Life's Simple Pleasure...And Things of the Past

[slow&rusty]

I don't consider myself old (in my 40s) but when I chat with my younger co-workers and friends who have kids, I go back to the days when we would pile into my Dad's car and just go for a drive for fun not because we had to rush here or rush there. It was simple and yet so memorable.

Its amazing that today, people and families no longer or VERY rarely do that.

[billybek]

Most likely because people spend so much time behind the wheel and because traffic sucks the life out of you and fun out of driving.

Our family did the same thing when I was young. Drive out to the airport or the mountains. Spontaneous pile everyone in the car and lets go.

Simpler times.

[wdfifteen]

We never took a drive - gas cost too much (25 cents a gallon).
We never took family vacations. We were dairy farmers and the cost of hiring someone to milk the cows had to be added to all other vacation costs.
All we ever did together was work, and I don't think it hurt me much.

[petrolhead611]

Yep, I remember going out in the car with my parents and sister for cream teas on sunny Sunday sfternoos..
Now it's difficult to find a proper cream tea, and if you do succeed it will be spendy.

[Tervuren]

I grew up with perhaps less than half a year being spent "at home".

Generally some motel/hotel somewhere in the country was "home" for a few days to a few weeks, then back "home", unpack, repack, and off to the next worksite.

[Jolly Amaranto]

While my family was living on Guam back in the 60s, the family car was a Sunbeam Alpine. With the top down there was sort of room behind the front seats for my brother and I to ride. If we had to put the top up, it got real cozy. We were always driving around to explore some corner of the island where we had never been. Always up for an adventure. Here my brother and I are tucked in to our compartment.

[R K T]

This might be one reason people don't go for a fun ride.

[pwd72s]

Gas prices, traffic, road money going to mass transit, etc. Certainly not much fun about driving these days. The car hating politicians are winning the battle...

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by slow&rusty

It was simple and yet so memorable.

Its amazing that today, people and families no longer or VERY rarely do that.

Daughter had business in DC yesterday and decided to come home for the weekend...I picked her up at the Branch Ave Metro at 1400 and we decided to take the long way home.

All back roads once we hit the right spot; she did the lions share of the talking concerning work, relationships, family, etc. As a father I have learned the value of shutting the f up. I recommend it...they love us but want to tell us what is on their mind.

As long as I live the best hours have been spent driving and talking, from family trips at six to cross country jogs with the family at 60.

Great post Slow and Rusty.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Zeke

That is sure true here in SoCal. I used to love to hit the road. Now I loathe to try and leave.

aint that the true? My wife do not leave the house after she drop the kids off at school. After 9:30 then she runs her errands and will not touch the fwy after 2. I have the luxury of doing the same thing except I sometimes leaves early. We have early morning traffic. I am talking about 6pm, when you driver near town.

We still go out for a long drive and have dinner somewhere like Palms Springs or go out and have a picnic in the San Gabriel Mts

[RWebb]

chipping that obsidian to make a perfect arrow head...

[Sooner or later]

We would take day trips.

I can remember Dad loading us up to drive a new section of I44 to eat at a new restaurant. That was in early 1964 so I was 10. Somehow it made quite an impression.

[VincentVega]

Originally Posted by look 171

We still go out for a long drive and have dinner somewhere like Palms Springs or go out and have a picnic in the San Gabriel Mts

That sounds pretty cool. I remember finding a good pizza spot east of San Diego, seemed in the middle of nowhere. I need to find places like that around here. I have to admit I'm pretty burned out from the daily commute to want to drive anywhere most weekends.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by RWebb

chipping that obsidian to make a perfect arrow head...

Outdoors is so passe.

Now we plug into the left brain-stem port to mainline the info whenever microwave wireless speeds are not up to par.
Or rather take all those 'problems of others' with us in the form of a small lit card everywhere.
24/7 on duty to fix the internet.

The new world worker brain was not intended to shut down and recompile (aka heal).

[Scott Douglas]

I used to go for a drive when I was in school and needed to get away. I used to love to drive long distance, by myself. No radio on, no tape, no CD. Just the car and me, myself and I. I can still do 5 hour stretches at a time when I have to. Living where I do you either get up really early to miss all the traffic trying to get out of town, or you just don't go at all. With the price of gas now days it's usually the later.

[wildthing]

I go for a drive ALONE! That's my alone time. Saturday mornings at 7... @recreationaluberdriver on Instagram.

[Hugh R]

Cheapest I ever paid for gas during a "gas war" in Oak Ridge, TN was $0.17.9/gallon, I had a 59 Bel Aire that I bought for $45, and it burned a quart of oil about every 50 miles, I used to buy "rebuilt" oil for something like $0.25/quart, I new it was cheap stuff but I figured it would only be in the engine less than an hour.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

but I figured it would only be in the engine less than an hour.

LOL, uncomplicated times. We wer'nt made to feel guilty for every second thing we did.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

So much truth in all of the above. Driving used to be about enjoyment, now it’s basically a drudgery. Too many incompetent people, too much traffic, too many rules, too much BS... it’s become all about money - who’s liable for what and how to keep people paying and paying and paying for the “privilege” of sitting in that traffic, being tracked 24/7 with cameras everywhere and all the rest of it. Gas prices, insurance, car prices, e-tolling springing up everywhere, absurd computerized everything that makes simple repairs cost hundreds of dollars, etc.

There are still a few places where you can go to feel free and like it’s actually still enjoyable but who has time to go?

I drive very little now and don’t really miss it. I do miss the memories of when it used to be fun many years ago. I think those days are gone though. I doubt many kids now have many “just for fun” memories of driving - it’s all “have to get there” stuff.

[tabs]

When a youngin we used to go for Sunday drives one Sunday on Wilshire we saw Liz Taylor and then hubby Eddie Fisher in a 57 Belair Turquoise blue sedan next to us at a stop light. We wave they wave and we went on our way.