Don't Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip

Product Description

“A lighthearted, entertaining trip down Memory Lane” (Kirkus Reviews), 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.

Now, decades later, Ratay offers “an amiable guide…fun and informative” (New York Newsday) that “goes down like a cold lemonade on a hot summer’s day” (The Wall Street Journal). 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.

An “informative, often hilarious family narrative [that] perfectly captures the love-hate relationship many have with road trips” (Publishers Weekly), 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.

Top Reviews

Awakening
by Sofia Estela (5 out of 5 stars)
August 29, 2018

I just finished reading this book for my assigned summer reading. Let me start by saying that the blend of fact based history and personal experience and humor created for a detailed yet entertaining read. Like many people my age I have been exposed to 70s/80s music, culture and movies through my parents, but this book made me feel nostalgic about things that I couldn't have possibly experienced being just 16 years old. The rich history provided in the text educated me and the personal remarks were able to make me feel like I was living through the author. By the last few chapters all the pieces fell together to create a conclusion that honestly left me lying awake at night longing for what I have inevitably missed out on. Great read, even greater realizations.
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Life with Father---On the Road...Again!
by Plume45 (4 out of 5 stars)
October 25, 2018

What a hoot! The Ratay family secrets are out and shamelessly shared with readers! Interspersed between sections on highway construction, automobile manufacturing and the heydays of US airlines, we are treated to a hilarious (and sometimes alarming) patchwork of boyhood nostalgia. A sort of Survivors' Guide to tedious road trips with their father in control. Sort of. We get a glimpse into the past of billboards, CB history, roadside slogans and tourist traps, fast food chains, the rise of motels-as viewed through the inevitably selective memory of a kid, the youngest of four.

Before McDonalds was considering asking customers if they would like to Supersize their orders, their dad invented Paternal Downsizing: blatantly swiping fries off the top of their (to-be-shared) orders of fries, in what he shamelessly called "the Dad Tax!" In an age before cell phones his family of six skated on thin ice in various vehicles, including their beloved station wagon: running out of gas, no where to find food, too far from the amenities, parental arguing, sibling squabbling, and of course--No seat belts! Narrated with obvious fondness these chapters slip by as easily as falling asleep on a two-lane highway. Despite all the seeming drawbacks and dangers of 70's road trips, the author clearly misses those hallowed rides in the crammed family car. Sure, flying gets you there much faster and allows more time to BE there-wherever the vacation goal was; but a vacation is supposed to be much more than just reaching your Destination in one piece after having Made Time.

Getting there (and back) was just the first part of the trip, for the hazards of seeing America by car (and avoiding Smokey) actually provided precious family bonding, spawning spawned curious but quaintly charming family relationships. If you recall such trips yourself as a kid--or as a frazzled parent, you will love this book!

October 24, 2018
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A terrific read that offers equal parts nostalgia, history and hilarity.
by Avalon (5 out of 5 stars)
August 28, 2019

Don't Make Me Pull Over is a terrific read that offers equal parts nostalgia, history and hilarity. It's first and foremost a history book, and Ratay deftly introduces sundry topics in an entertaining way. We learn about the U.S. Interstate, the birth of the garish Holidome, speed limits, the advent of the speed gun and the equalizing force of the Fuzzbuster, the use of TripTik booklets (remember those?), video games, car games, restaurants and the creation of drive-through windows, an achievement Ratay is certain his father would rank as one of the greatest advancements of the twentieth century (well above personal computers, but not quite as high as graphite-shafted golf clubs).

Despite the ample history that's packed into this entertaining read, the star of the book has to be Ratay's father, a no-nonsense kind of guy who wants to "make good time" whatever the cost, who bargains with hotel clerks over price, and who settles disputes in the backseat by detaining the offender with his right arm while maintaining control of the steering wheel with his left. In one hilarious chapter, Ratay tells of his father's insistence on driving the car for as long as possible before refueling ("No sense stopping sooner than we have to. We'll lose twenty minutes just getting off and on the highway."). You can guess where this leads, but the results aren't any less slide-splitting.

I highly recommend this book.
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Breaker 1-9, whose got their ears on?
by Ken dalson (5 out of 5 stars)
September 27, 2018

This book is very funny indeed, but if you aren't a child of the 1970's you might not get it. My CB radio handle was Lovin' Spoonfuls. Stuckey's and HoJo's rocked! Our trips were done in an ocean liner sized green Buick known to my mom as Bessie, and a Ford Squire faux wood station wagon named Bessie Mae Mucho. No seatbelts were ever used. We lived life on the edge back then! Flying back in those pre-deregulation days was pretty wild too. I remember some pretty dodgy aircraft like the DC-3 and watching flight crews and drunken businessmen stumbling out of the First Class Only bars. By car or plane, travel has definitely gotten much safer and duller.
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A wonderful "road trip" down memory lane!
by Terrence J. Dempsey (5 out of 5 stars)
February 12, 2019

This was a wonderful read! Our family took road trips across the US in the early 70's with 7 seven of us packed in an un air conditioned Chevy station wagon, and it gave us all a love for traveling! The book blends history and reality, introduces how Holiday Inn, Stuckey's, Howard Johnson's, and other roadside places came to be so popular, and just is a great touch of nostalgia. A bit sad at the last fhapter n how road trips will never be the same yet we still love driving the country on road trips, the only real way to see our beautiful land. Thanks for a great book!
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Roads in America the best part
by Jake (3 out of 5 stars)
December 22, 2018

Really enjoyed the history of how roads developed in America. Well written. And the story behind what came along with it, the Holiday Inn, etc., was also educational and fun. The author's car trips with the family were also entertaining to some degree. The book weakens toward the end with less interesting conclusions on changing travel patterns.

Everything is through the author's personal filter. It would be fun to read a book where people who hit the road before and after the interstates shared fun stories. This book was good though.
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An engaging history of the American road trip
by Michael A. Hays (4 out of 5 stars)
March 21, 2019

"Don't Make Me Pull Over" is a fun and informative little book that is sure to resonate with readers who have memories of long trips in the family car. Mr. Ratay crafts the book around remembrances of his own childhood highway excursions, using vignettes from his past as touchstones to discuss topics ranging from the origins of the interstate system to the rise of video game arcades. The autobiographical portions of the book are the weakest; they sometimes became tiresome, with a few bordering on cliché, but they're easy to plow through. The historical and pop cultural discourse, however, is extremely entertaining and well written. A great book for anyone who loves Americana.
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Fun read!
by Janet Nelson (4 out of 5 stars)
August 11, 2018

I grew up taking road trips, very similar to the author and continue to enjoy them today. This book is a fun mixture of personal stories and the history of American road trips. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But all of the rest of you can stay home, I want the road less travelled all to myself.
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FUN! This book is a delightful trip.
by Simply Simpson (5 out of 5 stars)
September 24, 2018

This is the most enjoyable book that I've read in a while. Each chapter contains humor and interesting knowledge. There are no slow sections- this book was expertly edited for a crisp read. The range of topics; from candy selection and video game offerings to the wide array of vehicles on the roadways during last century, and so much more, combines to entertain and inform.
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Didn't We All Use This "Threat"? I Know I Did!
by Sleepless in SoPas (5 out of 5 stars)
September 7, 2018

This was a terrific read! An amazing mixture of family memories and historical facts made incredibly interesting by the author's style. Rich has a well developed sense of humor and it comes through as very easy reading. In full disclosure, Rich's mom was my first cousin, so I had the added enjoyment of knowing all the players! Great fun! I loved it!

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