re: When did family vacations over Spring Break become a thing?

We didn't really start doing actual vacations until later in high school. We lived about 4 hours from my grandparents, so many years when we were younger my mom would pick us up from school on Friday and drive straight there. We'd get there by dinner time. She would go back home after the weekend and we would spend the week with my grandparents. Then my parents bought a condo in Destin so we would hit it up any time we had a long weekend or a week out of school.

Now that my kids are school age, my wife will take them to see her dad and grandparents every year at spring break. They will usually have some cousins there to play with, and take them to the beach for a day. Advantage of them living in south Alabama is they can hit Panama City in 90 minutes and not have to deal with renting a place.