The golden road — Summer family vacations create powerful memories

"They wanted to teach their children something. They wanted to show them America and what it meant to be a citizen of this country. They wanted their children to learn history, and they wanted to pass on an appreciation of nature. And they really believed that it would draw the family closer together, that it would make the family better. So they could justify spending all the time and money."

The patriotism they felt at the end of the war had something to do with that sentiment, but there were other factors that contributed to the rise of the family road trip, Rugh says.

"More middle-class families could afford to take vacations because of the increasingly liberal vacation benefits awarded American workers," she says. The two-week paid vacation became the norm in post-war America.

More and more middle-class families also bought cars. In 1956, the Interstate Highway Act was passed to create better roads. People loved their cars, says Rugh.

Ford introduced the first station wagon in 1947, but the "decade of the '50s was the heyday of the station wagon, and by the early '60s, it was the only answer to the booming family."

As more people hit the road, other support for the trip came along. "Fast food restaurants revolutionized family travel," Rugh says. McDonald's, Dairy Queen, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Insta-Burger King all came along in this period.

"The family vacation craze spurred the growth of the motel industry," she says. "The number of motels peaked in the 1960s, with 61,000 in operation."

As to destinations, there was a huge variety. National parks, which has been closed during the war, were open once again. Camping in the parks was especially popular, Rugh says. Amusement parks were springing up. Country resorts with their own fishing ponds were attracting attention. And then, as now, people went to stay with relatives.

A lot of people in the East wanted to head west, she says. They had read or seen movies featuring the Western landscape — and they wanted to see it. Some of them visited places in California and such and decided to move there, so vacations spurred the Western migration of the population.

A lot of people in the West headed east to see many of the historical sites associated with the birth of the country. "They really saw that as an educational experience."

Rugh also points out that this time was not a golden age for all Americans. "African-American families traveled in a segregated environment in the South and were often turned away from motels and restaurants outside the South."