.... and so went the first day of our yearly trek on one of numerous family vacations (continued from yesterday) ... Now being cramped in the backseat of Dad's Delta Jetstar automobile, sandwiched intermittently between my brothers without my own window, is it no wonder that I begged Dad to PLEASE, PLEASE GET A HOTEL WITH A POOL and a slide if possible? (Bare legs against the vinyl seats for 15 hours required something refreshing to cool a girl off.) You can bet that I had my swimsuit packed in my purse so I didn't have to wait to get first dibs on the bathroom to change. My parents made this allowance and would let us get a good hour of swimming in before we went to dinner, after which we'd do a little trinket shopping before bed. Now here's where I always felt cheated. Dad would get a room with two double beds. He and Mom got one, and my brothers got the other ... that left me to sleep on an uncomfortable roll-away or in a sleeping bag (pouting with my bottom li
p out)! The following morning would find us up and out the door early after a quick bite ... heading further east to spend the night with family in Oklahoma ... then off through the Ozarks and by the third day we were at Grandma and Grandpa's in the quaint little town of Pleasant Hill, Illinois, population 800. (A city mouse visits a country house ... whatever shall she find to do?) ... to be continued.Photo: Yours truly & my dad about 1969
7 comments:
Love your vacation stories. Reminds me of when Pop packed all 11 of us into a staion wagon to go to Yosemtie. Once in the park, never mind campgrounds or tents. Come evening he'd just roll us out under the trees along side the road and there we'd sleep!
I dont miss it! LOL
Love your snazzy pants - apparently you were always a fashionista!
How did we survive those road trips without ipods and DVD players? I know - we used our imaginations ...and whined that familiar tune ~ "are we there yet" shortly there after followed by "how much longer"? !
Isn't it fun to revisit these kinds of memories? Our kids might think we had it rough but we didn't know any different! My Great Granny lived about 5 hours away so visiting her wasn't too bad. My Maternal Grandparents lived in Germany and in those days, airplane flights and the layovers took forever! It was still magical nonetheless!
Connie
Ha!! Miss Patty, you know how the Goldens survived them?
We used to be on a constant look out for volkswagens.
I don't know if they did this in the states or not, but here in Canada a volkswagen bug was worth punching your sister or brother three times if you spotted it first, and if you were lucky enough to spot a volkswagen van, then you could throw ten punches at the poor victim!
We would say and you would HAVE to say it, or it wouldn't count, "one, two, three, volkswagon , no return!"
Came the sad day indeed when we passed a volkswagen factory where there were it seemed like HUNDREDS of volkswagens!
Bugs AND vans!
Bedlem broke out in that car with eight kids and one mom and dad, punches being thrown wildly every which way!
"End of game" roared mom and that was the end of THAT!!
From that day forward... no more "one, two, three, volkswagen'!
My baby sister, Karen hadn't been born yet, so she lost out on learning the game..Deprived of so much fun!
Oh!
Keep these stories coming Mrs. Mac.
They get a person to thinking back..that's for sure!
Oh the luxury of it all though for your parents...only three good kids to worry about.
Mom had one good kid[Betty] and and seven bad ones!!!
I don't know how mom and dad travelled those 1800 miles from Manitoba to Ontario without having gone crazy!!
Catch you later...Love Terry
fun stories...I remember traveling long distances(not as long as yours) in a big boat of a car with several other kids (cousins) it must have been 90 and one of the youngest slept in the back window...shhh don't tell
Fun stories, Mrs. Mac. You bring back memories to us.
My kids played "Slug Bug," which was essentially rhe same as Terry's, only fewer words were needed to be spoken.
We didn't take many vacations. I remember going to Missouri to visit grandparents a couple of times. Our old Chevy leaked rain in the back seat where my sister an I rode.
My 1974 Mustang has the original 8-track in and it's still operable.
See my October 3, 2007 blog.
http://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/2006/10/what-to-do-on-any-saturday-in-east.html#links
..it's
mmm, i'm loving these stories. keep 'em comin'!
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