Road-Tripping to the Midwest in the American Station Wagon
Growing up during the heyday of a classic car.
Anyone familiar with the station wagons of the past remembers some pretty sweet road-tripping experiences across America in the “acres of steel and miles of chrome.” They came in two sizes, big and bigger, and they were “designed for families living it up on a budget.”
My parents owned a dark brown 1972 Chevrolet Impala station wagon when I was little. We traveled in that station wagon from Pennsylvania to Indiana to visit my grandparents. My parents took turns driving so we wouldn't have to break up the trip into multiple days.
When my dad announced the departure time the evening prior, we all knew that really meant we needed to be ready and in the car a good half hour beforehand. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that extreme, but I remember thinking, Why bother setting a time!?
"Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable!" —Eric Jerome Dickey
We always departed from home while it was practically still nighttime. The rear floor of the wagon was completely flat; my brother and I put our sleeping bags there so we could crawl in and go back to sleep. Riding in the very back area felt like we were floating down the road in a world all our own, and at that time of day we mostly were.