Clare Rood/Mary Dodge descendants and ancestors
Trip of a Lifetime - 1937
South Haven → Texas → Mexico City → Acapulco → Texas → California → Michigan
From January 1st to June 30, 1937, Clare was granted a leave of absence ‘for health’ from his job as Assistant State Club leader for the Upper Peninsula of the Boys and Girls Clubs (current 4-H), part of the Extension Service of Michigan Agricultural College (current MSU). He took the opportunity to take the family on a trip of a lifetime.
Clare bought a 16’ Travelo brand travel trailer for $500, hooked it up to a 1936 Plymouth 4-door sedan and departed with the family from South Haven, Michigan (home of Nonnie’s parents) on 11 Jan 1937. When they left, Clare was 38, Mary 39, Bob 12, Dave 10, Mary Jo 4 and family dog Spot, age unknown. During the next five months, they first headed south to Texas, on to Mexico City (where Dave spent his 11th birthday at a bullfight!) and continued south to the sleepy village of Acapulco, Mexico. From there, they returned first to Mexico City then
on to Texas, then headed west thru the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, the Grand Canyon, past the new Hoover dam, thru Death Valley on to Southern California, then north to Sequoia, Yosemite, the Bay area in time to catch the Grand Opening of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Great Salt Lake on their way home. They completed their 11,000 mile trip by returning to South Haven on 15 Jun 1937.
Late in 2020, Cousin Jim Rood (Bob’s youngest) had the idea that he would like to retrace the trip for his kids. He enlisted his brother Dan Rood and myself (David Rood) in his project. We each had items related to the trip that we could use. Bob was in 7th grade and Dave in 6th (Mary Jo had not started school yet). Since the trip took place during the school year, Nonnie kept them up on their studies and each boy was required to keep a diary of the trip. After their return, Nonnie typed up the diaries, the boys added illustrations and copies were made, which we all had for years. In addition, Jim has the diary that Nonnie kept during the Mexico portion of the trip- also typed, but with prints of photographs pasted in as well. He also has some ephemera- brochures, maps, etc. that were collected during the actual trip. Dan has another bunch of photos from the trip and his own set of various papers from the trip. I have two boxes of slides that Clare took during the trip and also found a 1937 AAA road map of the United States (eBay= $11.08) that allowed us to trace the exact roads the family traveled.
Once a week, from Jan-Jun 2021, the three of us put together a presentation of where the family went and what they did during the corresponding week of 1937. It included the relevant portions of the diaries, a snippet of the map showing their travels that week, pictures, images of the collected papers and after Mexico, a narrative with more information on their activities of that week. Each Sunday, Jim sent out an email to family and friends with an introduction and a link to our presentation for that week in Dropbox. If you missed the original broadcast, or simply want to re-live the trip again, click the link below and you will be taken to the weekly listings in Dropbox.
Unfortunately, Jim’s witty and entertaining introductions are not there. Believe me, they were very good. Thanks Jim and Dan for including me in the project. It truly was a “Trip of a Lifetime”, both for the Rood family in 1937 and for me today.
<Click here> to return to the Clare Rood narrative at his "Leave of Absence" tab