"These happy golden years are passing by, these happy golden years." Laura Ingalls Wilder

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" (part 3)


No, not quite yet ... those lyrics by John Denver (1971) were played over and over competing for the likes of "Good Morning Starshine"and "Jean", by the singer Oliver ... let's not forget Jim Neighbors, Percy Faith ... and Glen Campbell too! Imagine the chorus of five out-of-tuners singing as we rolled along open highways. STOP RIGHT THERE ... now back to the story ... Once we were past the city of no return, Albuquerque, Dad lightened up a bit on his lead foot. There were sights to see, wide open spaces, new freeways to navigate, and a few side trips to places such as Four Corners, Dog Patch USA, Nashville and even some caves. To wile away the hours, we kids would play Auto Bingo, read comic books, doodle on our magic erase pad, count mile markers, be assigned a certain color of car to spot, and saw some zzzzzz's. Mom would be the navigator and for the most part kept Dad on the right path. But sometimes he thought she was wrong and would chart a new course taking us out of the way, driving on fumes, while we were all a pray'in that we wouldn't run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. The baby of our family, my brother Kevin, would have his own way of amusing himself and annoying the heck out of the rest of us. His self assigned job was to inspect each public restroom for cleanliness giving it a grade. My older brother, Chris, didn't escape oddities; his job was to keep track of how much food everyone ate.

By the time we finally reached Grandma's we had to peel ourselves out of the car and stand upright for hours. Shake if off, Shake if off!

9 comments:

Terry said...

Dear Mrs. Mac...Oh, I just loved that song, "Good Morning Sunshine".
I used to sing along with it and never got tired of it!
And "Jean", what a lovely song was that!!
We never were allowed to listen to the radio much but when we did, I would sing along with it.
Oh I just loved Boby Vinton!!
You know what? None of these fancy radios now-a-days even come close as good as the transistor radio or the ipods as close as the old 8 track!!!

Keep the stories rolling in Mrs. Mac!!
So fun!! love Terry

Sara said...

i need this vacation more than you know!
raindrops keep fallin' on my head; but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red; cryin's not for me!...

Anonymous said...

I love the last several posts, I can't believe it's been this long since I have visited you site, but then I've been too busy to keep up with my own. I love it when you visit my site and I see you are awake and on the computer now. Do you have the same time we do in Southern Idaho? I love going on a trip with you. and I can recognize every picture you have in this post, even the little doll made from beads. It's been a long time since I've heard of ethel gas, that was before unleaded came on the scene.
BTW, if you look at your Northern Idaho Weather Calender you will find out that the blue moon was in May. :-) which means that I not only got pictures of a full moon, but of a "Blue Moon" :-)
I also say "Happy Anniversary" to us. Good night, dear friend. Just Gramma

Pat said...

When I think back to those road trips I wonder to myself how my dad had the time to drive from Ca. to Michigan - stay for a weeks vacation and drive back again. He must have gotten a long vacation back then, because most young families today wouldn't have the time to take such a long trip. It certainly provided for a lot of memories, didn't it?! I'm enjoying taking this trip with you!

Constance said...

Another fun trip down memory lane! For some reason the song, "Cherish" by The Association keeps replaying in my brain!

Mrs. Darling said...

We werent allowed to listen to the radio as kids so on our road trips we dang at the top of our longs.

Thanks again for taking us with ou down memory lane.

Mrs. Darling said...

uh that should say, "we sang at the top of our lungs!" Mercy!

Pat said...

Mrs. Darling -
Looks like you type just like me! At least you didn't leave your comment on the wrong blog!!

Margie said...

i love this! it's been great reading about your trip