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This is hard to believe - but in 1939, according to my mother's notebook, it took only $96 for her and 4 other relatives to take a coast-to-coast road trip from Virginia to California and return.
Can you believe, the $96 covered all gasoline, emergency car repairs, overnight lodgings, all meals for 4 adults and 1 child for a couple of weeks, and 5 admission tickets to the San Francisco World's Fair and to Yellowstone Park. They visited relatives in Tennessee, then drove the famous Route 66 thru the Mohave desert (just like the Okie's in the "Grapes of Wrath") to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Yellowstone Wyoming, then back through the northern plains, visiting relatives in Iowa, returning to Virginia. All other nights they apparently stayed in tourist cabins. Needless to say, no air conditioning anywhere, no car radio, no swimming pools. I suspect they ate homemade picnic meals.
Someone in your family had money. 1939 was the tail end of the Great Depression and most families didn't have the money to do something like that.
They were very fortunate to be able to make a trip like that.
Ironically, my first transatlantic flight was probably one of the last fun flights ever - the beginning of the end... It was from Paris to L.A. (a duration that now gives me creeps and nightmares), but you couldn't feel it. It was a party with Air France - quality food, unlimited top-shelf liquor, smoking, and walking around as you wish. 1995. In 1997 Lufthansa still had a little area between curtains where only 3 people could smoke at a time. It still made the flight from Paris to Mexico City bearable. The end.
Of course, I'm aware the majority here wouldn't agree with the reasons for my thrill.
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Originally Posted by sierraAZ
Ironically, my first transatlantic flight was probably one of the last fun flights ever - the beginning of the end... It was from Paris to L.A. (a duration that now gives me creeps and nightmares), but you couldn't feel it. It was a party with Air France - quality food, unlimited top-shelf liquor, smoking, and walking around as you wish. 1995. In 1997 Lufthansa still had a little area between curtains where only 3 people could smoke at a time. It still made the flight from Paris to Mexico City bearable. The end.
Of course, I'm aware the majority here wouldn't agree with the reasons for my thrill.
I forget which movie it was (maybe you'll remember) but they're discussing hell and Catherine Zeta Jones' character quips, 'hell is flying coach from LA to Paris.'
I forget which movie it was (maybe you'll remember) but they're discussing hell and Catherine Zeta Jones' character quips, 'hell is flying coach from LA to Paris.'
It's hell now. As I said, it used to be a lot of fun!
Once, I did get upgraded to business by chance on a transatlantic flight. It was pretty nice. The only time I got first class was on a 2-hour flight, unfortunately. That was sweet, too.
My first trip overseas was in the late 70s. To Great Britain. You had to book everything through a travel agent, and the one we used was awful. She didn't convert the pounds to dollars, so all the hotels she'd booked us into were twice the price. After spending a couple weeks traveling around the country ... we thought we'd hit nirvana back in London when we saw our first McDonalds (and I hate McDonalds). But it was just so good, and familiar, to have some "Amercan" food. We'd eaten in a place that called itself "American" and it was a joke. My next trip, a couple years later, McDonalds, Burger Kings, etc. were everywhere.
You had to exchange money before you left home, and you had to take all the money you might need with you. Debit cards didn't exist. When they came around, the ability to withdraw money periodically through a trip, in that country's currency, was a wonderful convenience.
Airline flights might have shown a movie on an overhead screen, if it was a long flight. Other than that ... entertainment was pretty much elevator music. Flights were rarely full, and most three-seat rows had an empty seat (or more). Food was a full meal. We did fly first-class to Europe once. What an experience! And yeah, the smoking "rows" at the back of the plane. Wasn't unhappy when they stopped that one.
Most of my trips to Europe in the 70s and 80s, the airfare was about the same cost as the "land portion" of the trip. Including a two-month's backpacking trip.
Ah, the good old days. Back when flying was fun (unless the flight was rough). I don't even fly these days, I hate the experience so much.
Because of regulation, you didn't have much hope finding the best deal for airfare in the 1970s. Take it or leave it. You had all sorts of weirdo routes. As a kid, my first flight was Kansas City to Peoria, Ill., on Continental. The plane continued to Chicago after that, but the notion of flying directly between KC and Peoria is absurd these days. Every arm rest had an ash tray. Most passengers were businessmen.
I forget which movie it was (maybe you'll remember) but they're discussing hell and Catherine Zeta Jones' character quips, 'hell is flying coach from LA to Paris.'
I still mail them from all sorts of random places to my nieces and nephews who get excited to get mail, and from a "far away place" like uh, Indiana makes it even better. (Most are under 10)
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(Most are under 10)
