The Cox Family Vehicle

This past weekend, I had some fun recalling one of our family vehicles. It brought back some memories for me, as well as some laughs.

When I was a child my family drove everywhere for vacation. Other than the fact that I had visited the airport because I was curious about airplanes, I had not been on an airplane until I was a teenager. It didn’t matter how far away our vacation plans took us, we drove. In the early years, it was the Ford Station wagon with the optional faux wood grain paneling – you know the model. I think that the movie Family Vacation was modeled after my father.


My father would set his sights on a particular destination. One such year it was Disney World. We loaded the car the night before with most of the luggage on the roof-top carrier. Bungie Cords fastened it to the carrier - step back because if one got loose, you'd lose and eye.


All six of us would be jammed into the station wagon. I sat where ever I was told. If the others were in the middle, I was jammed in the back with all the sliding luggage. If my brother wanted to sleep back there, I was relegated to the wheel well between the seats.


We drank tab, ate charle's chips and bologna sandwiches, stopped several nights along the way, had tuna fish sandwiches and cold fried chicken. Who can forget the pudding. We always carried that green water cooler from Coleman and quite often it spilled on my sleeping bag.


Of course, what would a family vacation be without many stops along the way. One such stop was Stone Mountain in Georgia. Stone Mountain is a huge granite protrusion that looks more like a bald head than a mountain peak. I don't remember much about that stop other than being fearful that I would slide down the smooth peak once we arrived at the top via the tram.


Unlike Family Vacation, Disney World was open when we arrived. Thank God for the LTD with the flippy lights, the car-top carrier, the hidden seats that flipped up in the back, and the state of the art AM/FM radio, and of course the optional faux wood grain paneling on the side.