A HISTORY OF VACATIONS
Are We There Yet?
Volume I Issue 2
As we continue our History Of Vacations I’d like to clarify that the discussion will mostly center on the History of Vacations in America. We’ll cover the subject from the point in time when vacations were not part of the American lexicon, through the earliest evolutionary period when only the most elite class of Americans traveled, until the present time through the development of family vacations, week-end getaways, summer time vacations and vacation packages.
It may seem difficult to image these days, but in times past it was almost unthinkable for anyone to take a vacation. The members of a usual family unit – father, mother, children all had “occupations”. In fact, the father was known by his occupation. “What do you do” was as common an introduction question as “what is your name” (a distinction still made often today). Mothers, for the most part, were stay-at-home moms; her life (and occupation) was caring for her family. And the children went to school.
Vacations were time spent away from their occupations. In fact, in an agrarian society, there was never any time available to take a vacation. Whether it was animal or crops or equipment or care of the land, none of
these could wait or be allowed to go untended to for even a day, much less a weekend and certainly not a week. Additionally, travel was expensive and most families simply did not have the funds to “get away”, even if their
occupations provided them with the time to do so.
There was also the general work ethic, stemming from our Puritan roots, that said people worked six days a week and then rested on the seventh. And on that seventh day, it was normally spent by going to church and hearing from the pulpit about how good it is to work, how idleness is a vice and how The Lord spent six days doing creation’s work and rested only on the seventh. So work was good, leisure was not.
About this time, the early years of the 19th century, doctors were beginning to recognize and say that it was important to get away for health reasons as they could see in their businessmen patients the resultant “brain fatigue” and burnout caused by working continuously. As more and more people began to listen to this advice, the church countered with providing a purpose for the use of leisure time with church sponsored retreats, camps and religious resorts. Of course, idleness was still perceived as analogous to drunkenness and other vices so that these resorts and camps provided
religious activities that forbade drinking, smoking and other temptations of idle time.
There was also a problem of travel. Automobiles had not come into being at this period of time. Travel choices were horse or horse and buggy for destinations within a day’s ride. Railways were in their early stages and still mostly used for cargo and also fairly local in their range of travel (the final link-up of tracks traversing the U.S. from coast to coast was not accomplished until 1869). And there were ships, which for travel were time-consuming and costly for oceanic voyages and for travel within the U.S. they only provided service north and south on the larger river systems usually
with paddle-wheel vessels.
The more affluent did travel, often extensively, but they were not called vacations, at least not as we understand it. The primary purpose for their travel was normally one of education. Children were often taken (or sent) abroad to further their understanding of other cultures and civilizations. Primary destinations for Americans tended to be Great Britain, Europe and the Far East in that order. The belief was that a greater understanding of other societies would enhance their life experience, enabling them to be more successful in their lives when they returned to America and embarked
on adult-hood and careers.
A segment of this section of American society also believed that those in their financial condition had a responsibility to serve the public, either through elected or appointed office. And knowledge and understanding of the rest of the world would enhance their effectiveness in that endeavor. They recognized earlier than the rest of society that we were part of a “Global Community”.
Next issue we will explore the role the railroads played in the creation of the vacation industry, how the American psyche began accepting the value of family vacations and how the change from an agrarian society to an industrial one contributed to the birth of vacations, as we know them today.
For all of the articles on The History Of Vacations visit
httpss://rooms101.com/vacation/history-of-vacations
