The
particular cultural movement that is important to the plot of the story is the increase in car
traveland especially the family vacation by carduring the 1950s.
During World
War II, gas was rationed, so families were not taking car trips. Before that, during the Great
Depression, road trips by car were also not widespread: people were often very poor and couldn't
afford to take vacations. Further, up until President Eisenhower started a highway program to
improve the roads, many were in poor condition. This is still true to some extent in the story,
when the family heads off the beaten path, but before that point they seem to be traveling on
good, well-paved roadways complete with places to stop and get lunch.
If the
grandmother and her family were not part of the cultural desire to take the individual family
car trip, they would not have all been in the car together, and they also would not have been
isolated when the car flipped over in the ditch, turning a comic family vacation into a
nightmare.
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