Looking back at some of my most memorable childhood moments, many of them are ties to vacations and travel. In the 1950s and early 60s, I had two aunts and a grandfather who lived in Cincinnati and across the river in Covington KY. My Dad’s sister and family lived in a Cincinnati suburb and my Mom’s Dad and sister lived across the river. A summer visit was always on the schedule, usually in July. Mind you, this was before the interstate system was completed so it was a five hour trip down the old US 52 highway through all those little towns from Shelbyville to Harrison, Ohio. Oh, and our cars didn’t have air conditioning, or even a radio. These were not standard items and my Mom wouldn’t pay extra to have them included. While on the highway we would roll the rear seat windows down, which would create a mini tornado where my sister and I were riding. I didn’t think anything of it, because I didn’t know any better.
In 1961, the family planned a trip to Miami, Florida. My Dad’s brother and wife lived in Hialeah and my mom had a life-long friend who lived in Ft. Lauderdale with her family. Dad bought a 1961 Dodge Pioneer station wagon. It was powered by a V6 engine because it was less expensive. A trip to Florida would take three days and two nights on the road. The interstates were in the first stages of construction, so driving was mainly on federal or state two lane highways.
Mom wanted to leave at about 5 a.m. The though of all that truck traffic and speeding cars left her unable to sleep. We got breakfast in Louisville. Things went well until we reached the outside of Scottsville, Kentucky. The car started jerking and would not respond to the gas pedal. We stopped in front of a farm house. The family called a mechanic who came and tried to adjust the car. He needed to take it to his shop in Scottsville. He pushed us with his truck to his garage. Scottsville would play a big part in my married life because the boss had relatives (grandparents and great-grandparents buried there) but I didn’t know this at the time. The mechanic said it was the transmission and replaced some parts and put in new fluid. We left Scottsville, but we were already two days behind.
We got to Gatlin, Tennessee and the car started doing the same thing. There was a Dodge dealership in Gatlin and they worked on the car. They discovered the transmission was faulty and needed total replacement. It was under warranty and they honored it, but it took three days and that put us nearly a week behind. It also bit into our travel money with extra expense we did not count on. Mom wanted to return home but Dad worked things out and we continued. Poor dad had to drive a marathon run through Tennessee, Georgia and Florida but we got to Miami even though dad was exhausted. It did not seem to me that I had experienced such heat as I did on that trip through the South. (Again no car air conditioning.) We did have a wonderful time and our trip home went as planned. When I now travel I thank goodness for air conditioning!