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The Rand McNally atlas was dog eared and faded… some of the pages torn. When my father sat down at the kitchen table with it, a yellow legal pad, and a pencil, I knew vacation time was near.
He was meticulous in figuring out the route we would take, calculating miles, and how long it would take to get there. (This was WAY before Google Maps or Waze.) My mom and I packed our Volkswagen camper bus and he insisted on leaving at 2am. An ungodly time of day to do anything but sleep. Why do men do that?
My mom was a real trooper. My dad was just crazy.
But! Before I tell you about vacation, let me explain my love for Volkswagen.
There’s the iconic advertising.
The initial advertising for Volkswagen was beyond brilliant. The “Lemon” ad above was created in 1959 by Manhattan ad agency Doyle Dane Bernback, a giant in the industry. Their messaging stood above the ad clutter, capitalizing on white space and featuring fun copy.
In researching this column, I discovered Dustin Hoffman did this commercial in 1966… he was 5’ 6” and 29 years old. Who knew! 😂
And most people remember the Wilt Chamberlain commercial… so good!
I learned how to drive in a bug just like this one!
So… back to vacation. Loading up our camper with groceries. snacks, clothes, bedding, and my dad’s camera equipment, he would drive us from Illinois to California, stopping now and then for bathroom breaks.
Not having money for hotels or restaurants, we camped and drove. And drove. And drove some more. Turns out dear old dad got his hands on some “uppers” called white cross. Little white pills that would keep him awake for the endless and empty drive across Missouri and Kansas.
I’m glad we didn’t die. 😳
So we didn’t have to stop very often, mom made sandwiches, cookies she had baked packed in Tupperware, and a brown paper grocery bag full of popcorn that she popped before we hit the road. You get resourceful when there isn’t a lot of money.
The VW camper back then was pretty ingenious in its design. It had a “refrigerator” that held a block of ice to keep things cool. There was a sink, a table that folded out with benches where you could have a meal, lots of little storage places, and a bed that folded out from vinyl bench seats.
You can see the inside of the camper a little bit here. Don’t be blinded by my plaids and checks! 😂
When we did stop at a campground or picnic area, my mom was masterful at cooking outdoors. Bacon, eggs, and toast. Fried pork chops and boiled potatoes. That little Coleman cookstove was all she needed.
My mom in her headscarf, cooking breakfast on the Coleman stove.
We saw national parks like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Zion, and Banff. We stopped at roadside fruit stands for juicy nectarines. And driving along California’s Route 1 in the 60’s was especially fun… lots of “hippies” who thought we were cool in our VW camper bus. Of course, my Dad had to embarrass us by giving them a peace sign. ✌️ Whatta geek.
Clearly I’ve been a Volkswagen girl for a long time, looking quite dapper here!
These two week family trips were fairly happy times, when my dad seemed more at ease and calm, less angry and stressed. (Maybe it was the amphetamines! 😂) Do you have stories about family vacations? Share them with me. And thanks for letting me share mine with you!
My Army dad was stationed in France when I was 6 to 9 years old. Not long after we moved there they traded in the station wagon for a red and white Volkswagen van. They packed up two adults and five kids and all the camping gear and food and everything else we needed for that crowd in and on top of that van, and we camp-traveled all over Europe whenever my dad got a vacation. All done on a shoestring, and yes, my mom did amazing things with a Coleman cookstove too!
This brought back lovely memories for me. Most of our road trips were in a Oldsmobile sedan, but my Dad bought a VW bus in the late 60s, so there were many travel adventures in that as well. He had it for quite a long time. My favorite memory of that car is that he would say to my nephew (then 3), "Let's go to the moon!", and they'd get in the front seats, buckle up, and my Dad would take Dan into outer space, narrating everything they were seeing. It made both of them, and us, so happy.