This summer seems to be happening just outside my window. Only the heat penatrates my home.
Not so different from the summer's of my childhood.
My dad always had vacation in July. My parents NEVER just sat around. The only work ethic I knew as a child was 'get your work done, and then THEN relax'.
So, on any given summer day in July, my dad could be found working on a project. My mom's goal was to finish up her housework in the cool of the morning and then take a lawn chair and a magazine into the backyard.
I danced around this scene for most of the years of my childhood.
Our summer vacations never included 'camping'. From some accounts one would wonder how our family stayed intact without that.
That's because WE were bonding even closer in the backseat of a car as we traveled from motel to motel cross country.
I'm the youngest. I sat in the middle of the backseat.
I remember little about our destinations. It's the drive I remember.
One particular trip took us through the mountains of Pennsylvania. I remember them well.
What my dad remembers is looking for a spot to pull off so his youngest daughter could vomit.
I'm a loooong way from those days. What hasn't changed is the feeling that I'm trapped in a stuffy backseat. While other people ooooh and aaaaah over beautiful vistas I'm staring at the back of heads wonder how in the world I can get this all to stop so I can throw-up.
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Our vacations as kids consisted sometimes of camping, cause that was a cheaper way to go since we had a trailer house. But too, with 3 and then 4 kids in the station wagon and sometimes our grandparents too, that was more than a car full. I spent many trips vomitting and wishing I could the rest of it. My dad would puff out his chest when we returned from those vacations, brag to his friends on the number of miles we covered...and they would drop their jaw and be speechless. We were ALWAYS GLAD to get home. Hubby and I never took many vacations when the kids were home, but he has a dad who loved to drive too...so we never drove near so long...and tried to stay awhile in the places we went to. Some things about being an adult are good...no more crazy car trips!!
We always camped - like Elizabeth it was because it was cheap. It was fun and I have great memories of camping.
There were six of us in an old Malibu station wagon. The back was full nearly to the roof although Dad always insisted for some view through the rear view mirror. Among the stuff packed was a turkey that Mom would cook before we left. For two weeks, we would eat turkey sandwiches for lunch. Ugh.
Mom and Dad sat in the front with April between them because she would get sick otherwise. Dustin sat behind Dad, I sat behind Mom and Beck would sit between us. Dustin and I usually each had a large military duffel between our legs.
The part I liked least was sitting in a grocery store parking lot while Mom and Dad went in and bought groceries. It was so boring. I would take out tweezers and tweeze the hair off my legs. :)
Oh my...a fellow roadside upchucker, ha! Even to this day I can still get horribly car sick, especially on some of the winding, rutty roads Dear Hubby will take me out on 'scouting' in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't travel 10 miles as a kid without my dad having to pull over so I could spill my guts out in the gravel and weeds at the side of the road. Yuck.
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