by Diver Dave
Design by Billie
Okay, class. Summer vacation is over and Autumn has arrived. Your assignment today is to tell the class about your summer vacation. You may make it as long or as short as you wish.
Now to get things started, I’ll go first. My story however has a little different twist to it.
Long before Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA”, our family began a summer vacation that has since always been referred to as, “The Trip.”
"See the USA in your Chevrolet"
Hopefully, some will remember that tune from the Dinah Shore television show from the fabulous fifties. As that tune has now re-entered your mind and kindled memories of days of old, it sets the stage for what follows.
A few short years before that tune made its way into the living rooms of America, our family did just that. We loaded up the old ’47 Chevy and started our journey from our home in Spokane, WA. Our primary destination would take us over the rivers and through lots of woods to Grandma’s house in Foley, Alabama. Who knows, perhaps we inspired the words of the song in the commercial?
Diver Dave on his mom's lap,with sisters Elice, Helen,
and Ruth. Dave's twin brother Dan is on his dad's lap.
The family pet, a copper-colored Cocker Spaniel, is named Rusty.
The year was 1951. Don and I had just graduated from kindergarten. Dad, Mom and our three older sisters began our journey on “The Trip.”
Dad made a special carrier that mounted on the roof of the car. It held luggage, a large tent, sleeping bags for all, and camping gear. With a brand new DeJur 8mm movie camera, “The Trip” would be recorded for many years of enjoyment.
Dad had 4 brothers and 8 sisters and plans were made to visit all of them save Uncle Harry who passed away a few years earlier. Dad once told a young boy at church that there were 5 boys in his family and each one of them had 8 sisters. It must have impressed him, because he commented, “WOW! 40 kids.”
“The Trip” would take us through 26 of the 48 states plus the District of Columbia. Join with me if you would as we travel through time and present a tour of America through the eyes of a 6 year-old. We will travel from sea to shining sea, through those amber waves of grain. We’ll see the purple mountains’ majesty and cross the fruited plain. Keep in mind, this is a few years before the interstate highway program started, so a lot of the roads are going to be narrow two-lane highways. This trip will last 2 ½ months. No ozone-killing Freon air- conditioning in this car. The air conditioning in this care was either 4 windows down or the round cylinder thingy mounted on the passenger side window. Ice would be placed inside the cylinder and as the air flowed through the openings, cool air filled the car. We had no tape-player or CD. The radio is an old tube type AM- only radio with one speaker buried in the dashboard. Oldest sister Helen became the family choir director and led us in songs to pass the time and provide some entertainment.
It was too early in history to count slug-bugs, so we would play “I Spy” games. Spotting and naming license plates was one of the games, and Dad came up with another game. Whenever anyone spotted a white horse along the route, they would holler out “Slopski.” Don’t ask how that name got attached to white horses, but it did manage to pass the time on “The Trip.”
First stop on the agenda will be Seattle. The 300 mile trip to Seattle always means a visit to the Woodland Park Zoo. Also we will stop by the Ballard Locks to watch the boats and ships pass through the locks from Puget Sound to Lake Washington.
 On the road again, we head down old 99 and stop to tour the capitol grounds in Olympia. Back in those days, the capitol and dome were white. This visit to Olympia will set a precedent. As routing permits, we will visit many state capitols.
Next stop, Salem, capitol of Oregon. Overnight camping along a riverbank in Oregon.
Back on the road, we stop to visit Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox at the Trees of Mystery in Northern California. Giant redwoods as big around as a car and tall enough to tickle the clouds. With a Trees of Mystery sign attached to the bumper, we head south on Highway 101 to visit more family in Pittsburg, CA.
Next stop, Long Beach, and Orange, CA to visit more family. Imagine if you would, Orange, CA without all the houses. Grove after grove of orange trees. The trees of Long Beach looked rather peculiar as I remember. Derricks and oil wells all over the place. No trip to Southern California would be complete without going to the beach. Swimming in the ocean for the first time and finding out how salty that water tastes - yuk. Hard to imagine a trip to California without visiting Disneyland or Dodger Stadium. ‘Fraid it was too early in history for that.
Next up, the most boring part of the trip. ("HEYYYYY! Watch it!" ~ Billie LOL) Hundreds and hundreds of miles of desert, cactus, sand, rocks and sagebrush as we head east to Beaumont, TX. The oil fields of California were nothing compared to what we saw in Texas. Could this be the official state tree of Texas? Driving late at night we could see the flames coming from the smoke stacks of the oil refineries in East Texas. We were about to receive a taste of that famous southern hospitality as we arrived at our destination in Beaumont. At a family picnic, we got our first taste of fricassee chicken.
Time to load up the car and hit the road again as we drive through Louisiana and cross the mighty Mississippi enroute to Grandma’s house near the Gulf Coast of Alabama. We spent 2-3 weeks at Grandma’s with side trips to Mobile, Fort Morgan, and day trip over to Pensacola. Shrimp boats cruise by us in the canal while we were catfishing. That prompted sister Helen to break out in song - “Shrimp Boats Are Coming Their Sails Are In Sight….” A day at the beach in the Gulf created some fears for this little critter. As I looked down in the water, I saw a crab crawling on the bottom near my feet. I was sure my toes were gonna be his next meal. A quick exit to the safety of the beach brought tears of laughter from everyone but me.
 Evenings became pretty special for these kids from the northwest. We had never before seen fireflies. Many a night we would run around trying to catch them in a jar that Grandma gave us. Sisters Ruth and Elice took their jar to bed with them to see if the lightnin’ bugs would light up the bedroom at night.
We say our good-byes to the Deep South and we make our way towards Portsmouth, VA. We do the tourist thing along the way as we pass by cotton fields and large tobacco farms. Large statues and monuments to early American heroes seem to be everywhere. The Great Smoky Mountains prompt the singing of “On Top of Old Smokey.” A trip to Virginia Beach meant we had the opportunity to swim and play in the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.
We visit our nations capitol, Washington DC and a lot of the many surrounding sites. A trip to the Capitol brings out a new version of “On Top of Old Smokey” from my sister. With what would normally amount to a good mouth washing with soap from Mom, it created too many laughs for any punishment. Her new version…
"On Top of Old Smokey,
All covered with Grass.
There sat Harry Truman,
A scratchin’ his ..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even at my young age, it was exciting to see the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. We ventured to Mount Vernon to see the home of the Father of our Country, George Washington. Nice digs, but I’d sure hate to have to mow that lawn.
We leave the greater Washington DC area and make our way towards Oshkosh and Neenah, Wisconsin. Neenah was the home of a sweater manufacturing business started by my Great-Grandfather in the late 1800’s and it was cool to see the building with our last name painted on the side. While in Oshkosh, we see an old horse drawn milk wagon making its way through the residential neighborhoods.
We’re on the road once again to visit family in Peoria, Rockford and Chicago.
After our brief time in Illinois, it’s off to Minnesota. We arrive at harvest time and it was pretty neat to see all the farmers helping one another. There was a threshing machine set up in the field and the farmers would bring in trailer after trailer loaded with Cherrios in the rough. Big old John Deere tractors pulling the trailers and one hooked up to the threshing machine. It had a large long belt stretching from the tractor to the thresher. Once they finished with the harvest at my uncle’s place, the moved everything down the road to the next farm. As luck would have it, my uncle’s tractor broke down. No problem. He just brought out his team of horses and off he went to spend the day in the fields.
After visiting family in Minnesota, we set out on our long journey home. We do the tourist thing and visit Mt. Rushmore. A trip to Yellowstone National Park was exciting as we saw the deer and bears near the roadway. The bears had no fear of these people in the cars. They just knew that they had food for them. I think we saw Yogi sticking his head in the window of a car ahead of us. We didn’t have to wait long to see Old Faithful send forth her geyser of steam.
Our journey comes to an end while driving through the panhandle of Idaho. The call sign, “This is KXLY - Spokane” heard over the radio brings cheers from the back seat of the car. One of the last views on the home movies is a sunset taken from our backyard. Ahhh, Home again but the memories linger a lifetime.
Over the 2 ½ month journey, we logged over 10,000 miles. The radiator over-heated once with no damage, and we suffered only one flat tire. Mom managed to catch the eye of a state trooper somewhere along the way when she got a warning ticket for driving a small few MPH over the limit. Oh, the horrors.
On “The Trip,” we drove though many of the wildwoods of this country and on Sunday would often attend services at “The Little Brown Church In the Glens.”
I will always be grateful for the introduction to these great United States at such a young age. Home movies have preserved “The Trip” for even more lasting memories. We got to meet all of our cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course, Grandma. Grandma passed away the following year.
As the words of that song stated, “…America’s the Greatest Land of All…” we can only add, “Amen!”
Diver Dave's grandsons, left to right, Logan and Christian
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