By John ‘Butch’ Dale
Guest Columnist

Our four children and their families travel somewhere on vacation almost every year, usually to Florida during spring break, although they have been to a few other places around the country.

John ‘Butch’ Dale

When anyone asks me to relate my family’s travel adventures when I was a youngster, it’s always easy to remember those experiences. That’s because we never went on a vacation … ever. In fact, very few families who I knew did, especially farm families. After all, who would take care of the livestock and handle the chores? And many families had quite a few children.

Few parents in their right mind would dare load up their rambunctious offspring in the old Chevy and drive hundreds of miles to Florida or any other vacation spot and spend hard-earned money to sit on a beach or see the sights in the big city. If the kids wanted to see favorite travel destinations, they could watch those travelogues that were shown before the main feature at the Strand theater … whole lot cheaper, too!

I do recall one family that did go on a vacation back in the 1950s. Don and Emma Lou Weliever packed up their kids in the family station wagon and drove to California to visit Disneyland after it opened in 1955. Of course, back then gas was 25 cents a gallon, and the admission price was a dollar per person … although one had to pay separately to go on any rides (and these only cost 25 or 30 cents per ride).

When their oldest boy Steve came over for a visit after they returned, he wore his Mickey Mouse hat (with the ears) and a Mickey Mouse Club shirt. He thought he was quite cool!

Butch’s best buddy, Steve Weliever, visited Disneyland in the 1950s.

To travel to Disneyland today, the parents would need to take out a second mortgage. The kids would not be able to wear a Mickey Mouse hat either. It might offend any person who identifies as a rodent, according the Disney’s new woke guidelines.

So … did my parents take us anywhere at all? Yes, we made quite a few trips to Milligan park for family get-togethers and cookouts … always stopping by the Big Dipper for ice cream … plus the Big Dipper had a miniature golf course.

And each summer we headed to Columbian park in Lafayette, which had a lot of fun things to do. We rode the miniature train, drove the motorized cars on the “Turnpike,” steered the paddle boats around the pond, watched the monkeys on their little island, and of course slid down the curly slide many times. We went swimming in their large pool occasionally until Waynetown built a pool (even before Crawfordsville did.)

Dad also took my brother and me to Indianapolis Indians baseball games a few times, and one time Eugene “Beaner” Hampton took his son to see a Chicago Cubs game, and he invited Dad, my brother, and me to go along. The Cubs played the Milwaukee Braves, my favorite team at the time. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven!

All through the years my family visited all of the Dale relatives for cookouts in the summer, holidays, and other special occasions. My 21 cousins and I always had great times at those gatherings. They were more fun than any vacation I could have gone on.

During my 58 years of married life, my wife and I have been on only three vacations. We took our first two kids to Kings Island back in the 1970s, and my wife and I traveled to Gatlinburg and Nashville a couple of times. When you’re raising four kids and working full-time … and with me working two full-time jobs for many years, it’s quite difficult to take time off for a vacation.

But in all honesty, I never cared to travel. I’m a homebody, and everything that I enjoy is right here. I agree with Dorothy, of Wizard of Oz fame, who said, “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard.” … “Oh, Uncle Henry and Auntie Em, there’s no place like home!”