Road Trips and Road Games
Jul. 4th, 2004 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrdreamjeansI read a survey this morning that posed the question: When you were a kid, taking a car trip with your family, did you ever draw a line down the middle of the seat to keep your brother or sister on "their" side of the car?
The question made me laugh, as I know my brother, sister and I squabbled like any other kids couped up in a car traveling for hours, but we never went to this length. Colleen and I are close in age and very compatible. Jeff is 7 years younger; so we tormented him... as any self-respecting older brother and sister would do.
Every summer when we were growing up, Dad and Mom would pack up the family for a three-week vacation in the truck camper. We'd take off for a specific destination.... Silverton, Colorado, Chugwater, Wyoming, Williamsburg, Virginia and the Smokey Mountains come to mind first. Those were wonderful times.
There was a lot of flexibility built into the schedule. We'd camp overnight and Dad, an early riser, would leave the rest of us sleeping in the camper, pull out of the night's stopping point and the next day we'd be 200 miles down the road by the time he stopped for a break. It was always exciting and a mystery. Where would we be when we awakened?
We always stopped at historical markers. We made time to appreciate a gorgeous vista, savor a breath-taking sight or to enjoy picnic luncheons at a local park. Dad would take slide pictures and capture the events. (Last year, my folks pulled out the 35-40 year old slides and showed them on the projector screen to the grandkids. Old slides, but young times:)
Our road games were predictable in this era before portable CD players, in-car DVD players and other "so-called" advances. We had frequent sing-a-longs, particularly when mom sensed we were getting restless. We played "Rock, Paper and Scissors" (I loved to wallop on my brother when I won); Mom would start with, "I see an object and it begins with the letter A" and we'd do the entire alphabet.
We'd always make time for the the license-tag game. We three young travelers were always amazed at how far people had traveled from home and smug when we realized that we were often the travelers furtherest from home!
I still have a tendency to sing while I'm driving and many of the songs are the "oldies" I sang as a kid. "Shine on Harvest Moon", "You Are My Sunshine" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" were favorites (and easy to harmonize on), as were "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" and a slightly bawdy song my dad taught us that he learned on a trip to South Africa in the 1970s. (Sung in Boer Dutch, loosely translated the lyrics were, "Your blanket and my mattress and there lies the thing", or something to that effect:)
Those summer trips were an education. I got my love for history (and my eventual degree in the subject) from an excursion to Williamsburg, Virginia. Since that visit at age 11, I've held a lifelong fascination with Colonial America. I now belong to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and National Historic Trust, outgrowths of the childhood trips. I've also been lucky to visit 49 of 50 states, many of them picked up on our summer family vacations, the others through my touring in musicals.
My sister has continued the tradition of summer vacations with my niece, often teaming with my mom or dad or both for three-generation vacations. That's how mom went whale-watching for the first time in Hawaii, Caitlin traced the steps of the Revolutionary War in Boston and Dad flew over the glaciers of Alaska. I'm sure at some point on all of those trips that time was found for sing-a-longs.
My trip down memory lane is my way of paying tribute to America's Independence Day. My folks and I are not traveling far from home or making a special trip today; I'm no longer an eager young kid, but I assure you, in my imagination, in my heart, I'm young and the sky is the limit. I'm on a road trip and I'm playing road games and all is right with the world.
Happy July 4th everyone!
The question made me laugh, as I know my brother, sister and I squabbled like any other kids couped up in a car traveling for hours, but we never went to this length. Colleen and I are close in age and very compatible. Jeff is 7 years younger; so we tormented him... as any self-respecting older brother and sister would do.
Every summer when we were growing up, Dad and Mom would pack up the family for a three-week vacation in the truck camper. We'd take off for a specific destination.... Silverton, Colorado, Chugwater, Wyoming, Williamsburg, Virginia and the Smokey Mountains come to mind first. Those were wonderful times.
There was a lot of flexibility built into the schedule. We'd camp overnight and Dad, an early riser, would leave the rest of us sleeping in the camper, pull out of the night's stopping point and the next day we'd be 200 miles down the road by the time he stopped for a break. It was always exciting and a mystery. Where would we be when we awakened?
We always stopped at historical markers. We made time to appreciate a gorgeous vista, savor a breath-taking sight or to enjoy picnic luncheons at a local park. Dad would take slide pictures and capture the events. (Last year, my folks pulled out the 35-40 year old slides and showed them on the projector screen to the grandkids. Old slides, but young times:)
Our road games were predictable in this era before portable CD players, in-car DVD players and other "so-called" advances. We had frequent sing-a-longs, particularly when mom sensed we were getting restless. We played "Rock, Paper and Scissors" (I loved to wallop on my brother when I won); Mom would start with, "I see an object and it begins with the letter A" and we'd do the entire alphabet.
We'd always make time for the the license-tag game. We three young travelers were always amazed at how far people had traveled from home and smug when we realized that we were often the travelers furtherest from home!
I still have a tendency to sing while I'm driving and many of the songs are the "oldies" I sang as a kid. "Shine on Harvest Moon", "You Are My Sunshine" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" were favorites (and easy to harmonize on), as were "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" and a slightly bawdy song my dad taught us that he learned on a trip to South Africa in the 1970s. (Sung in Boer Dutch, loosely translated the lyrics were, "Your blanket and my mattress and there lies the thing", or something to that effect:)
Those summer trips were an education. I got my love for history (and my eventual degree in the subject) from an excursion to Williamsburg, Virginia. Since that visit at age 11, I've held a lifelong fascination with Colonial America. I now belong to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and National Historic Trust, outgrowths of the childhood trips. I've also been lucky to visit 49 of 50 states, many of them picked up on our summer family vacations, the others through my touring in musicals.
My sister has continued the tradition of summer vacations with my niece, often teaming with my mom or dad or both for three-generation vacations. That's how mom went whale-watching for the first time in Hawaii, Caitlin traced the steps of the Revolutionary War in Boston and Dad flew over the glaciers of Alaska. I'm sure at some point on all of those trips that time was found for sing-a-longs.
My trip down memory lane is my way of paying tribute to America's Independence Day. My folks and I are not traveling far from home or making a special trip today; I'm no longer an eager young kid, but I assure you, in my imagination, in my heart, I'm young and the sky is the limit. I'm on a road trip and I'm playing road games and all is right with the world.
Happy July 4th everyone!
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Date: 2004-07-04 02:27 pm (UTC)