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Do you remember Sunday drives?

(10 Posts)
Foxglove77 Mon 17-Aug-26 18:54:30

When we were children, Mum and Dad used to take us for Sunday drives. Sometimes we would take the dog and go for long walks, stopping at a pub for pop and crisps on the way home. Other times we would go to the seaside for fish and chips.

With fuel so expensive now, and so many vehicles on the road, this is no longer a thing.

Sometimes going down a steep hill, my Dad would turn the engine off and coast to save fuel.

Happy memories smile

Funnygran Mon 17-Aug-26 19:09:01

We never had a car! But I had aunts and uncles who did and they would often come on a Sunday and take whoever wanted a run out usually onto the North Yorkshire moors since they didn’t live locally. We always seemed to find an ice cream shop. Happy days.

Grannyme6 Mon 17-Aug-26 19:10:23

Yes I remember that. I remember my father taking my sister and me for Sunday drives, especially after my mother died when I was 10. Sometimes we would take bread, breadboard and knife, butter and some milk (all in a wicker basket) and call in on some very close friends who had lived next door but had moved to Eastwood near the coast in Essex. No home telephone in those days , so we would call in and if, convenient, stay for tea. Poignant memories..

kittylester Mon 17-Aug-26 19:18:11

DH and I were talking about this the other day. It all seemed rather aimless but we often stopped for an ice cream. Another thing I remember, that horrifies me now from lots of points of view, was my dad smoking in the car and then flicking the end out of window. I think that was a common occurrence back then.

shysal Mon 17-Aug-26 19:25:02

Yes, I remember. I was forced to go along and sat with my transistor radio plugged into my ear to listen to Pick of the Pops.
My father promised ice creams if we found a shop open, which was rare on a Sunday in those days. We never got one, as he deliberately took detours to avoid them.
He was a typical slow driver in a flat cap, driving our Morris Minor PFC 753.

valdali Mon 17-Aug-26 19:29:45

We used to go out for drives, sometimes with cousins or friends in their cars. My gran used to love going for a drive, they'd never had a car & didn't even see them very often down the track where she lived, so we would pick her up & take her too.
Loved going for a drive even if it was just with Mum or Dad to pick up something, but by the time my boys were born it was boring unless they were going to a theme park / to buy something / to the cinema etc.

BlueBelle Mon 17-Aug-26 19:32:50

No, not one person in my family or extended family had a car.
We were working class so we biked or walked

tanith Mon 17-Aug-26 19:34:55

My Dad used to drive us to High Wycombe on Sunday where his sister lived in a small village it took an hour and seemed like a big adventure with little brother in his cowboy outfit and he would shoot tigers as we drove into the woods. We would have tea in her back room and she’d bring prepared salad out of her very large pantry with ham and always celery sticks in a jug with the salt cellar it was always tinned fruit salad with carnation milk and pink blancmange for afters with sliced white bread and butter. My Aunt always sliced bread by holding the round loaf against her stomach then the point of the knife went in the middle and she would turn the loaf whilst slicing it. It looked very dangerous 😳

Whitewavemark2 Mon 17-Aug-26 19:38:59

When we first met, my eventual in-laws insisted that DH take them out every Sunday. They used to sit in the back of the car arguing.

Not my most favourite memory.

Septimia Mon 17-Aug-26 19:43:36

My dad liked to go out for a drive on Sundays as a break from work - he sometimes worked Saturday mornings which reduced the weekend free time.

In the summer we went for picnics, which were enjoyable, but in the winter we just went for a drive around the countryside. I hated the winter trips because I got car sick, although I did learn my way around our local region. I was very relieved, though, when I was old enough to stay at home on my own!