Historical May 1977 family travel column. Original advice and child-related practices are period source material, not current safety guidance.
Last year we reached our summer vacation spot by motoring fifteen straight hours with four children aged 6½, 5, 2½, and 9 months — not my favorite way to travel! So, in the hopes that another family might benefit from our experiience, I offer a few ideas that helped to ease the tensions and boredom for us.
As person in charge of entertainment I operated from a plastic laundry basket. Into this I stashed zip-lock bags to hold my tricks and prevent a lot of rummaging. I tried to ration the new gimmicks according to the current level of ennui. The basket also contained a tape recorder and tapes of some of the children’s favorite records, (Scott Joplin was soothing; taped stories had no appeal).
Among those laundry basket gimmicks which worked were:
A set of kazoos, silly putty — we invented a game with this: players took turns pressing the putty onto something and letting the others guess the source of the impression.
Baby toys — the trick here was to find an assortment of things she’d never seen. She enjoyed a collection of kitchen gadgets from Target and she also liked a cloth which I had decorated with buttons, bells, keys, large rubber bands, rings, all securely attached.
Individual sacks with a tablet of paper, crayons and a sticker book for the older children.
A few new books and some from the library. U. City library has a good one on games to play in the car — Mom and Dad have to provide the enthusiasm to keep car games going.
Paper sacks for each child for cleanup.
Gummed strips for making paper chains.
Some safety suckers, crackers, and small chocolates for moments of crisis.
A few inexpensive novelties.
Wipe N Dipes, paper towels, not to mention Pampers and a change of clothes for the baby.
I’d recommend individual size cans of juice rather than a cooler or thermos for drinks en route. It’s tedious handing out filled cups upon demand.
We left St. Louis at 3 a.m. The children had gone to bed all dressed, we stashed shoes in the car the night before. After the initial excitement of leaving, the children settled down until around 6 a.m. Then I passed around dry granola in cups, juice and rolls. After breakfast there was a period of adjustment: “How long till we’re there?” “Not `til it starts to get dark,” “What can we do now?” and so on. Eventually the children seemed resigned to spending a long day in the car and they behaved with amazing patience. They all slept after our picnic lunch and we also found that the quick stops for gasoline really helped lift sagging spirits.
This year we will probably make the same trip and I won’t forget to pack a bottle of aspirin. We’ll be faced with the additional challenge of traveling with a two year old. Anyone got any tips???
Originally published in The Paper, May 1977.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1977_05.pdf, printed page(s) 9; PDF page(s) 9.
