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Don't Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip
Don’t Make Me Pull Over! offers a nostalgic look at the golden age of family road trips—before portable DVD players, smartphones, and Google Maps.
The birth of America’s first interstate highways in the 1950s hit the gas pedal on the road trip phenomenon and families were soon streaming—sans seatbelts!—to a range of sometimes stirring, sometimes wacky locations. In the days before cheap air travel, families didn’t so much take vacations as survive them. Between home and destination lay thousands of miles and dozens of annoyances, and with his family Richard Ratay experienced all of them—from being crowded into the backseat with noogie-happy older brothers, to picking out a souvenir only to find that a better one might have been had at the next attraction, to dealing with a dad who didn’t believe in bathroom breaks.
In hundreds of amusing ways, he reminds us of what once made the Great American Family Road Trip so great, including twenty-foot “land yachts,” oasis-like Holiday Inn “Holidomes,” “Smokey”-spotting Fuzzbusters, twenty-eight glorious flavors of Howard Johnson’s ice cream, and the thrill of finding a “good buddy” on the CB radio.
Don’t Make Me Pull Over! reveals how the family road trip came to be, how its evolution mirrored the country’s, and why those magical journeys that once brought families together—for better and worse—have largely disappeared.
The birth of America’s first interstate highways in the 1950s hit the gas pedal on the road trip phenomenon and families were soon streaming—sans seatbelts!—to a range of sometimes stirring, sometimes wacky locations. In the days before cheap air travel, families didn’t so much take vacations as survive them. Between home and destination lay thousands of miles and dozens of annoyances, and with his family Richard Ratay experienced all of them—from being crowded into the backseat with noogie-happy older brothers, to picking out a souvenir only to find that a better one might have been had at the next attraction, to dealing with a dad who didn’t believe in bathroom breaks.
In hundreds of amusing ways, he reminds us of what once made the Great American Family Road Trip so great, including twenty-foot “land yachts,” oasis-like Holiday Inn “Holidomes,” “Smokey”-spotting Fuzzbusters, twenty-eight glorious flavors of Howard Johnson’s ice cream, and the thrill of finding a “good buddy” on the CB radio.
Don’t Make Me Pull Over! reveals how the family road trip came to be, how its evolution mirrored the country’s, and why those magical journeys that once brought families together—for better and worse—have largely disappeared.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published July 3, 2018
215 people are currently reading
6796 people want to read
About the author
Richard Ratay
1 book28 followersRichard Ratay was the last of four kids raised by two mostly attentive parents in Elm Grove, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in journalism and has worked as an award-winning advertising copywriter for twenty-five years. Ratay lives in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, with his wife, Terri, their two sons, and two very excitable rescue dogs. “Don’t Make Me Pull Over! An informal History of the Family Road Trip” is his debut book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 502 reviews
May 19, 2019
Road trips are my spirit animal!
I am not sure if this book is for everyone, but if you are anything like me, you will love it! If you love travel, travel history, and/or non-fiction about everyday life, this is the book for you. I ate the whole thing up and it made me very excited for my next road trip, which is in a couple of weeks. (YES!)
I can 99.9% guarantee you that if you grew up taking family road trips in the US in the 1970s or 80s, this book will be beautiful nostalgia for you. From waking up at 3am to pile into the station wagon to laying across the rear window ledge and waving at passing police to entertaining yourself and your family with hours of "I Spy" - it's all there! And, if you are young enough that all the family trips you remember have you belted in the whole time watching DVDs and playing on your smartphone/tablet, then you may get a kick out of reading about how family travel used to be.
It's hard to believe how much the road trip has changed in just the last 40 years. This book does an awesome job of documenting it from the start through the beginning of the portable technology/vehicle safety era. I loved it!
I am not sure if this book is for everyone, but if you are anything like me, you will love it! If you love travel, travel history, and/or non-fiction about everyday life, this is the book for you. I ate the whole thing up and it made me very excited for my next road trip, which is in a couple of weeks. (YES!)
I can 99.9% guarantee you that if you grew up taking family road trips in the US in the 1970s or 80s, this book will be beautiful nostalgia for you. From waking up at 3am to pile into the station wagon to laying across the rear window ledge and waving at passing police to entertaining yourself and your family with hours of "I Spy" - it's all there! And, if you are young enough that all the family trips you remember have you belted in the whole time watching DVDs and playing on your smartphone/tablet, then you may get a kick out of reading about how family travel used to be.
It's hard to believe how much the road trip has changed in just the last 40 years. This book does an awesome job of documenting it from the start through the beginning of the portable technology/vehicle safety era. I loved it!
June 17, 2018
Pure nostalgia, both entertaining and informative. As a young boy, the last of three boys and one sister, the author was baby of the family. As he recounts the road trips he took with his family he used to love riding in the back window of the family car. Of course cars were much larger then, and gasp! Seatbelts were not required. The book opens with a doozy of a beginning, and a near disaster at the beginning of one trip, but as is often the case when something goes wrong, that is the thing or trip that is remembered. No screens, just game bags, treat bags, fighting, arguing, the title of the book announced again and again, along with I'm hungry, need to go potty, and are we there yet. Oh, sweet remembrances.
It is also chock full of history, the first roads built, road side attractions, amusement parks, cruise control, rest areas, car games, cb radios so cops could be spotted and relayed to all. Remember these days fondly, the good and bad, not so much with my parents, but with my hubby and I with are seven kids in a conversion van. Reading maps, no gpr devices yet, finding our way was half the battle, but somehow or another we made it. The days when families took vacations together without faces buried in individual screens. Yes, the good old days.
As I'm sure you can tell I enjoyed this book immensely, in fact I'm buying it for my hubby who won't read anything unless it is in book form.
ARC from Edelweiss.
It is also chock full of history, the first roads built, road side attractions, amusement parks, cruise control, rest areas, car games, cb radios so cops could be spotted and relayed to all. Remember these days fondly, the good and bad, not so much with my parents, but with my hubby and I with are seven kids in a conversion van. Reading maps, no gpr devices yet, finding our way was half the battle, but somehow or another we made it. The days when families took vacations together without faces buried in individual screens. Yes, the good old days.
As I'm sure you can tell I enjoyed this book immensely, in fact I'm buying it for my hubby who won't read anything unless it is in book form.
ARC from Edelweiss.
November 8, 2021
4.5 stars
"The truth is, my dad may have loved his cars a little too much. When it came to selecting the optional trim packages, styling accessories, and color combinations, he could go overboard . . . He adored monument-sized hood ornaments and glimmering side trim. He considered features like carriage tops and burled wood dashboards as standard equipment. As a result, one of the two cars my family owned at any given time often resembled the perp vehicle being chased down the street on the latest episode of 'Starsky & Hutch.'" -- the author's memories of the mid-1970's, on page 64
Ratay's Don't Make Me Pull Over! was, like its title / subtitle would possibly suggest, an entertaining and successful melding of some American history and a humorous family memoir. Somewhat similar to storyteller Jean Shepherd's simultaneously amusing and nostalgic narration in the 1983 film A Christmas Story, the author recalls (mostly during the final third of the book) his family's own pre-1980 road trip experiences - dad, mom, and three older siblings - as they jumped into one of those severely gas-guzzling pimp sedans or faux wood-paneled station wagons formerly churned out by the Big Three automakers in Detroit, and hit the highways and byways across the continental U.S. for their week of summer vacation. (Again, this was in that era before cell-phones, GPS, and several other technological advancements became commonplace.) However, Ratay first provides some multiple breezy and fairly detailed pop cultural history lessons of sorts on a number of 'road trip'-connected subjects - such as the country's interstate highway system, motels, fast-food dining establishments, amusement parks, arcade games and the needed advancements in motor vehicle safety - that all experienced their debut and then tremendous growth during the 20th century, as well as how the archetypal 'road trip' idea began to fade into the past once airline fares were finally deregulated by the early 80's. This was one of those books boasting a fair amount of interesting trivia segments - like the reason for McDonald's developing their first drive-thru service window / lane in 1975 (the particular restaurant involved was near a military base in rural Arizona, and soldiers on lunch break were not allowed to exit their civilian vehicles while attired in uniform) - amidst funny or pleasant moments by the author when recalling his own experiences. Seatbelts are optional ;-)
"The truth is, my dad may have loved his cars a little too much. When it came to selecting the optional trim packages, styling accessories, and color combinations, he could go overboard . . . He adored monument-sized hood ornaments and glimmering side trim. He considered features like carriage tops and burled wood dashboards as standard equipment. As a result, one of the two cars my family owned at any given time often resembled the perp vehicle being chased down the street on the latest episode of 'Starsky & Hutch.'" -- the author's memories of the mid-1970's, on page 64
Ratay's Don't Make Me Pull Over! was, like its title / subtitle would possibly suggest, an entertaining and successful melding of some American history and a humorous family memoir. Somewhat similar to storyteller Jean Shepherd's simultaneously amusing and nostalgic narration in the 1983 film A Christmas Story, the author recalls (mostly during the final third of the book) his family's own pre-1980 road trip experiences - dad, mom, and three older siblings - as they jumped into one of those severely gas-guzzling pimp sedans or faux wood-paneled station wagons formerly churned out by the Big Three automakers in Detroit, and hit the highways and byways across the continental U.S. for their week of summer vacation. (Again, this was in that era before cell-phones, GPS, and several other technological advancements became commonplace.) However, Ratay first provides some multiple breezy and fairly detailed pop cultural history lessons of sorts on a number of 'road trip'-connected subjects - such as the country's interstate highway system, motels, fast-food dining establishments, amusement parks, arcade games and the needed advancements in motor vehicle safety - that all experienced their debut and then tremendous growth during the 20th century, as well as how the archetypal 'road trip' idea began to fade into the past once airline fares were finally deregulated by the early 80's. This was one of those books boasting a fair amount of interesting trivia segments - like the reason for McDonald's developing their first drive-thru service window / lane in 1975 (the particular restaurant involved was near a military base in rural Arizona, and soldiers on lunch break were not allowed to exit their civilian vehicles while attired in uniform) - amidst funny or pleasant moments by the author when recalling his own experiences. Seatbelts are optional ;-)
August 31, 2018
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
I knew I was going to have to get my hands on a copy of Don’t Make Me Pull Over as soon as I saw the cover. I mean, who could really resist the siren song which is that of the family truckster . . . .
Being that I am of a certain age, my fondness doesn’t lie courtesy of film alone. No no, I was a willingvictim passenger of the “way back seat” as a child. Much like the author, some of my best memories spurred from the place where only the youngest member(s) of the family were forced to ride. If you’re looking for a bit of nostalgia, Richard Ratay’s take on family trips might be for you . . .
“It wasn’t that we enjoyed spending endless hours imprisoned together in a velour-upholstered cell, squabbling over radio stations and inhaling each other’s farts. It was that we had no other choice.”
Funny how the timing worked out such that I was reading this right when my family is set to embark on a weekend road trip. Of course, their “must see” item on the road is where Last Chance U is filmed while mine would be something more traditional . . . .
Luckily Ratay was of like mind with me. You might find yourself a little bogged down with the history of not only how the automobile came to be mass produced, but also how roads themselves were developed/designed/funded. But right when you think it has gone off the rails, Ratay swings you back in the direction of his personal history and tidbits that make you chuckle from nostalgia. Like dodging Ol’ Smokey courtesy of the fuzz buster and CB radio . . . .
Or the holy grail of road trip time passers . . . . .
If you had one of these, you know time spent was precious because not only did it suck batteries like a G.D. hoover, but it also had no volume control and its use was sure to be permitted only momentarily before the elders in the car went batshit and snatched it away.
All in all, this served as a pretty decent trip down memory lane of all the fun that was had while trying to reach our destination . . . .
I knew I was going to have to get my hands on a copy of Don’t Make Me Pull Over as soon as I saw the cover. I mean, who could really resist the siren song which is that of the family truckster . . . .
Being that I am of a certain age, my fondness doesn’t lie courtesy of film alone. No no, I was a willing
“It wasn’t that we enjoyed spending endless hours imprisoned together in a velour-upholstered cell, squabbling over radio stations and inhaling each other’s farts. It was that we had no other choice.”
Funny how the timing worked out such that I was reading this right when my family is set to embark on a weekend road trip. Of course, their “must see” item on the road is where Last Chance U is filmed while mine would be something more traditional . . . .
Luckily Ratay was of like mind with me. You might find yourself a little bogged down with the history of not only how the automobile came to be mass produced, but also how roads themselves were developed/designed/funded. But right when you think it has gone off the rails, Ratay swings you back in the direction of his personal history and tidbits that make you chuckle from nostalgia. Like dodging Ol’ Smokey courtesy of the fuzz buster and CB radio . . . .
Or the holy grail of road trip time passers . . . . .
If you had one of these, you know time spent was precious because not only did it suck batteries like a G.D. hoover, but it also had no volume control and its use was sure to be permitted only momentarily before the elders in the car went batshit and snatched it away.
All in all, this served as a pretty decent trip down memory lane of all the fun that was had while trying to reach our destination . . . .
July 17, 2018
”Camelot! Camelot!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot
That's how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.”
-- Camelot, Richard Burton, Songwriters: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
Despite most of our family vacations being courtesy of the airline for which my father flew, we took a lot of road trips. For my father, as much as he loved flying, road trips were family bonding time. They were, for me, also a chance to bond with my cousins who lived a drivable distance in Virginia, but living on the east coast afforded us a lot of drives to places like Olde Mystick Village & the Seaport Museum, Gettysburg, Plimoth Plantation, Independence Hall, Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, and probably a hundred places where George Washington slept, it was often quipped by the tour guide that Washington slept around a lot (thereby setting a precedent for future Presidents). My favourite Sunday drive was to the Delaware Water Gap, where a fellow pilot friend of my father lived on a Christmas Tree Farm. Most of the early years I only recall the radio not working once we reached less populated areas, and singing replaced the static. But then came 8-Track tapes, and when it came time to replace my mother’s car, lovingly referred to as “Ol’ Bessie,” he had an 8-track player installed for her by the dealer and life changed. Instead of hours and hours of “us” singing the same songs over and over, we were blessed with Camelot, and now and then a break with an 8 track of Bill Cosby comedy. Mostly, the soundtrack of my childhood road trips, though, was Camelot, especially the song ’Camelot.’
Perhaps we all reach an age where we look back on the mellower, happier eras of our childhood, which is partially what Ratay covers in his ”Don’t Make Me Pull Over,” his fondness for the years of being forced into the family station wagon for long hours each day, with a father not likely to pull over for pit stops, no matter how little gas there was in the tank, or how long it had been since they’d visited a rest room along the way. There were long stretches of driving in between such places even in the 1970’s, and even fewer in the 1950’s, depending on how far outside civilization you were.
When Ratay went from restless to annoying, his brothers would promptly deliver a “swift noogie,” which would promptly be followed by his father’s ”Don’t make me pull over.” My father’s refrain was a similar, but slightly heightened Don’t make me turn this car around, which I never doubted he would do, and neither did my brothers.
There’s a simple, but tongue-in-cheek approach to much of this book that is reminiscent of some of other authors noted for their similar writing style, Bill Bryson comes easily to mind – his ability to weave facts into something amazingly entertaining is very similar to Ratay’s style.
”The practice of American companies testing employees for drug use didn’t become widespread until the mideighties at the prodding of the Reagan administration. I mention this in passing only as one possible explanation for automobile design in the seventies.”
How else to explain the bizarre AMC Pacer, a car whose design appeared to be based on the Scrubbing Bubbles of TV ad fame?”
My oldest son used to laugh as only a toddler can and point to those cars, referring to them as “Weeble cars” (as in “Weebles wobble but the don’t fall down…”) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFzhj...)
Ratay touches on such topics as the advent of CB radios, the advent of seat belts along with several other changes made in the pursuit of safe driving, the eye-opening factor of trips made to, or even through, places unlike the one we call home, dining on the road, finding places to rest or sleep on the road in an era without GPS, the boon of chain hotels, the changing of America through these years. He even touches on airline regulation, and their family’s first trip by airline after deregulation. For those nostalgic for the items of your childhood he talks about such things as Pop Rocks, Atari, Pong, and a list of others. There is a lot of information in these pages, but at its heart, this is an entertaining, nostalgic read.
John F. Kennedy was known to be a fan of both the musical Camelot as well as the song, and his favourite lines were in the final song, when Arthur knights a young boy and tells him to share the
story of Camelot to future generations.
”Don't let it be forgot
That once there was a spot,
For one brief, shining moment
That was known as Camelot.”
Ratay’s story reads a bit like that, this era and its ties with his memories of days spent with his parents and siblings are also a part of what this generation has now, and future generations will have in the future.
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot
That's how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.”
-- Camelot, Richard Burton, Songwriters: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
Despite most of our family vacations being courtesy of the airline for which my father flew, we took a lot of road trips. For my father, as much as he loved flying, road trips were family bonding time. They were, for me, also a chance to bond with my cousins who lived a drivable distance in Virginia, but living on the east coast afforded us a lot of drives to places like Olde Mystick Village & the Seaport Museum, Gettysburg, Plimoth Plantation, Independence Hall, Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, and probably a hundred places where George Washington slept, it was often quipped by the tour guide that Washington slept around a lot (thereby setting a precedent for future Presidents). My favourite Sunday drive was to the Delaware Water Gap, where a fellow pilot friend of my father lived on a Christmas Tree Farm. Most of the early years I only recall the radio not working once we reached less populated areas, and singing replaced the static. But then came 8-Track tapes, and when it came time to replace my mother’s car, lovingly referred to as “Ol’ Bessie,” he had an 8-track player installed for her by the dealer and life changed. Instead of hours and hours of “us” singing the same songs over and over, we were blessed with Camelot, and now and then a break with an 8 track of Bill Cosby comedy. Mostly, the soundtrack of my childhood road trips, though, was Camelot, especially the song ’Camelot.’
Perhaps we all reach an age where we look back on the mellower, happier eras of our childhood, which is partially what Ratay covers in his ”Don’t Make Me Pull Over,” his fondness for the years of being forced into the family station wagon for long hours each day, with a father not likely to pull over for pit stops, no matter how little gas there was in the tank, or how long it had been since they’d visited a rest room along the way. There were long stretches of driving in between such places even in the 1970’s, and even fewer in the 1950’s, depending on how far outside civilization you were.
When Ratay went from restless to annoying, his brothers would promptly deliver a “swift noogie,” which would promptly be followed by his father’s ”Don’t make me pull over.” My father’s refrain was a similar, but slightly heightened Don’t make me turn this car around, which I never doubted he would do, and neither did my brothers.
There’s a simple, but tongue-in-cheek approach to much of this book that is reminiscent of some of other authors noted for their similar writing style, Bill Bryson comes easily to mind – his ability to weave facts into something amazingly entertaining is very similar to Ratay’s style.
”The practice of American companies testing employees for drug use didn’t become widespread until the mideighties at the prodding of the Reagan administration. I mention this in passing only as one possible explanation for automobile design in the seventies.”
How else to explain the bizarre AMC Pacer, a car whose design appeared to be based on the Scrubbing Bubbles of TV ad fame?”
My oldest son used to laugh as only a toddler can and point to those cars, referring to them as “Weeble cars” (as in “Weebles wobble but the don’t fall down…”) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFzhj...)
Ratay touches on such topics as the advent of CB radios, the advent of seat belts along with several other changes made in the pursuit of safe driving, the eye-opening factor of trips made to, or even through, places unlike the one we call home, dining on the road, finding places to rest or sleep on the road in an era without GPS, the boon of chain hotels, the changing of America through these years. He even touches on airline regulation, and their family’s first trip by airline after deregulation. For those nostalgic for the items of your childhood he talks about such things as Pop Rocks, Atari, Pong, and a list of others. There is a lot of information in these pages, but at its heart, this is an entertaining, nostalgic read.
John F. Kennedy was known to be a fan of both the musical Camelot as well as the song, and his favourite lines were in the final song, when Arthur knights a young boy and tells him to share the
story of Camelot to future generations.
”Don't let it be forgot
That once there was a spot,
For one brief, shining moment
That was known as Camelot.”
Ratay’s story reads a bit like that, this era and its ties with his memories of days spent with his parents and siblings are also a part of what this generation has now, and future generations will have in the future.
August 1, 2020
Don’t Make Me Pull Over is a tribute to the American family road trip, but the book encompasses a whole host of topics – 1960’s and 1970’s pop culture, the history of roads in the U.S. including the creation of interstate highways, a short look at airline regulation and eventually deregulation, the development of motels, the creation of the drive-through, and so much more. Much like Rocket Men by Robert Kurson, Ratay effectively weaves in fascinating factual detail fluidly providing information on whichever topic he has introduced. He manages to briefly and efficiently address many side items that add depth and fullness to the story without bogging the reader down with too much information. The result is a compulsive and highly-entertaining read that kept me turning pages late into the night to finish it.
My family moved some while I was growing up, and we lived abroad part of the time. As a result, we didn’t road trip much except the 6-7 hours it took to go see my grandparents because most of the places we went required flying to get there. However, my husband grew up taking long road trips and loves driving long distances even now. Thankfully, he has imparted that love to our family, and we drive every summer to Colorado and have taken other fun road trips to Arizona and South Carolina, always stopping to see all sorts of fabulous National Park sites as we go. Some of my kids’ favorite trips (and memories) involve road trips we have taken. While I am unfamiliar with some of the roadside attractions Ratay highlights, I have been to Wall Drug in South Dakota, and his mention of it caused me to fondly recall one of our best road trips through the length of South Dakota stopping to see Wind and Jewel National Parks, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands (one of my kids’ all-time favorite things to see), and Custer State Park, home to hundreds of buffalo. While Wall Drug was a hoot to see (it goes on and on and on now), the Corn Palace would be the side attraction I would highlight for anyone heading through South Dakota. To me, that is the beauty of this book: I learned about a myriad of topics, but the book also sent me back in time helping me recall both events from my childhood and fun trips my husband and I took with our children.
A while back, I read Sting-Ray Afternoons by Steve Rushin, and I marveled at how little I recollected about many of the things Rushin mentioned from the 1970’s; as I read that book, I almost wondered if we had lived through the same decade. Don’t Make Me Pull Over was the exact opposite – I felt like I was taking a trip down memory lane, and I loved every second of it. He references the handheld Madden football game, Pop Rocks (and the rumor that Mikey’s stomach had exploded when he ate them with Coke), Atari’s PONG, Mad Libs, riding in the back window of a car, MTV (and the Buggles), and tons of other things I vividly remember from my childhood.
My one quibble with the book is that Ratay reaches the conclusion that the family road trip is a thing of the past, and for those few who still drive long distances, it is no longer the same experience. I completely disagree. When we travel by car, the kids do watch their iPads and listen to music some, but they frequently do it together. We still play the license tag game and the alphabet game (we choose a category and work our way through the alphabet naming things in that category, each time starting from A – I am terrible at it when it gets very far at all), and we have Fam Jam where we listen to whatever is a family favorite that particular summer- one year it was a new Taylor Swift album and another it was the Hamilton soundtrack. I also find it is the one time that my husband and I are able to talk uninterrupted (usually) for hours – there are no chores to be done, errands to run, etc. We have discovered countless gems that we would have never seen if we had flown. I believe that for some families the road trip is still alive and well; it may not be the only way we travel, but when we do drive some place far away, the trip is always an experience that we will treasure for years to come.
Don’t Make Me Pull Over is a fabulous read, and I highly recommend it. I felt the book started slow but am so glad I kept reading.
Listen to my podcast at https://www.thoughtsfromapage.com for fun author interviews. For more book reviews, check out my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/thoughtsfro....
My family moved some while I was growing up, and we lived abroad part of the time. As a result, we didn’t road trip much except the 6-7 hours it took to go see my grandparents because most of the places we went required flying to get there. However, my husband grew up taking long road trips and loves driving long distances even now. Thankfully, he has imparted that love to our family, and we drive every summer to Colorado and have taken other fun road trips to Arizona and South Carolina, always stopping to see all sorts of fabulous National Park sites as we go. Some of my kids’ favorite trips (and memories) involve road trips we have taken. While I am unfamiliar with some of the roadside attractions Ratay highlights, I have been to Wall Drug in South Dakota, and his mention of it caused me to fondly recall one of our best road trips through the length of South Dakota stopping to see Wind and Jewel National Parks, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands (one of my kids’ all-time favorite things to see), and Custer State Park, home to hundreds of buffalo. While Wall Drug was a hoot to see (it goes on and on and on now), the Corn Palace would be the side attraction I would highlight for anyone heading through South Dakota. To me, that is the beauty of this book: I learned about a myriad of topics, but the book also sent me back in time helping me recall both events from my childhood and fun trips my husband and I took with our children.
A while back, I read Sting-Ray Afternoons by Steve Rushin, and I marveled at how little I recollected about many of the things Rushin mentioned from the 1970’s; as I read that book, I almost wondered if we had lived through the same decade. Don’t Make Me Pull Over was the exact opposite – I felt like I was taking a trip down memory lane, and I loved every second of it. He references the handheld Madden football game, Pop Rocks (and the rumor that Mikey’s stomach had exploded when he ate them with Coke), Atari’s PONG, Mad Libs, riding in the back window of a car, MTV (and the Buggles), and tons of other things I vividly remember from my childhood.
My one quibble with the book is that Ratay reaches the conclusion that the family road trip is a thing of the past, and for those few who still drive long distances, it is no longer the same experience. I completely disagree. When we travel by car, the kids do watch their iPads and listen to music some, but they frequently do it together. We still play the license tag game and the alphabet game (we choose a category and work our way through the alphabet naming things in that category, each time starting from A – I am terrible at it when it gets very far at all), and we have Fam Jam where we listen to whatever is a family favorite that particular summer- one year it was a new Taylor Swift album and another it was the Hamilton soundtrack. I also find it is the one time that my husband and I are able to talk uninterrupted (usually) for hours – there are no chores to be done, errands to run, etc. We have discovered countless gems that we would have never seen if we had flown. I believe that for some families the road trip is still alive and well; it may not be the only way we travel, but when we do drive some place far away, the trip is always an experience that we will treasure for years to come.
Don’t Make Me Pull Over is a fabulous read, and I highly recommend it. I felt the book started slow but am so glad I kept reading.
Listen to my podcast at https://www.thoughtsfromapage.com for fun author interviews. For more book reviews, check out my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/thoughtsfro....
June 11, 2025
Time to pack up the car with snacks, games, and one small suitcase per person. It is time for our family’s summer road trip vacation, and don’t forget to set your alarm for four am so we can get around Chicago before the rush hour kicks in. It is summer and time for vacation even figuratively. My husband is not one to travel all that much so at this point I am mainly an armchair traveler. During the eighties and early nineties before my dad got that covered extra week of vacation, we primarily went on driving vacations around the Midwest. Relics like the name game, license plate game; travel battleship, and crumbless granola bars were guaranteed. Even as many people I knew traveled to, at the time to me, exotic locations, for us it was discovering exciting adventures in the Midwest and Ontario. Apparently I came of age a decade too late even though I took my fair share of car trips. Richard Ratay is twelve years older than me and the car trips he took with his family sound epic in comparison. As I pine for the open road and turn to reading about adventures taking place all over the United States, I turned to Ratay’s book about the history of family road trips because nothing says summer vacation quite like them.
Starting with the advent of the automobile and labor laws entitling workers to two to three weeks of vacation time, families turned began taking vacations in their cars. As early as the turn of the 20th century on primative roads, families headed to the beach, even local ones like the Jersey Shore and Cape Cod. Even before the Great Depression families began to head south to Florida in the winter. Early roads such as Dixie Highway existed to take motorists from Chicago to Miami, and Americans in search of warmer climates climbed into their Model Ts and other early cars. Likewise innovative planners developed the Lincoln Highway which could take motorists from New York to San Francisco. As long as people brought their own food, pop up tent, and arms in case of bears in the west, an adventurous person could travel from coast to coast. Even before early motels made travel leisurely in the 1950s, families craved a change of scenery, to visit either a beach, amusement park, national park or monument. Long before expressways, fast food restaurants, gas stations, and motels facilitated road travels, Americans set out on road trips. By the 1890s the family trip had begun and with it the development of innovations that would shrink the country to the size that it is now.
Richard Ratay is the youngest of four kids, a surprise baby. He came of age in the late 1970s at the heyday of the station wagon and road trip travel. Without mentioning trips to visit family members, Ratay notes that his family traveled south from their suburban Milwaukee home two to three times a year to facilitate his family’s need to play golf. The family packed bags the night before and surveyed the map to maximize the amount of time in between stops even if it meant skipping meals and a gas gauge that hovered precariously close to empty. This was in the era before cell phones and a plethora of exits wirh gas stations and fast food chains so finding the right stop and getting six people in and out of the car in under ten minutes became a Ratay family trademark. This was also in an era of low to no safety standards in vehicles, seat belts almost non existent. As the youngest in his family, Ratay noted that many times he lounged on the back ledge of his station wagon and waved at passing motorists even at the police. That would not happen today and my trips were a little late to enjoy that much freedom. Ratay and his siblings did not mind missing meals because they generally stopped at either a Holiday Inn or Ramada Inn that had both a pool and early arcade game room. Every night was a guarantee of two hours of pool and game time enough to brighten any kid’s day. After two days on the road and nights at inexpensive hotels, they would reach their beach destination close to a golf course. In a week they would turn around and do it all over again.
Ratay notes that this is an informal history of the family road trip. He intersperses the history of highway construction, the development of hotels and fast food chains, and auto safety with crazy anecdotes from his own family vacations. Until President Carter signed legislation in 1978 that made air travel affordable, only the wealthy could afford air fares. The 1970s seeing early baby boomers start families became the heyday of the family road trip. People Ratay knew traveled as far as the Grand Canyon and New York City, and his family generally headed toward the beach, being from the Midwest I can not blame his parents at all. Gas cost as little as $.23 a gallon and motel chains allowed kids to stay free, so driving versus flying became a no brainer for families. In the 1980s this began to change as air travel became less regulated and more affordable. My family flew to Florida to visit my grandmother one or two times a year. It saved us four days on the road. We still took driving trips in the summer but our far away travels were conducted in the air. I did not have a large enough family to have a station and my mom was against any form of video game, but it sounds like I missed out on loads of fun traveling, even if we generally always stopped at a hotel with a pool. Even Ratay’s frugal father changed to air travel when he admitted that it cost just as little and saved him time on the road. By the 1980s other than a few adventurous travelers like my parents, the age of road trip heyday was all but over.
Ratay notes that driving vacations are still more affordable for larger families, and I have taken my share of them. I think his parents would cringe at the amount of chips and granola bars as well as Speedway slurpees consumed on these trips. We are six people and unless we have miles, six tickets to Florida at winter or spring break is costly. We have done the seventeen hour trip many times and actually I prefer it to driving only because we have our own car and can stop at a favorite restaurant along the way. At this point though we generally fly and I do admit I love the extra time on the beach. We still drive to Chicago every summer. At a quick five hours it is almost as fast as airport time and flying. Besides a plane ride does not include Slurpees, snacks, and fighting over the radio versus usage of hot spots, and more importantly family bonding time. I will gladly take a road trip and my husband would drive the length of the country without stopping. It seems like we missed the best era for road trip travel. By sharing his memories, Richard Ratay allowed me to relive mine to places like the Smokey Mountains, Mammoth Caves, and Windsor Ontario. As long as a beach or pool is involved, I’m game. So pack the car, set the radio to proper stations, and set out for a week of fun and family bickering ahem bonding. The American road trip, it would not be summer without it.
3.5 stars of fun
Starting with the advent of the automobile and labor laws entitling workers to two to three weeks of vacation time, families turned began taking vacations in their cars. As early as the turn of the 20th century on primative roads, families headed to the beach, even local ones like the Jersey Shore and Cape Cod. Even before the Great Depression families began to head south to Florida in the winter. Early roads such as Dixie Highway existed to take motorists from Chicago to Miami, and Americans in search of warmer climates climbed into their Model Ts and other early cars. Likewise innovative planners developed the Lincoln Highway which could take motorists from New York to San Francisco. As long as people brought their own food, pop up tent, and arms in case of bears in the west, an adventurous person could travel from coast to coast. Even before early motels made travel leisurely in the 1950s, families craved a change of scenery, to visit either a beach, amusement park, national park or monument. Long before expressways, fast food restaurants, gas stations, and motels facilitated road travels, Americans set out on road trips. By the 1890s the family trip had begun and with it the development of innovations that would shrink the country to the size that it is now.
Richard Ratay is the youngest of four kids, a surprise baby. He came of age in the late 1970s at the heyday of the station wagon and road trip travel. Without mentioning trips to visit family members, Ratay notes that his family traveled south from their suburban Milwaukee home two to three times a year to facilitate his family’s need to play golf. The family packed bags the night before and surveyed the map to maximize the amount of time in between stops even if it meant skipping meals and a gas gauge that hovered precariously close to empty. This was in the era before cell phones and a plethora of exits wirh gas stations and fast food chains so finding the right stop and getting six people in and out of the car in under ten minutes became a Ratay family trademark. This was also in an era of low to no safety standards in vehicles, seat belts almost non existent. As the youngest in his family, Ratay noted that many times he lounged on the back ledge of his station wagon and waved at passing motorists even at the police. That would not happen today and my trips were a little late to enjoy that much freedom. Ratay and his siblings did not mind missing meals because they generally stopped at either a Holiday Inn or Ramada Inn that had both a pool and early arcade game room. Every night was a guarantee of two hours of pool and game time enough to brighten any kid’s day. After two days on the road and nights at inexpensive hotels, they would reach their beach destination close to a golf course. In a week they would turn around and do it all over again.
Ratay notes that this is an informal history of the family road trip. He intersperses the history of highway construction, the development of hotels and fast food chains, and auto safety with crazy anecdotes from his own family vacations. Until President Carter signed legislation in 1978 that made air travel affordable, only the wealthy could afford air fares. The 1970s seeing early baby boomers start families became the heyday of the family road trip. People Ratay knew traveled as far as the Grand Canyon and New York City, and his family generally headed toward the beach, being from the Midwest I can not blame his parents at all. Gas cost as little as $.23 a gallon and motel chains allowed kids to stay free, so driving versus flying became a no brainer for families. In the 1980s this began to change as air travel became less regulated and more affordable. My family flew to Florida to visit my grandmother one or two times a year. It saved us four days on the road. We still took driving trips in the summer but our far away travels were conducted in the air. I did not have a large enough family to have a station and my mom was against any form of video game, but it sounds like I missed out on loads of fun traveling, even if we generally always stopped at a hotel with a pool. Even Ratay’s frugal father changed to air travel when he admitted that it cost just as little and saved him time on the road. By the 1980s other than a few adventurous travelers like my parents, the age of road trip heyday was all but over.
Ratay notes that driving vacations are still more affordable for larger families, and I have taken my share of them. I think his parents would cringe at the amount of chips and granola bars as well as Speedway slurpees consumed on these trips. We are six people and unless we have miles, six tickets to Florida at winter or spring break is costly. We have done the seventeen hour trip many times and actually I prefer it to driving only because we have our own car and can stop at a favorite restaurant along the way. At this point though we generally fly and I do admit I love the extra time on the beach. We still drive to Chicago every summer. At a quick five hours it is almost as fast as airport time and flying. Besides a plane ride does not include Slurpees, snacks, and fighting over the radio versus usage of hot spots, and more importantly family bonding time. I will gladly take a road trip and my husband would drive the length of the country without stopping. It seems like we missed the best era for road trip travel. By sharing his memories, Richard Ratay allowed me to relive mine to places like the Smokey Mountains, Mammoth Caves, and Windsor Ontario. As long as a beach or pool is involved, I’m game. So pack the car, set the radio to proper stations, and set out for a week of fun and family bickering ahem bonding. The American road trip, it would not be summer without it.
3.5 stars of fun
June 9, 2023
5 full stars ... SO freakin' fun!!! I loved everything about this ... from the heavy immersion of (mostly 70s) pop culture (OMG, the chapter about the CB radio craze!!! 😂🤣😂) to the author's writing style and delightful childhood anecdotes to illustrate the "history" parts. Just everything! I recognize that this isn't for everyone, but if the blurb sounds interesting to you, please do yourself a favor and give this a try. The very first pages will hook you!😊😊😊😊😊
July 7, 2018
Gee willikers this is a fun book and blast to the past honoring the great family road trips of days gone by. Ratay and I are close in age, both the youngest of four kids and I felt kinship as he chronicles his family’s car trips in simpler times before electronics, google maps and seat belts.
Ratay has similar humor to one of my favorites, Bill Bryson. He intertwines personal experiences with interesting history of our highways and byways, beloved landmarks, and recognizes trailblazers and visionaries who were involved in building up our highway infrastructure. One of the most compelling historical bits surrounds Carl Fisher, a man who was involved in the construction of numerous high-profile projects. His rags to riches to rags story is fascinating.
Creative chapter titling like ‘Swerving through the Seventies’, ‘Packed in Like Sardines’, ‘Smokeys in the Bush’ made me chuckle. I engaged from the early pages and found myself nodding my head often in recognition of the author's experiences paralleling mine. Gosh, I appreciate those trips more now than I ever did at the time. Hopefully, Ratay’s words will propel his readers to give it a go (but don’t forget to put on your seatbelt!). Comfort and humor for the soul.
Ratay has similar humor to one of my favorites, Bill Bryson. He intertwines personal experiences with interesting history of our highways and byways, beloved landmarks, and recognizes trailblazers and visionaries who were involved in building up our highway infrastructure. One of the most compelling historical bits surrounds Carl Fisher, a man who was involved in the construction of numerous high-profile projects. His rags to riches to rags story is fascinating.
Creative chapter titling like ‘Swerving through the Seventies’, ‘Packed in Like Sardines’, ‘Smokeys in the Bush’ made me chuckle. I engaged from the early pages and found myself nodding my head often in recognition of the author's experiences paralleling mine. Gosh, I appreciate those trips more now than I ever did at the time. Hopefully, Ratay’s words will propel his readers to give it a go (but don’t forget to put on your seatbelt!). Comfort and humor for the soul.
Read
August 9, 2024For anyone interested in being taken back thought time while listening to a fun and informative tale of the heritage of family road trips,
(AUDIOBOOK) "Don't Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip," by Richard Ratay
, is a perfect audiobook. The way Ratay presents his narrative and how this fun and informative topic is narrated will make his exploration of American travel culture educational and delightful.
Ratay doesn’t only give fascinating history, but displays the humor and the challenges that present themselves when road tripping with family. The way that the narrator delivers Ratay’s story, enhances Ratay’s stories and examples, and consequently, my experience of listening to it.
I have a love for history and traveling, and the narration of thisbook landed on my ears amazingly well. It makes me think about the intimate, memorable experiences and the crazy moments that one only gets to have on a family road trip. This audiobook has insightful and funny anecdotes that will reverberate with your own memories of family road trips.
For those who have road trips in their near future, or who just enjoy a good story, Richard Ratay's work will entertain you and teach you all in one book. Richard has made a glistening, and playful, and, at times, a moving, story of the road trip, and the audiobook will leave you feeling good, and possibly looking for keys to get on your own road trip.
Ratay doesn’t only give fascinating history, but displays the humor and the challenges that present themselves when road tripping with family. The way that the narrator delivers Ratay’s story, enhances Ratay’s stories and examples, and consequently, my experience of listening to it.
I have a love for history and traveling, and the narration of thisbook landed on my ears amazingly well. It makes me think about the intimate, memorable experiences and the crazy moments that one only gets to have on a family road trip. This audiobook has insightful and funny anecdotes that will reverberate with your own memories of family road trips.
For those who have road trips in their near future, or who just enjoy a good story, Richard Ratay's work will entertain you and teach you all in one book. Richard has made a glistening, and playful, and, at times, a moving, story of the road trip, and the audiobook will leave you feeling good, and possibly looking for keys to get on your own road trip.
July 29, 2024
Fun recap of key points in US history, pivotal political points in time, and travel innovation through the eyes of a young boy. Lighthearted and a skim through time, much of it bringing up my own memories of my childhood in the 70s and 80s, with a bonus reflection on what was lost as a result of modernization, and all of which I can relate to.
October 13, 2018
Richard Ratay has written an excellent book about what it was like to travel on America's roads with his family on many family vacations. As a person who shares this type of experience with him, I relished this book and his memories of what it was like in the back seat of all of those over-the-road journeys. His descpriptions are spot on! In addition, he has added a lot of background information on highway travel, which adds depth to his story. This is definitely a good read!
May 9, 2021
A winding drive through the family road trip, taking detours through the birth of our freeway system, the history of road trip snacks, and even how CB radios came to be widely used on the road, all while riding through the landscape of the author's own experiences growing up.
I'm just about the same age as the author, so his stories brought back my own memories from childhood. My dad and his dad definitely would have been friends had they ever met. Also, the writing is quite punny, which made the reading even more fun than a game of I Spy. Fittingly, I bought this at Wall Drug while on a road trip.
I'm just about the same age as the author, so his stories brought back my own memories from childhood. My dad and his dad definitely would have been friends had they ever met. Also, the writing is quite punny, which made the reading even more fun than a game of I Spy. Fittingly, I bought this at Wall Drug while on a road trip.
January 28, 2019
A mixed bag. The introduction really turned me off, with its hokey and overembellished style. There are a lot of strained and unnatural similes and jokes thrown in throughout in an effort to be charming. Sometimes you can say more with less, and Ratay gives off an air of desperation, a forced zeal that says, "Please like me, I'm interesting!" It's especially pronounced in chapters one and four, where Ratay tells us nothing about road trips writ large and focuses exclusively on his own family, even going so far as to give a cast of characters with their own backstories and physical descriptions. That did nothing to add to the thesis and was something I skipped entirely, along with additional fluff like scenes of Ratay family politics and his favorite candies to pack for trips.
But perhaps I'm being too harsh. Every family road trip is an eminently personal experience, after all, and we've all got those great memories and stories of road trips past. Once I pushed past my own crankiness and got to the meat and potatoes of the nonfiction research, I discovered Ratay does a great job of taking us through the history of America's automobile fixation, the development and expansion of roadways and the interstate system, and the boom of roadside attractions, tourist destinations, and all the conveniences we now take for granted like drive-thru restaurants, plentiful motel lodging, and everything else that makes the cross-country drive possible.
3 stars out of 5. It's a good book at its core but I wanted a more substantive history of Americana, not an autobiography.
But perhaps I'm being too harsh. Every family road trip is an eminently personal experience, after all, and we've all got those great memories and stories of road trips past. Once I pushed past my own crankiness and got to the meat and potatoes of the nonfiction research, I discovered Ratay does a great job of taking us through the history of America's automobile fixation, the development and expansion of roadways and the interstate system, and the boom of roadside attractions, tourist destinations, and all the conveniences we now take for granted like drive-thru restaurants, plentiful motel lodging, and everything else that makes the cross-country drive possible.
3 stars out of 5. It's a good book at its core but I wanted a more substantive history of Americana, not an autobiography.
October 22, 2024
I saw the title in 2019 and instantly added it to my want to read shelf; this year it fit a challenge so I finally got around to it. I liked it in spite of some parts that weren't very interesting to me personally (that was some of the history.) Unlike some of those who didn't, I liked the family stories the best because it helped me care more about the other things.
I listened to a significant part of this and also read it. My dad must have said "don't make me pull over" because it sounds so familiar. I was born and raised in Canada, but we also did road trips and all of them in station wagons, so I could relate to some of this; thankfully my dad insisted on seatbelts from before we were born and didn't try to make time the way Ratay's dad did. However, this isn't about our road trips, but about the book. As for the audiobook--they made the family stories better but dragged out some of the history for me.
If you've ever gone on a road trip with your family this is a book for you; triply so if you did it during the 1970s when the family accounts, hotels, etc take place, but the history starts earlier than that.
I listened to a significant part of this and also read it. My dad must have said "don't make me pull over" because it sounds so familiar. I was born and raised in Canada, but we also did road trips and all of them in station wagons, so I could relate to some of this; thankfully my dad insisted on seatbelts from before we were born and didn't try to make time the way Ratay's dad did. However, this isn't about our road trips, but about the book. As for the audiobook--they made the family stories better but dragged out some of the history for me.
If you've ever gone on a road trip with your family this is a book for you; triply so if you did it during the 1970s when the family accounts, hotels, etc take place, but the history starts earlier than that.
August 9, 2019
Despite some perfunctory sections on the development of highways in America, automobile regulation (or lack thereof), various cultural movements and shifts, and so on, this intentionally flippant book is really more of a memoir of the author's own boyhood experiences of family road trips than a comprehensive history of them. It appealed to me largely because I'm a sucker for 70s nostalgia. Richard Ratay lovingly recalls the details of his youth -- the candy, the TV commercials, the not using seat belts and sitting in the backward facing jump seats of station wagons. The "Yes and Know" activity books bought to while away time on journeys. These are the best parts, although I'm not sure how much they'd appeal to someone who wasn't also a child in the 70s. That said, the book failed to satisfy a deeper itch I had for a more thoughtful exploration of the phenomenon of road trips, not only of their appealing kitschy glory, but also considerations of things like, just for example, the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of of a society built around cars and interstates. The phrase "climate change" does not appear in this book. A lowish 3.
April 18, 2018
If the cover and the title make you curious about the book, chances are, you will enjoy it. The design evokes nostalgia and humor, and Richard Ratay delivers both. In between reminiscences of family road trips from his own childhood in the 1970s, Ratay explores some of the aspects of road tripping, such as the interstate highway system, rest stops, and drive-thru restaurants. He looks at the rise of automobile travel, paved roads, camping, and motels. Some detours include thoughts on video games, candy cigarettes, and the CB radio fad. He calls it an "informal history," and that becomes especially clear when he injects a fair amount of attitude when describing the "strangling effects" of government regulation -- on airline routes and fares, on highway speed limits, on the use of seat belts. A mostly fun and light hearted look at the fading era of the family road trip.
(Thanks to Edelweiss and Scribner for a digital review copy.)
(Thanks to Edelweiss and Scribner for a digital review copy.)
January 28, 2019
This is a Bill Bryson lite kind of book:
The author begins by recounting some road trips he took as a child (though technically not road trips, his family simply drove as quickly as they could from their home in the midwest to golf resorts in the South East), and then detours into other subjects that interest him. These range from the story of the development of toll roads and the interstate highway system and the histories of the Stuckys and Howard Johnson chains to the totally irrelevant development of the Atari Gaming system and airline deregulation.
Overall, a choppy read on what should have been a more interesting subject, at least for baby boomers.
The author begins by recounting some road trips he took as a child (though technically not road trips, his family simply drove as quickly as they could from their home in the midwest to golf resorts in the South East), and then detours into other subjects that interest him. These range from the story of the development of toll roads and the interstate highway system and the histories of the Stuckys and Howard Johnson chains to the totally irrelevant development of the Atari Gaming system and airline deregulation.
Overall, a choppy read on what should have been a more interesting subject, at least for baby boomers.
October 8, 2018
Part history, part memoir, this book was a fun and nostalgic read.
August 2, 2018
Don't Make Me Pull Over! is a decent nostalgic look back at the heyday of the family road trip in mid-twentieth century America. Ratay explores a variety of aspects of the experience of traveling American highways in the 1940s through 1970s, from the marked improvement of American roads throughout the twentieth century (particularly as a consequence of Eisenhower's highway construction program) to the advent of national chains of fast food restaurants and hotels to the ways in which riding in a car has changed, such as increased safety measures decreasing the mobility of passengers.
I wasn't expecting this book to be as autobiographical as it ended up being, and since I was expecting a more detailed and comprehensive history of the car trip as a pop culture concept and common practice, I was slightly let down by the informality of the history here. Certainly there is much trivia to learn from this book about disparate aspects of car travel, and as a native Wisconsinite, I can appreciate the appeal of such landmarks as the Mars Cheese Castle beckoning from I-94. But the integration of Ratay's childhood family trips with the history felt overly expansive to me; neither was I fully convinced by his claims that contemporary family road trips must necessarily lack the unifying togetherness in a car of car trips in the Seventies. All a family needs to do is to listen to a single audiobook, podcast, or radio station together instead of everyone popping in their earbuds, and that media can provide a source of conversation, education, and enjoyment!
Perhaps someone who can remember the Seventies would find greater enjoyment here, because it might remind them of things they had forgotten about road travel in the Seventies. While I found the writing moderately engaging and the topic very interesting, I was slightly disappointed with the heavy doses of nostalgia and lack of surprises. On the bright side, Ratay does offer a variety of references to books with narrower historical scope than is provided here.
I wasn't expecting this book to be as autobiographical as it ended up being, and since I was expecting a more detailed and comprehensive history of the car trip as a pop culture concept and common practice, I was slightly let down by the informality of the history here. Certainly there is much trivia to learn from this book about disparate aspects of car travel, and as a native Wisconsinite, I can appreciate the appeal of such landmarks as the Mars Cheese Castle beckoning from I-94. But the integration of Ratay's childhood family trips with the history felt overly expansive to me; neither was I fully convinced by his claims that contemporary family road trips must necessarily lack the unifying togetherness in a car of car trips in the Seventies. All a family needs to do is to listen to a single audiobook, podcast, or radio station together instead of everyone popping in their earbuds, and that media can provide a source of conversation, education, and enjoyment!
Perhaps someone who can remember the Seventies would find greater enjoyment here, because it might remind them of things they had forgotten about road travel in the Seventies. While I found the writing moderately engaging and the topic very interesting, I was slightly disappointed with the heavy doses of nostalgia and lack of surprises. On the bright side, Ratay does offer a variety of references to books with narrower historical scope than is provided here.
April 11, 2018
Wonderful history of American travel, not just family road trips. As one reads, memories good and bad will come to every reader. Even though long road trips have gone out of fashion, we continued to take them with our kids, even today as they are adults. They are a special bonding for families and never fail to give a good travel story or adventure, that faster plane travel cannot provide. Part non fiction and part memoir. Recommend to those who enjoy travelouges and fond memories.
January 22, 2025
Nostalgic and Fun read - so much was true for my family like riding anywhere inside the car, gas shortages , motel pools, car snacks and sibling annoyances. ( mostly me as the most annoying one - especially when mom handed out our one candy bar for the day; Beth ate hers and I tormented her with NOT eating mine for hours while unwrapping it, putting it near her face and other super childish stuff). Not sure why she still speaks to me. 😉 Quite an era.
December 31, 2019
A great audio book for road trips!
August 26, 2018
As someone who has spent probably more than an average amount of time on the road, both as a child and as a parent, I could appreciate the author's interest in the subject of family road trips. Amidst Ratay's recounting of his family's travels are tucked facts on a variety of subjects; I was glad to take these in. However I grew a bit weary of the author's overly generous use of extended puns (if you've ever watched the Food Network show "Unwrapped," you'll know what I mean), and I felt the book would have benefited from having some of the family stories edited down a bit more: I think we get to hear almost ten times how much Ratay enjoyed basking in the sun on the rear deck during road trips.
The annoyances are counterbalanced by a smorgasbord of information related to family travel: the history of the station wagon, development of the US interstate system, the rise and fall of various motel and dining chains, the political aspects of fuel pricing and airline regulation that altered how Americans travel, and more.
The annoyances are counterbalanced by a smorgasbord of information related to family travel: the history of the station wagon, development of the US interstate system, the rise and fall of various motel and dining chains, the political aspects of fuel pricing and airline regulation that altered how Americans travel, and more.
November 6, 2018
I really enjoyed this telling of the history of family road trips in America. Although the trips were set in the 1970's because of the author's age, he goes into great detail (wonderfully!) about the history of such things as the beginning of: roads in America, roadside motels & restaurants, fast food, video/arcade games, and air travel. But what I liked most was his description of his family jammed into the car for miles on end playing family road games, singing songs, and generally pestering each other to while away the hours, because that is what I remember doing with my family in the 1960's. And it was a blast!
May 15, 2021
Possibly a 3 1/2 star read but I bumped it up for having sent me down memory lane!
Loved his mentioning of Mars Cheese Castle. We frequently stopped there on our weekend trips to our property near Lake Geneva. Sausage! Cheese! out the wazoo! Also a good place to stop on the way to Door County. Don't tell me that Wisconsin is not Chicago's back yard. We would go to Lake Geneva area - that's where we kept our sailboat. We never did get around to erecting any kind of building. We were too busy sailing, gardening, barbecuing, picnicking. Sometimes camping - although not so much once we discovered how bad the mosquitos were for 2 solid hours every night - and sometimes we would get a cabin down the road.
The Ratay family seemed to get a lot of gas guzzling cars while the rest of us were getting station wagons. Of course, I suppose we got the wagons because it was easier to haul a dog and sails around in the back than in a trunk. Although you would think Mr. Ratay might have learned a lesson when he got a car where the trunk leaked and all of their clothes got soaked! Very funny. One of those times when the people involved have to say "we'll laugh about this later!"
They take most of their trips to places where Dad can play golf. We took a lot of ours to visit the grandparents in Baltimore and the rest were to scenic places like Rocky Mountain National Park or the Ozarks, mostly camping - cheaper than hotels. Cheapness was something our fathers definitely shared.
I still take vacations by car. I don't think you ever forget your first airplane ride. The author's was to DC, mine was to New Orleans. He can still remember climbing the Washington Monument (my brother did that) and going to the White House. We went to the White House once, too. He hoped to meet Reagan and we thought we might meet LBJ. We did meet our then senator, Paul Douglas. I don't think I'd ever seen such a tall person before. But, like me, we went to Maryland because we didn't have to stay in a hotel, we had relatives.
This is also a fairly informative book. Thomas H. MacDonald set up the numbering system for routes -
Other narratives consist of the reluctance of Americans to buy and use seat belts. I think we used them - especially after I broke my jaws after only have the waist belt on. That car only had a waist belt. We learned how close disaster may be. All it takes is one serious accident. My brother had a number of accidents but no serious injuries. Apparently the Ratays were much luckier than our family.
The problem with flying to your destination is the forgetting that THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION! By flying you miss out on many of the small adventures/mishaps that happen on family vacations. Blown tires! Getting lost on back roads. Running out of gas because someone believes there is more gas than is reflected on the gauge.
So I enjoyed this book because it reminded me of so many old trips.
Loved his mentioning of Mars Cheese Castle. We frequently stopped there on our weekend trips to our property near Lake Geneva. Sausage! Cheese! out the wazoo! Also a good place to stop on the way to Door County. Don't tell me that Wisconsin is not Chicago's back yard. We would go to Lake Geneva area - that's where we kept our sailboat. We never did get around to erecting any kind of building. We were too busy sailing, gardening, barbecuing, picnicking. Sometimes camping - although not so much once we discovered how bad the mosquitos were for 2 solid hours every night - and sometimes we would get a cabin down the road.
The Ratay family seemed to get a lot of gas guzzling cars while the rest of us were getting station wagons. Of course, I suppose we got the wagons because it was easier to haul a dog and sails around in the back than in a trunk. Although you would think Mr. Ratay might have learned a lesson when he got a car where the trunk leaked and all of their clothes got soaked! Very funny. One of those times when the people involved have to say "we'll laugh about this later!"
They take most of their trips to places where Dad can play golf. We took a lot of ours to visit the grandparents in Baltimore and the rest were to scenic places like Rocky Mountain National Park or the Ozarks, mostly camping - cheaper than hotels. Cheapness was something our fathers definitely shared.
I still take vacations by car. I don't think you ever forget your first airplane ride. The author's was to DC, mine was to New Orleans. He can still remember climbing the Washington Monument (my brother did that) and going to the White House. We went to the White House once, too. He hoped to meet Reagan and we thought we might meet LBJ. We did meet our then senator, Paul Douglas. I don't think I'd ever seen such a tall person before. But, like me, we went to Maryland because we didn't have to stay in a hotel, we had relatives.
This is also a fairly informative book. Thomas H. MacDonald set up the numbering system for routes -
East-west routes were assigned even numbers, and north-south routes were given odd numbers. The lowest numbers for north-south routes are in the western United States, and the lowest numbers for east-west routes are in the South. Later, beltways skirting large cities were given three-digit numbers that included the number of their associated interstate
Other narratives consist of the reluctance of Americans to buy and use seat belts. I think we used them - especially after I broke my jaws after only have the waist belt on. That car only had a waist belt. We learned how close disaster may be. All it takes is one serious accident. My brother had a number of accidents but no serious injuries. Apparently the Ratays were much luckier than our family.
The problem with flying to your destination is the forgetting that THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION! By flying you miss out on many of the small adventures/mishaps that happen on family vacations. Blown tires! Getting lost on back roads. Running out of gas because someone believes there is more gas than is reflected on the gauge.
So I enjoyed this book because it reminded me of so many old trips.
May 21, 2018
How many times have you heard that as a kid?? While an age contemporary of the author, my family never took a road trip anywhere but I had friends who did and my husband did and I lived them through their stories.
This book is so much more than reminiscing about being packed into a car the size of a boat and barely being let out for food or bladder relief until the destination was reached. What is it about dads anyway? I may not have taken road trips when I was a kid, but once married with kids of our own, my husband introduced the concept to me and our kids and he, too, wouldn’t stop for anything. I remember one trip where they kids had nothing but saltine crackers for a whole day because we were headed for someplace by nightfall.
What makes this book fascinating, really fascinating, is the back story of road travel itself. We all know that before the interstates travel was on those two lane roads that crawled through towns and with any luck the car you were in was behind a truck hauling felled trees. No, the author takes us all the way back, all the way to when roads themselves were invented. I mean, if you’re going to go somewhere you really benefitted if there was a path.
Once you had a path you needed somewhere to go. And you needed somewhere to “go” when you were on your way. A rest area. How surprised was I to find that the very first ‘rest area’ was a place to stop and sit at a picnic table and have your lunch. And that first invented area to rest is not 10 miles from my front door!
The author takes us everywhere, tells us everything about tripping, tells us how it all came about into one package that became everything we needed. Cars, roads, maps, gas stations, restaurants, campgrounds, picnics, rest areas, amusement destinations, and then how all these things evolved and then devolved with the coming of air travel and ultimately the loss of locking a family into a tiny space but which was really a monstrously huge car and forcing them to interact with each other without electronic means. This is the stuff of our memories, the stories we tell to our children (and wives), the life that we used to live and will never know again. If you are of the age that this was your life, you do NOT want to miss this book. Even though my family never took a road trip, I could still feel the wind in my face.
This book is so much more than reminiscing about being packed into a car the size of a boat and barely being let out for food or bladder relief until the destination was reached. What is it about dads anyway? I may not have taken road trips when I was a kid, but once married with kids of our own, my husband introduced the concept to me and our kids and he, too, wouldn’t stop for anything. I remember one trip where they kids had nothing but saltine crackers for a whole day because we were headed for someplace by nightfall.
What makes this book fascinating, really fascinating, is the back story of road travel itself. We all know that before the interstates travel was on those two lane roads that crawled through towns and with any luck the car you were in was behind a truck hauling felled trees. No, the author takes us all the way back, all the way to when roads themselves were invented. I mean, if you’re going to go somewhere you really benefitted if there was a path.
Once you had a path you needed somewhere to go. And you needed somewhere to “go” when you were on your way. A rest area. How surprised was I to find that the very first ‘rest area’ was a place to stop and sit at a picnic table and have your lunch. And that first invented area to rest is not 10 miles from my front door!
The author takes us everywhere, tells us everything about tripping, tells us how it all came about into one package that became everything we needed. Cars, roads, maps, gas stations, restaurants, campgrounds, picnics, rest areas, amusement destinations, and then how all these things evolved and then devolved with the coming of air travel and ultimately the loss of locking a family into a tiny space but which was really a monstrously huge car and forcing them to interact with each other without electronic means. This is the stuff of our memories, the stories we tell to our children (and wives), the life that we used to live and will never know again. If you are of the age that this was your life, you do NOT want to miss this book. Even though my family never took a road trip, I could still feel the wind in my face.
November 3, 2020
Anyone who has ever taken a road trip will appreciate Richard Ratay’s Don’t Make Me Pull Over. Both the cover and the description pulled me in. I had envisioned this book to be a hilarious memoir of family road trips a la Bill Bryson. It had some humorous bits, but overall it was an informative overview of the history of every aspect of the family road trip in the USA. Who knew that the initial champions of the interstate freeway were cycling enthusiasts not the auto industry!?!
Mr. Ratay’s book is filled with nostalgia from the mid-20th century when road trips were the prime vacation option for most families. I enjoyed Mr. Ratay’s retelling of how he and his siblings entertained themselves on the road as well as his father’s high-stake gas-gauge-accuracy gambling. When readers learn that the airline industry was regulated and the price of a single ticket far exceeded what many families would spend on a week-long vacation, you feel Mr. Ratay’s delight at his first flight. The excitement is palpable. Everything about the journey was first class, however, the family interaction is almost nonexistent. Mr. Ratay aptly comes to the conclusion that road trips made the people and the journey as much a part of the vacation as was the destination.
From wacky roadside attractions to shady gas station antics to CB radio usage, Don’t Make Me Pull Over! is an interesting, fun read. More mature readers will appreciate the nostalgia and more youthful readers will get a glimpse into the not-so-distance past.
Mr. Ratay’s book is filled with nostalgia from the mid-20th century when road trips were the prime vacation option for most families. I enjoyed Mr. Ratay’s retelling of how he and his siblings entertained themselves on the road as well as his father’s high-stake gas-gauge-accuracy gambling. When readers learn that the airline industry was regulated and the price of a single ticket far exceeded what many families would spend on a week-long vacation, you feel Mr. Ratay’s delight at his first flight. The excitement is palpable. Everything about the journey was first class, however, the family interaction is almost nonexistent. Mr. Ratay aptly comes to the conclusion that road trips made the people and the journey as much a part of the vacation as was the destination.
From wacky roadside attractions to shady gas station antics to CB radio usage, Don’t Make Me Pull Over! is an interesting, fun read. More mature readers will appreciate the nostalgia and more youthful readers will get a glimpse into the not-so-distance past.
August 23, 2018
3.5 so I’ll round up to 4.0 traveling stars
Listened to this great audiobook on an informal history of the car, our interstate road system and family car trips before the deregulation of the airline industry.
The best part, of course, is the car trips many families took in their “land yachts” of cars back in the 50’s and 60’s before the minivan was invented. Families of six could fit comfortably with a food basket in the back and all their luggage in the spacious trunk. No one even thought about gas or oil sources being depleted, especially at .25 a gallon. Unfortunately ignorance was bliss.
Anyway, nostalgia runs rosy as we recall inexpensive motels, crammed with rollaway beds, one bathroom and wait for it, a pool!!! Our author’s family lived for these vacations and so did mine and most of my neighbors and friends. Getting there was half the fun; naturally we had no choice as kids, so we had no idea we were missing anything!
The book does get into the 70’s and the oil embargo, gas lines and the eventual smaller car. Then the 80’s and the airline deregulation and cheaper airfares. Of course we fast forward to 9/11 and the family does go back to road trips for awhile, but this time everyone is armed with technology and earphones.
A fun book, I recommend it, especially if you’re of a certain age. 😊
Listened to this great audiobook on an informal history of the car, our interstate road system and family car trips before the deregulation of the airline industry.
The best part, of course, is the car trips many families took in their “land yachts” of cars back in the 50’s and 60’s before the minivan was invented. Families of six could fit comfortably with a food basket in the back and all their luggage in the spacious trunk. No one even thought about gas or oil sources being depleted, especially at .25 a gallon. Unfortunately ignorance was bliss.
Anyway, nostalgia runs rosy as we recall inexpensive motels, crammed with rollaway beds, one bathroom and wait for it, a pool!!! Our author’s family lived for these vacations and so did mine and most of my neighbors and friends. Getting there was half the fun; naturally we had no choice as kids, so we had no idea we were missing anything!
The book does get into the 70’s and the oil embargo, gas lines and the eventual smaller car. Then the 80’s and the airline deregulation and cheaper airfares. Of course we fast forward to 9/11 and the family does go back to road trips for awhile, but this time everyone is armed with technology and earphones.
A fun book, I recommend it, especially if you’re of a certain age. 😊
July 3, 2018
“Don’t Make Me Pull Over” by Richard Ratay, published by Scribner.
Category – Travel/Comedy Publication Date – July 03, 2018.
Remember the family vacation where the family was packed into the car and the fun began. This book tells the story that most of us have lived through, either as children or parents.
Watch out for the noogie!
This was a time before cell phones, hand computers, GPS, and in care movies. Mom kept everyone contained, well for the most part, by playing silly games. How about the license plate game or the Alphabet game, remember those. When gassing up the car meant potty break and you better be back in the car when Dad was ready to go. The stories go on and on and Richard Ratay will tell them all and you will remember everyone one of them.
This is not only a story of the family vacation but also a story of transportation. How did maps come about? What was the evolution of the motel and Holidome? What was a fuzz buster and the explosion of the CB? Good Buddy!
There is no way you are not going to enjoy this book, it is a nostalgic look at an era that will never be seen again, or should I say experienced again.
Category – Travel/Comedy Publication Date – July 03, 2018.
Remember the family vacation where the family was packed into the car and the fun began. This book tells the story that most of us have lived through, either as children or parents.
Watch out for the noogie!
This was a time before cell phones, hand computers, GPS, and in care movies. Mom kept everyone contained, well for the most part, by playing silly games. How about the license plate game or the Alphabet game, remember those. When gassing up the car meant potty break and you better be back in the car when Dad was ready to go. The stories go on and on and Richard Ratay will tell them all and you will remember everyone one of them.
This is not only a story of the family vacation but also a story of transportation. How did maps come about? What was the evolution of the motel and Holidome? What was a fuzz buster and the explosion of the CB? Good Buddy!
There is no way you are not going to enjoy this book, it is a nostalgic look at an era that will never be seen again, or should I say experienced again.
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