“I believe Dad thought there were 11 Commandments,” said Diesel, who lives in North Franklin Township. “The 11th was ‘Thou shall take the family on a Sunday ride, weather permitting.’”
A Sunday drive was commonplace for many families in 1950s and ’60s, and often included a stop at Bryan’s Dairy in Waynesburg, which closed in the mid-’80s.
“We seldom traveled alone: It was Mom, Dad, two brothers and me. We also had a grandma, an aunt and cousin many times,” Diesel added. “There were no seat belts, so the adults in the back let the younger adults sit on their laps.”
The destination usually was unknown, but Diesel’s father, John Koziel, seemed to prefer rides in the mountains, often heading for Uniontown. Diesel remembers stopping at the top of one mountain where a big, brown bear was caged.
Diesel said her family did not always have the fanciest of cars. She recalls a worn-out Ford her dad bought for $50. It had scratchy, fabric seats and big, round headlights with a tarred-down material roof.
“On a very hot weekend, we went across Pennsylvania to visit a relative,” she said. ”The heat weakened the tar and one big corner came loose. It started to rain on our way home. The wind kept picking up the flapping top, causing rain to drip on my brother and me in the back seat. When we complained, Mom said put up the umbrella.
“Gas was 25 cents a gallon, but the memories today are worth millions,” Diesel added.
Like Diesel, Barbara King Barchiesi, along with her sisters and parents, would hit the road after enjoying a Sunday dinner of roast beef or fried chicken and home-grown vegetables.
“After the kitchen was cleaned up, Dad would announce that we were going for a Sunday drive,” she said. “We knew that most of our drives ended in Waynesburg at Bryan’s Dairy. Dad took us every possible way to Waynesburg, making the trip an adventure.”
During the ride from their home on Beham Road between Claysville and Beham, the family would discuss what flavor and how many scoops they’d like.
“The excitement and fun we had on those trips is not something children of today could possibly understand,” Barchiesi said.
Charles Devenney’s trips from his home in Washington’s West End to Greene County also included a stop at Bryan’s Dairy.
“I thought my dad was deciding on what flavor to buy, but he was actually watching to see what clerk dipped out the biggest cones,” Devenney said.
Devenney’s dad, Bill, also would tell him that he was lost and claim there were still some Indians in Greene County.
“He’d tell us the story of the Crow sisters who were attacked by Indians,” Devenney added. “We’d be looking out for Indians. When I had children, he told the same stories.”
Even a drive to Washington Park or the creek near the S Bridge off Route 40 were adventures for Devenney and his two younger brothers, John and George. His mom, Ruth, would pack a picnic lunch for the trips.
Devenney and his wife, Mary Ann, continue to enjoy car trips. They have visited every covered bridge in the state, including a recent visit to one in Bloomsburg, Columbia County.
Devenney said his interest in the bridges may stem from his youth when one of the routes to the Greene County farm of his great-grandfather, John Scott, took him across the covered bridge named for the family.
Nell Cole Kretzschmar of Lafayette, Ind., who grew up in Washington and Waynesburg, remembers her parents piling the five kids in the car for a trip to Bryan’s Dairy. When they lived in Waynesburg, they’d take a ride to Washington for a bag of hot dogs from Shorty’s.
“We were long on kids and short on cash, but these special treats were great outings for us,” she said. “I can almost taste how good they were right now!”
Tracy Nelson Horne of Washington said she believes her dad, who worked for Suwak Trucking in Washington, would use Sunday drives so he could scout out the routes where he would be peddling freight.
“Every road trip was an adventure,” said Horne, who grew up in the village of Plumsock near Prosperity. “I can remember my dad asking my mom if we should go east, west, north or south.”
“You never knew if you were going toward Pittsburgh or Uniontown,” she said. “Most places were only an hour or so away. Sometimes we made impromptu stops to places like the zoo.”
And since her parents were from Greene County, trips to Waynesburg always included a stop at – you guessed it – Bryan’s Dairy.
Even as a young parent, Horne and her husband, Mike, would take their children on Sunday drives.
“It was not an expensive outing, just fun,” Horne said. We’d sing a lot in the car. I think my kids know every song from the ’80s.”
Linda Ackley Willis said it wasn’t unusual for her family to take spur-of-the-moment trips.
“My dad had his own garage in Ninevah, so he could go when he wanted to,” she said. “And that we did. It wasn’t unusual to wake up, put a scarf on my head because we had a convertible, and away we’d go.”
Some trips would be to the home of her maternal grandparents in Dogtown, now known as Time, for turtle soup. Or they’d take a short trip to her father’s parents home in Ackley Creek between Graysville and Burnsville for a meal that included several kinds of meat, mashed potatoes and homemade bread and jelly.
Charles Brown of Eighty Four remembers his dad taking the family out for Sunday drives.
“We would drive for hours, and my father would take all of the back roads just to see where they would go,” Brown said. “Every time he would declare he was lost, we would end up in Bentleyville. It became the family joke – If you’re lost, it must be Bentleyville.”
Janice Hall Spittka of Houston remembers trips every other Sunday to her mother’s parents home in Granville, outside California. She, her four siblings and parents would pile into the car for the ride that took at least an hour, if not longer.
“We’d go over the mountain and through the woods through the country to Route 40,” she said. “It was all country roads. When we got there, my grandpap would be waiting on the porch.
“My grandma would be inside cooking on a wood-burning stove. There was a water pump in the kitchen and outhouse in the back,” Spittka added. “It was like going back in time.”