Just sitting here thinking about our upcoming summer vacation and remembering what it was like as a kid in the 50's to travel. Gas was .30 cents or less. The gas stations weren't convenience stores. They just offered candy bars and a pop machine, which we didn't need anyway since most of our snacks of apples, grapes and carrots were packed by mom. The gas stations then had service attendants that would check your oil and clean your windshield, for free!  There weren't many fast food restaurants so we usually stopped at a "sit down" restaurant.  There would be an occasional drive-in or an A&W.  Boomers, remember the swamp water?  We didn't have individual water bottles we had a thermos or a canvas water bag hanging on the front of the car.  Our station wagon had bench seats. We would sit in the middle of the front seat and dad would let us run the steering wheel until mom felt sufficiently nervous enough to put an end to it. Travel then was usually a "white knuckle" ride on two way roads where passing meant playing chicken with the oncoming traffic and pulling into your lane just in the nick of time. We didn't have seat belts or air bags and luckily never needed them. In emergencies, the ambulance at that time would have been a converted station wagon, hearse or panel wagon. We didn't have a CB, cell phone or GPS. There were plenty of outdoor payphones available and we used maps and took turns being the navigator. Mom demanded that we stay in Best Western motels, as they were always clean, though they all smelled like smoke because there were no non-smoking rooms back then. If there was a TV, it

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