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The golden road — Summer family vacations create powerful memories

This story definitely brought back memories for me of the "golden age." How we took it for granted! Thank you for taking a moment to remind us of our past, why we did it and what it meant. We need to take time for such things and the corporate world has stolen so much from us that is precious. We need more paid vacation leave, more flexible hours for our children. We should examine European nations that value family time as we no longer seem to do.

While gas prices restrict travel considerably, we should still find ways to do some local "sight-seeing." When was the last time we went to see the things people come to Utah to see - even right here in Salt Lake City?

Thanks for this reminder.

Utah is supposed to be a Family State. So I agree give us more paid time to spend with our families. It would take crime off of the streets, give our children more valuable things to do, and improve the family structure.
Bring on the 4 day week. Europe has had it for years with 4-6 full weeks vacation per year plus national holidays. 1 week at Christmas and at least 4 Bank Holidays each year.
Perhaps Utah could do more to promote it's State. Many people living here have never explored it. Isn't there some one who can help these people to discover what they are missing.
Gas is high . so give us somewhere to take our families that isn't going to cost an arm and a leg.Bring the fun back into our humdrum working lives.

This article brought back funny memories of family trips. My father had passed away when I was 3 but our mom still took us on trips mostly to see cousins in TX. I had a constant headache as the AC in our Pontiac blew on my forehead because my sister took up the whole back seat in an all day nap - she still is like that. My older sister was the navigator for mom and now as she and my other sister prepare for a trip together she told me she doesn't need GPS she knows how to read a map. I drove my family crazy with my imaginary friend Billy Bobin (who was both dog & boy that lived in a cave). My mom would got and check the rooms to make sure the sheets were clean at motels before she would agree to stay there. My sister and I wasted nickels on vibrating beds that never would work. We had an huge collection of jam packages from eating at pancake houses-pigs in a blanket which I still eat to this day when my husband and I stop at a pancake house. Fun Times.

A lot of good memories flood my mind. All the great summer time events were at home on Redondo Avenue. Playing flag football, a baseball game all in the street. Summer swimming parties in those plastic pools. Running in the sprinklers, selling lemonaide. Late night Kick the Can was a tradition. I don't see that any more.
A shorter work week would be great if we really truely spent it at home with the kids, not using gas, and learning to have fun at hardly no expense. Ride bikes to the store, walk more and I remember late night talks on our porch with family, friends and neighbors.
My grandchildren are hardly ever at home and they have more toys that a toy store. They can't ride a bike to the store nor can they ride a bus.

Most of our summer vacations were to a family reunion, usually in Boise, ID. We had the big old car, with the big back seat that mom would make into a big bed with luggage stored under the blankets between the front and back seat. Mom had a big lunch already made and we would stop and eat along the way. We also went to Yellowstone and the Oregon coast and many other places but the trips to the family reunion are indelibly printed on my memory. Thanks for letting those memories surface again.

I remember trips to California as a child so we could visit Disneyland, Sea World, or Knott's Berry Farm in a brand new '76 Plymouth Volare station wagon. Crossing through Nevada was HOT with no air conditioning, but we had some great times. Now, my wife and I try to travel and vacation with our kids and are pretty successful, but then I can't imagine being strapped into a car seat for hours or watching movies in the car. I'll be curious to find out what things my children remember from our vacations when they get older. Hopefully they will be good memories.

Maybe if we had a nationwide transit system like Europe did we would still be able to travel with the family. We would not be held hostage by these high gas prices.