It was 1976. I had been working since 1963 and never took an extended vacation. I had not been entitled to more than 2 weeks vacation in a calendar year. Each year I would take a full week and then milk individual days until my vacation was used up. By 1976 I had more than 3 weeks vacation elgibility. So in June of ’76, your mom and I decided to venture west with 4 kids. Debs was 15, Kelly 14, Chris 12 and Paul turned 4 while on our trip.
The goal was to head west to California and see significant sights. Because the older kids were approaching graduation from high school, it seemed appropriate to go now. Wagon ho!
I had just purchased a 1976 Chevrolet Impala Station Wagon with a huge 400 cubic inch V-8 engine and a tailgate that disappeared under the floor of the back deck. We bought a car carrier for the top of the car. The idea was to load as much luggage and “stuff” on top the car as possible and then you kids could sleep and stretch out in the back of the car. There were times we thought about putting several kids on top of the car.
In ’76, Citizens Band (CB’s) radios were popular with truckers. If you tuned to channel 19, truckers would banter about almost anything and you could join in the conversation if you’d like. I figured that if I bought a CB, I would be constantly alerted to where all the “smokeys” (state police) were located and I could avoid traffic tickets. We needed to pick a handle (our own CB identification name). I don’t know if Chris picked the name or we did it together. We were the Rusty Zipper. Our car was a rust colored and yep, we “zipped along”. You guys thought it meant something else!
The plan was to leave in mid-June and get back to Wisconsin around the 4th of July. The planning involved eventually getting to Los Angeles and going to Disney. At that time, Disney World in Florida did not exist. We were going to “the” Disney. Along the way, if we could, Shelby had an Uncle and some cousins in California. I had my Uncle Jerry (Grandma Alice’s brother). We planned destinations about 2-3 days in advance and made all hotel reservations as we traveled west. All motels had to have a good rating by “AAA” and most important, a swimming pool. Each day, we would normally stop traveling around 4-5 PM in the afternoon so that every one could go swimming. My guess is that you kids remember certain pools as being better than others.
Now let me check! Credit cards? Yep. Traveler Checks? Yep. Cash? Yep. AAA maps? Yep. Mom in the car and ready? Yep. Four kids in car varified by count? Yep. A clear mind? Nope! If we had a clear mind we wouldn’t be doing this. We were off!
Westward Ho! Fun! Fun! Fun!
More next time. If you have special memories, let me know and I’ll include them in my epic blog. Margaret is excluded because she hadn’t arrived at the party yet. It would be another 16 months. She might remember stories however.
Love,
Dad