Photo by David Fitzpatrick
Anyone else remember the Sunday drive? Mum and Dad and the kids (sometimes the dog too) packed into the car to take an aimless road trip around the local area?
Is it a symbol of our busy lives that the Sunday drive seems to have disappeared? Our weekends are so jam-packed with activities and obligations that the opportunity to simply get in the car with no plan or destination in mind is no longer possible.
I’m so old I can remember Sunday drives in cars with no seatbelts. Wandering around the countryside (usually with a pitstop at one of the many local pubs – lemon squash on the verandah).
There was no airconditioning back then, so windows were down, flys were abundant and the dust from country dirt roads flew in.
In a rare spare Sunday recently I suggested we “go for a drive”. The children were horrified, demanding details, timing, destination.
“Where would we go?”, “How long would we be DRIVING for?”, “Why?”
My feeble responses of “we’d just go for a drive, don’t know where, we’d be back by dinner time or maybe not, and just for fun, to explore, see what we can find” was met with dumbstruck looks.
Silly me, I’d forgotten this is the most over-scheduled generation in history. Since early childhood their days have been mapped out, moving from one supervised activity to the next. The concept of just going wandering with no distinct purpose is foreign to them. Perhaps I’ll get to change that these holidays.
Love this image!!
Thanks it’s another of my brother’s photos.
What a great piece! You’ve made me long for a Sunday drive, and those lazier days.
Sometimes we go on an “adventure”. The definition is: you can’t come home the same way you’ve gotten “there”; at some point, you have to wonder whether you’ll ever make it out again; and you have to have fun. This comes in handy as a way of redefining “getting lost”. 🙂
Happy trails!
– Heidi
Love the idea of the “adventure” and very creative adaptation for the whole getting lost problem. LOL
Awesome picture – thank you for sharing!
Ah, the good old days! I STILL love to go on drives. My hubby and I do it often. I call them explores. This image is gorgeous. Margie
Love the pic. My hubby would love to go for a Sunday drive in that!!! We regularly go for “Sunday” drives in the school holidays – although not on a Sunday because we work!!! The kids love finding a new beach we haven’t been to or a new park they haven’t played in…
Yay – the sunday drive survives.
janine, i have 7 siblings, so we never went on sunday drives – too busy getting ready for the week. but we certainly took long, un-airconditioned drives to get to vacation spots! joy to you!
Oh the drive to get to vacation – as an adult, driving with my children between Brisbane and Port Macquarie for holidays at times a nightmare, particularly good one. dog throwing up in back seat, children screaming and husband has to stop car because one of the tyres has come loose and is about to undo itself from the vehicle and roll past us. Memories.
As long as we never forget our good times in the fast,
It will be great memories always 🙂
You’re right Jake.