bunker in the early 90s? "Progress."
Of course.
Sounds like the Ozark Mafia, don't it?
virgil xenophon said...
PS to DBQ/
An yes, I remember Dad and I hugely arguing over what kind of music to listen to on the car radio--R&R vs Big Band, , Sinatra, etc.--with Mother refereeing the fights/arguments, lol. And the cost of gas!IIRC it was 26 cents/gal then back in Illinois
Next time you see "Goldfinger", keep you eye on the CIA agents as they go after Oddjob and the mob boss. As they wheel around the corner (this is in Louisville), there's a gas station and, if you squint, you see the price is 28 (remember, this is '63).
What really sends me back is the S&H Green Stamps sign
Sixty said: Popular tune, in heavy rotation, "Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini". I can still recite the lyrics
Could have been worse. It might have been this one I think my parents were probably considering suicide about then :-D
Several reasons that we were so happy and free then. IMO
Our parents either participated in or remembered WWII. It was still in the rear view mirror and the Great Depression was still a factor in our parents childhood experiences and world view.
The US had not experienced the decimation of war after war. The Civil War was the last big conflict on our soil and was a distant memory. Our country was intact and peaceful in general. Sure, there were still inequalities that needed to be corrected. I remember and lived briefly as a small child the segregated south. But people were not grief merchants wallowing in their imagined or exaggerated victimhood as today. People were just happy to BE alive. People were HOPEFUL.
After WWII the government was still small and not in our faces. Not omnipresent like now. The economy was recovering greatly from the war expenses and most people had enough food, jobs, cars, housing compared to the rest of the world. We didn't expect or demand as much in the way of material goods as people do now so that disappointment and envy were not force fed to us.
You could get a manufacturing job or a job that would support you and your family. A high school diploma was good enough and not even required. You could easily start your own business. The crushing regulations we have today didn't exist. A man could support his family on his income and a mother could stay home take care of the children and manage the house.... and life would be livable. People were allowed to have pride. Children were left to be children and not smothered or scheduled to death. Free to ride bikes without being in a protective bubble, explore, play games, fight with each other and learn by their failures.
WWII is something that is unfathomable now to our current generation of precious snowflakes who are traumatized by chalk and need to cower in safe spaces when confronted with ideas that are icky.
I hate to say it but a stretch of some hard times might just make the next generations stronger and better.
@ Virgil and anyone else with these memories
Route 66
Thanks Deborah.... for the inspiration to walk down memory lane!!!
Dust Bunny Queen said...
Sixty said: Popular tune, in heavy rotation, "Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini". I can still recite the lyrics
Could have been worse. It might have been this one I think my parents were probably considering suicide about then :-D
A week before Christmas '57. Drive time between Bryn Mawr PA and Ridgewood NJ ~ 2 hours. The trip, however, seemed longer for our parents, as the airwaves were full of "The Chipmunk Song" (from the man who gave you "The Witch Doctor").
I learned much from my parents. I was blessed w/ 2 great parents. Not perfect, but unconditional love. One of the things I learned was family vacations are precious and kids always remember them. Sixty went to Sandwich on Cape Cod, we went further up the Cape to Eastham. We were blue collar, typical 2 weeks in August when my dad's factory would shut down. One year, we vacationed w/ another family of 3 boys. So, my older sister had to bring a female friend. Well, w/ the friend and our dog, Duchess, the car was full. I was maybe 14. The other family offered to have their 16 year old son ride the bus w/ me to the Cape. All my mom's sisters thought it was horrible that she would put her dog in the car and her son on the bus. My mom told them to "go shit in your hat." Both my parents knew this would be a fun adventure and help make me independent. My parents understood, on a profound level, it is a parents job to make themselves obsolete. I remember that trip in detail. Getting on the bus in Hartford. Switching buses in Providence. Buying cigs from a machine and smoking Kent cigs.
With this emotion and knowledge I knew that vacations would be important for our kids. My parents couldn't afford much travel, but my bride and I could. We focused on the US and mostly cities. We took our kids to NYC, Boston, Miami, Florida Gulf, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Austin, KC, Chicago, New Orleans, Denver, LA, San Diego, Seattle. We also took them to Mexico, Bahamas and Europe. There is no better education than travel. NONE. It not only provides knowledge, it also provides wisdom, that the world is large, and exploring it is exciting.
These are the posts I love. Thank you.
Mama, I collect S&H Green stamps and A&P Plaid Stamps. My mom would just give them to me to put in the books and let me buy what I wanted. I was the kid who would go w/ her to the store and laundromat to help and that was my reward. I got my first pair of Ray Bans @ age 16 w/ Plaid Stamps. Been wearing those classic black Ray Bans since then.
"collected" I doubt they still exist.
Nick said: My parents understood, on a profound level, it is a parents job to make themselves obsolete
This is a truth that all parents need to learn.
If you do your job right, your children will grow up to be independent, functioning, contributing individual beings. Doesn't mean you are cut out of their lives, but as a parent you need to realize that at some point your job is done as the parent role. You can then move on into other roles of friend, confidant, grandparent. The best was when I realized my parents were probably my best friends, the people I could relate to best and we interacted like adults without the parent child dynamic. Just equals and friends who shared a lifetime of memories.
A bus ride I remember vividly was from Jackson Mississippi to Greenwood, at the age of 9, solo. We were in Jackson visiting my mother's family, then they sent me to visit my paternal grandparents up the road a piece.
Nine years old, ridin' the bus, all by myself. Wasn't lookin' for America, but I did see a lot of The Delta while lookin' out of that Greyhound window.
Buses used to be a thing, I guess. On a bus ride from central Maryland to Woodstock Virginia I fell in with a group of soldiers bound for, well, it was '67, so we can imagine what their ultimate destination was, and they taught me how to shoot craps. Kids these days are so sheltered...
@ndspinelli/
S&H Green Stamps. LORD YES!! My Mother collected them religiously as a very middle-middle class of two school-teachers. Oh. and Ray-Bans. When I was in college (62-66) a new pair cost $26 dollars! I know because I had two; a bronze translucent pair and a dark red translucent pair. The cost today? Some 200/pair plus, no?
One of the best posts we've had here.
Ever.
Sixty, Now only ex convicts and semi homeless ride Greyhound. I routinely took Frank Martz Trailways from Wilkes-Barre to New Haven, changing buses @ Port Authority in Manhattan, when I was in school. Loved the journey. I often enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Sometimes even more.
virgil, I bet your frugal mom, when people @ the supermarket didn't want their stamps after checking out, would politely ask if she could take them. My mom was like a hawk, never missing an opportunity for extra stamps.
ed, AGREED!!
You're welcome!
Chick, I'm fond of the late Fifties Fairlane:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/1958_Ford_Fairlane_XDG821_2.jpg
My sis and I used to take the Greyhound about an hour away, probably longer with the stops, to see our Grandmother. It felt cool to be on our own 'traveling.'
And you were safe then.
Back before the criminals had rights.
Yes.
The more you know.
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