The Long Trip West

 Last Wednesday, I started the Journal of our Journeys. This week, I take a look even farther back, back before I was officially part of the family. I missed out on a great trip, but at least I got to hear the stories. 

Chapter 2 - "The California Trip"

Before I was born, but a few months after I was conceived, the rest of my immediate family took what is now known as the "Trip to California." Because I wasn't there (not really), I may never understand why this trip still lives on so strongly in family history. But ask any of the surviving members, and they will get this look on their faces as if they are savoring some delicious German chocolate.

It was the summer of 1961. My sister Pat had just turned two years old and had long honey-colored hair and bangs. Her body was round with baby fat, making her look too short and pudgy to be able to walk. There was always an innocent smile on her face.

My brother Tom and other sister Judy would have been 15 and 13, respectively. They were good kids, by most accounts, passed down over the years, but times were different then, and most kids were classified as "good." Especially if compared to today's adolescents.

Mom, in her mid-30s, was still thin. I've analyzed trip pictures and sure couldn't tell she was pregnant. As was the fashion for women of the day, she usually wore dresses, often even while camping. Her hair was permed and all brown, with no gray showing through. She wore cat-eye glasses, which were only slightly less fashionable than Judy's.

Dad had jet-black hair and was heavier than in later years. But he was never overweight, just muscular, solid. Though quiet and unassuming, he still carried a debonair air about him, which none of his kids inherited. When you could get him to smile, or he had a good cribbage hand, only one side of his mouth lifted mischievously.

The vehicle they drove on this trip had been a mystery to me for many years. The family referred to it with great affection - The Greenbrier. I always, for some bizarre reason, pictured that it had to be green, and could never figure out why, when looking at home movies, I never saw them drive anything green.

Then, one day, when looking more closely at one of these 8mm movies, I noticed the maroon and white van, which resembled a VW bus, had an emblem on its side, which appeared to be the word "Greenbrier.” I was amazed as well as humbled.

Why did I think the green in the title came from its color? Greenbrier was only the name of the model made by Chevrolet. This maroon vehicle with a white stripe took center stage in a great many home movies of the time, so it only made sense that it was the Greenbrier of California trip fame.

Chevrolet introduced the Greenbrier Sportswagon in 1961, and Mom and Dad must have gone right out and bought one. It was modeled after the VW bus, which began production in 1950 and was very popular. Surprisingly, in road tests, the Chevrolet wagon proved to have more power than the Volkswagen, but like the German vehicle, it had its engine in the rear. Production of the Greenbrier was discontinued in December 1964, part way into the 1965 model. In all, a total of 57,986 had been produced, and there still are a few on the road.

But I do have to admit, the new VW bus, known as the Buzz, is absolutely adorable. Unfortunately, it is only available in an electric model (I won't get into my thoughts on that here, though). (Oh, and it is also way out of my price range.)

Dad, being ever inventive, built beds in the Greenbrier for sleeping. Thus, Mom and Pat slept in the Greenbrier, while Dad, Tom, and Judy slumbered in the tent.

The tent could be a whole story in itself. It was certainly not today's nylon dome model. Instead, it was an "umbrella tent" named such because of a pole that stood in the middle, rods thrusting out of it supporting the ceiling. It was an old canvas creature of military issue, drab olive green, heavy, and smelly. And when it was wet – it was even smellier.

I remember the tent well because, after its important role in the California trip, it resided for years, wrapped in rope, taking up a lot of room in the space above our garage. Occasionally, it would still go camping, but more commonly, Dad pitched it in the backyard as a fort for Pat and me. Unfortunately, Mom was scared to let us sleep in it because bears occasionally wandered through our yard.

The sleeping bags they used were just as weighty, malodourous, and the same olive green. Dad must have gotten a deal on camping equipment at the Army surplus store.

Other than that, I don't know what they took with them, what route they drove, or how long they were gone. They covered a lot of ground, traveling through Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, Oregon. They also drove through the mountains and through a giant sequoia in Yosemite, literally. They ate their meals outside and brushed their teeth outside. They frolicked in the Pacific Ocean.

They took other trips, as family movies and black and white snapshots will attest. Among the places they visited were St. Augustine in Florida, Monticello in Virginia and Lake of the Clouds in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

It certainly was a simpler time, a time when a family was Mom, Dad, and the kids. And they spent time together. Not this quality time versus quantity time debate of today's harried family. Just time. And that was all they had.

(The picture is of Tom with the Greenbrier in our yard, taken, I think, shortly before this trip. Click this link if you want to fall in love with this vechicle. )