Road Trip, or Chasing Family Shades Across America

On June 8th, 1951, my maternal grandparents and my mother (and maybe my great aunt) set out on a road trip from Ashland, PA (the land of my ancestors) to Los Angeles and back. The main goal of the trip was to visit my uncle Bud in Los Angeles, but there were a great many stops and tourist activities both out and back. The trip spanned June 8th to July 11th. 

The first page of my grandfather's notes on their road trip

My grandfather meticulously typed out all of his notes for each day of the trip, after they got home I assume. He was an engineer and I guess he had a very keen eye for detail and data. A few observations about this very first page: how did he account for the single extra mile? When he wrote "loaded with luggage and things," he definitely was not kidding, as I know my maternal grandmother liked to travel in style. I recall, even for a two week trip to the Jersey Shore when I was a kid, that she would pack an entire steamer trunk and several hat boxes. She and my father got into a heated exchange one year when she insisted on bringing her mink stole. Of course, she won out, as she always did. Also, charming how it was notable that they had sandwiches at 11 pm, and that probably two motel rooms totaled $14 (roughly equivalent to $140 now). 

An old postcard of the Roof Garden Motel in Somerset. Long gone, but there remains a Roof Garden Market in Somerset, maybe on the same property. 

My maternal grandmother's side of the family came from money as they say,she was older she was basically penniless. I know that her father, my maternal great grandfather, was a lawyer in New York. But I know little else. My maternal grandfather was well paid, I remember hearing. He was, I think, a mining engineer. I remember that their house in Ashland was large and seemed to front some of the trappings of being upper middle class. But whatever the money situation was, that side of the family seems to have lost it all. I hope they enjoyed themselves while losing it. I do know that the final tally for the lodging and meals for this particular road trip was $900, which had the same purchasing power as $8,700 today. 

I don't know why my uncle was in LA, but it turns out his apartment was only about 4 miles from my first apartment in LA, so cue eerie music. He also struggled with alcoholic drinking his whole life. He seemed like a good guy, but he also seemed kind hapless and out of it a lot of the time. I never got to know him very well. When I was younger, I found it very peculiar that he and my Aunt Lila lived under the same roof, in Hatboro PA, but never slept in the same room. 

I never met my maternal grandfather, as he died before I was born. I think he died of emphysema in his late 50's, but I'm not certain. My mother has occasionally mentioned that he was a party guy, drank and smoked a lot, and wrote tin pan alley tunes. I have the original sheet music for one of his ditties and I'll have to scan and post it sometime. 

A trip all the way across the country with no interstates, no chain fast food, no chain hotels. How strange to think of an America where almost all business was local business, everywhere. Gasoline, of course, had become franchised, but that was about it. It looks like the average speed every day was maybe 50 mph. I want to know which car they were in. I think my mother was 18. I know she has said she was quite unhappy about the trip, and spent the entire time pining for my father, who was 19.