Throwback Thursday #26 – Vacations and Holidays

 

Welcome back to Throwback Thursday. This week Lauren is asking us to remember back to those family summer vacations. Head over to her blog to get the details, and then join in!

This week’s prompt is: Vacations and Holidays

My post follows.

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When we did not live near our family, we spent our time off trying to be near them. Any vacation time that coincided with my parents having time off meant we hit the road and headed “home”.

Both sets of my grandparents parents lived in the same vicinity so it was easy to see them all. We would not have known any different or wanted it any differently. Home was truly where we wanted to be.

When we moved to Florida, our road trip there was an adventure. This was back when Florida was truly the Sunshine State and you could find roadside stands that served fresh squeezed orange juice.  I was amazed. Our vending machines at school also dispensed orange juice.

We only lived there for a short while but spent many of our weekends at the beach or fishing off a bridge somewhere. I remember limbo parties on the beach. We would park two cars on the beach (back when that was legal) and stretch Army blankets between the doors to create shade. I still got sunburns – the days before sunscreen!

When we moved to Ohio we spent a number of our summers at a local campground. I have written about this before – here and here. But there was one Fourth of July worth retelling.

It was another summer we spent camping in our tent at Hickory Hills. My dad had purchased a roomy three room tent. We set up camp one 4th of July and all was going well. We cooked hot dogs over the fire, made smores, and sat around singing around the campfire. All was well.

One evening it started to rain. We were all secure in the tent except it was raining pretty hard. Not to worry though, our tent was waterproof – well, unless you touched the inside of the tent surface. As the rain came down, the water built up. Mom, not thinking, pushed her hand against the roof where the water was pooling to dump the excess water off. That spot on the roof turned into a spigot.

It wasn’t long before everything was getting soaked. Mom and Dad were commuting to work so they left us (one sister, my brother, and myself – all teens) and went home to shower and sleep so they could go to work. The three of us curled up in one corner of the tent in sleeping bags which was on ground just high enough to keep us out of the water.

The next morning, my parents came to our rescue. We pulled everything out of the tent. Mom decided we should take all the wet clothes and wet sleeping bags to a laundromat to dry them. A very prim and proper lady continued to stare at us, pulling damp clothes out of these garbage bags and putting them into the dryer.

My mom being straight up country winked at me, smiled and said (rather loudly) “If we had the money, we would wash these clothes first.” The very prim and proper lady was shocked and did not spend any more time starting at us.

We did take a road trip to Niagra Falls one summer, but it was just over a long weekend. By the time we were in high school, marching band took up most of our summer vacations.

My children’s vacations were much the same. Most trips home to see family and they loved it. We did take a vacation to Hawaii once and to Washington, D.C. when we lived in Alaska, but sadly my ex made both trips unenjoyable for everyone.

Hubby and I have taken a few vacations over the years. We made it to Portugal, Switzerland, and Venice. We also traveled in the states some – to California, New Mexico, and Arizona. Many of our vacations were also spent going to see family.

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