Road-Tripping Vacation Memories 1950s Style
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| Debonair Mom! |
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| Me next to our red Ford StationWagon |
One such accommodation reminded me of the Bates Motel in Psycho (which I watched as a child with my best friend one night). I timidly checked behind the shower curtain, and was relieved to find it clean and empty. Even so, I was a bit uneasy during our stay. We left without incident, and headed towards our destination.
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| Mom and Me with Uncle Sam in Alaska |
wagon over the boulders heaped up in the median strip, ripping out the entire underside of the vehicle. Somehow, out of nowhere, a semi came into view, and ended up rescuing us. What an adventure it was for me to sit in the upper bunk of the 18 wheeler as we drove to our lodgings for the night! A missionary family, the Crabbs, whom my mother had contacted in our plight, took us in for the night. We ended up staying with them while our car was being repaired.
Mom loved to be on the go...she drove on the interstate, down country roads, and through fog up in the Rocky Mountains at night. One summer we drove through Yellowstone National Park, and as a large black bear approached the car, I screamed, "Shut the window, shut the window"! She calmly passed it by and moved on...Mom was
invincible!
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| Mom, Me (on left) and NY family |
Mom traveled to Europe in her early teens with her own mother, and then later, with me in my early teens. It seemed like a right of passage. I didn't want to go to Europe. I wanted to stay at home with my friends. But, what an experience and education I
had...I wouldn't trade it for anything!
had...I wouldn't trade it for anything!
We visited family in Bratislava during the summer of 1968. I remember feeling the tension in Czechoslovakia, something in the air. I was afraid for some reason that we would be stuck in the country, and my worst fears were realized. At the border, on our way out, we were detained by the Communist guards because we did not have the correct papers. I sat down and cried, "I told you so!", as Mom deftly but firmly negotiated with them. She had no fear and no foes...only the desire to turn wrongs to right.
Thankfully, her Slovak cousin, John, a communist sympathizer (only to keep his job), vouched for us, so they let us go. A week later, sitting in Wimpy's burger restaurant somewhere in London, Mom opened the newspaper, only to discover that the Russians had invaded Czechoslovakia. We escaped none too soon!
Every four years, we would take a trip to the World's Fair... first Seattle, then, New York, Montreal and finally, New Orleans, which were spread throughout my childhood summers. Mom took reel after reel of Super 8 movies, but, unfortunately, she moved the camera so fast, that we became car sick reviewing it. Add to that her penchant for
cutting heads off in the process and you get the picture...not much quality footage, but an awful lot to laugh about!
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| Mom and I in the 90's...she lived almost to 100! |
One year we took the Santa Fe railroad from Chicago to California, where we had visited neighbors who had moved west a few years before. I vaguely remembered our trip, but did enjoy the challenge of walking from train to train, across the gap between the cars. Here, too, Mom filmed the rolling countryside with her movie camera, scanning the scene instead of holding the camera steady. What resulted was enough to make one cross-eyed!
What adventures we had! Now I continue the tradition with my family. This blog post is a tribute to the wonderful trips we have taken together.
What family vacations are memorable to you? Do you have a "dream vacation" yet to plan?
Be sure to visit Jarm Del Boccio at her blog Making the Write Connection.
For those of you who enjoy reading and writing memoir, be sure to visit my blog Wrote By Rote. On that space I share some of my own memories as well as those of my many guests. There is also much helpful advice about writing memoir and getting published. I welcome and strongly encourage guest posts on that site and I hope to hear from you.
