Sunday Drives

Some pasttime. Sunday afternoon drives. Leave church, eat dinner that is waiting in the oven for church to be over, after clean-up of dishes, take off in the automobile to a pre-determined destination.

I remember several Sunday drives -- dad never went with us -- that Uncle El (short for Elwood) Wentzel took us on. Us would be me, my sister, my brother Mark, my mom, and Uncle El's wife, Aunt Blanche, and, of course, the driver, Uncle El.

Mom and two children were in the back seat and one of us children was relegated to the front seat, in the middle (I hated that seat). Because I didn't like the middle front seat -- and this was before seat belts, so it really wasn't too uncomfortable if you were tall enough to see out the front window -- I was permitted to sit in the back. I didn't like that front seat because I was short and couldn't see where we were going, and that always made me sick to my stomach. Good thing I was in the back seat, and.......I was able to have a WINDOW seat! Window seats were prime real estate on Sunday drives.


So take-off begins. I remember a memorable trip we took out the newly opened Pennsylvania Turnpike. We went as far as the first tunnel -- about two hours one way. Then we turned around and came back home. Another two hours. We got home just in time for church.

Another trip we took was to an animal farm somewhere near Allentown, Pennsylvania. Another trip was to the shore -- Sea Isle City. Why I remember that, I don't know. Other trips were just on the back roads of South Jersey, down to Bridgeton or Vineland. Once we went to Newport, NJ -- the place where dad had his first church. It was a short trip. Mom showed Uncle El and Aunt Blanch the church and the parsonage (outside only) and we turned around and came back home.

My father missed a lot on those trips. Looking at the countryside as we breezed past it was so much fun.

We didn't take too many of these trips, but Sunday afternoon drives were part of the life in Runnemede in the 50s.