Few people ever went long distances prior to the last 4 or 5 decades. If they did it was making a migration to hopefully find a better life.

That was in about 1955 or 1956. Maw-Maw Nonie and Paw-Paw Theron went with my parents and us to visit California. Kenny and I were both were pre-school age, 3 and 6.

All six loaded up in a new Mercury 2 door car that Cec had just bought. It didn’t have air conditioning, few cars did back then. Being in the hot summertime Cec bought a contraption called a Thermador Car Cooler. It was made to work like an evaporative water cooler, but with the addition of dry ice, it made for a comfortable trip across the desert.

It was a whirlwind trip. We drove all the way there, a 24 hour trip, stayed two days and drove straight through coming back. I’m almost sure Cecil Lewis drove every mile. He had the ability to drive for very long stretches of time.

I remember them talking about making me a bed up behind the back seat and I spent a goodly amount of the trip up there. I guess that wouldn’t exactly be looked at as safe in today’s terms. But that was a different time.