JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: Long Driving Trips in Days of Old
By Jim “Pappy” Moore
When I was a kid we would take a trip of 5000 miles every two years, to Idaho and back via many states there and back. 2 adults, 4 kids, no air conditioning. Summer driving across Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona. “Don’t make me pull over” was the phrase that got every kid’s attention.
We were headed for a two week stay at my mother’s parents home up in Idaho, in a quaint little town on the Snake River. Yours truly would be sleeping on the floor for sure those two weeks. Most of the time going and coming, too.
We were a family of six. Mama, Daddy, a girl, a boy, a second girl, and a third girl. Cars were bigger inside in those days of the 1950s and 1960s. No one wore seat belts. We didn’t have an air conditioner in our car. When it was hot outside, it was hot inside. Really hot.
We made the trip by racking up 500 road miles a day there, and 500 road miles a day on the way back, meandering along the way to see various relatives in West Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Washington state, Oregon, California, and Arizona. We would spend nearly a month on the road, drive 5000 miles in the hot summer, and only stay in a motel one or two nights. Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and friends along the way there and back would put us up for the night. This was how family did it back then.
Seats covered with clear plastic that was hot as hell in summer. Daddy had to have those put on as soon as he bought a new car (every few years). Had to make sure those seats didn’t get any wear or tear because that would hurt the trade-in value. Daddy wanted to “make good time” and “get good gas mileage. And if you had to pee, or we needed gas, or food, it had to be on the right side of the highway. He was not gonna stop on the OTHER side of the highway. Mama would make coffee in the motel in the morning and pour it into a big thermos. He and Mama would sip coffee as needed all day. Lunch was made with sandwich stuff picked up about 12 pm, and sandwiches were made on the side of the road, preferably at a park or roadside park.
Mama would get us some little games and puzzles to keep us occupied. There were learning decks of cards that had various kinds of successes, like authors and such. Same for historical figures. You’d learn history and literature as you played “go fish” with things like authors and presidents. Then there was the LIST of State Car Tags. We kids would keep a look out for those and write down each state tag we saw. Then there was the game where each child sat quietly and intently, looking at license tags and road signs and billboards for the alphabet, in ORDER. My older sister and I were the only two really in the competition. We would announce our completion upon seeing the last letter, usually on a Speed Zone sign, as we got Z. Invariably, the sister who was 4 years younger than me would blurt out “where did you get the J??” Or sometimes it was “the Q”.
As the only boy, I knew that if anyone got a whipping, it was gonna be me. Even then girls were not held to as high a standard as boys. Man, I wouldn’t take anything for those summer trips. We got to see Mesa Verde, Salt Lake, Yellowstone, Knotts Berry Farm, Grand Tetons, Yosemite, Giant Sequoias, and so on. Our trip took 4 weeks, and you can guess who got to sleep on a pallet on the floor any time that was required (especially at cheap motels).
What a life it was, though, all due to my parents’ work ethic and dedication to saving money for that trip to see Grandma and Grandpa every two summers up in Idaho. It was always cool there compared to Texas. Back then it was standard procedure that when traveling kinfolk stopped to visit, the host family would put my mama and daddy sleeping in one of the kid’s beds/bedroom. Kids got moved to a sofa, or cot, or floor. Adults were treated to the bed. Kids were lower on the totem pole. That was the law of family behavior in those days. Now every child’s room is their shrine, and no one would dream of moving them out of it for a night for adults visiting. Nowadays, the cult of the child has taken over. It’s ridiculous. Parents knocking on the door and asking permission from the child to come in? Not in that world, where kids had to have respect for their elders or pay the price.
We didn’t know when we had it so good. Those trips were awesome because Mama and Daddy made them awesome. They kept us engaged on the road, learning as we traveled, and got us to see many sights and many people. I cannot thank them enough.
Copyright 2025, Jim “Pappy” Moore.
