All the time I was growing up we never took a family vacation. Just having the means needed to raise three children was a challenge in those days. We had holiday picnics and get togethers, but not vacation trips. When I was 8 my maternal granddad and my Uncle Art took Grandma and I to Bogalusa, Louisiana to see my Uncle Ray’s family. At nine I took the train, the Super Chief, to Los Angeles to visit my aunts and uncle. A few years later Dad, Mom and I went with Dad’s brother Ben to Mountainburg, Arkansas to see Dad’s Mom. These were the extent of the trips I took with family during my youth.
Our family followed pretty much the same course. Except for frequent trips to Springfield, Colorado to see Sharon’s family we did little together. Each summer the girls spent two to three weeks at the Brinkley home or farm. In 1977 I qualified for a Prudential meeting in San Diego. I decided it would be a good time for the girls to meet some of the California branch of our family. We stayed a couple evenings with my Uncle Hank and Aunt Florence. Also in the plan was to go to Disneyland. While at Uncle Hank’s we had a great bonding event between my uncle and my middle daughter Melanie, then seven. Sharon and I were sleeping on their sleeper sofa and were awakened by an argument in the kitchen. Melanie was eating a breakfast cereal named Magic Cow, but my uncle said it was Holy Cow. So we woke up to “Holy Cow!” “No, Magic Cow!” “No, Holy Cow.” The spat continued and became one of our treasured stories for years.
All our California adventure was great, but when we returned home we settled back to old ways and eight years went by before another family trip. In 1985 the National School Board Association was having a summer workshop on curriculum planning in Montreal. The topic of the meeting and the opportunity to see historic sights prompted our second family vacation. We left the morning of July 4 headed for Overland Park. We would celebrate our nation’s Independence with Ken and Loyce Obermeyer before proceeding through a major storm for our destination of St. Louis. The storm covered over 400 miles with wind, hail, and rain but we were delivered safely to our night’s lodging. Sharon had visited Kentucky and Churchill Downs as a teenager. She really looked forward to this visit and we toured Louisville before going to the racetrack. One noticeable change for her was that the white fences she had remembered had been painted black. Some childhood memories were changed through the eyes of an adult woman.
We passed through the coal-mining country in the hills of West Virginia on to the area that saw the birth of our nation. In Virginia we would tour Monticello, Ash Lawn, and Mount Vernon. What a wonderful picture of three of the men responsible for the freedoms we take for granted. Our trip continued as we proceeded to the nation’s capital. I had visited in 1977, but for the other family members this was a first. We had for a tour guide Mike Gregory, the son of our Winfield friends Rodger and Sue Gregory. Mike was a Midshipman at Annapolis and showed us the city. Philadelphia was to be our next stop. We soon found ourselves lost and a friendly man pointed us to the Holiday Inn where we would stay. We certainly had plenty to take in as we visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and took a carriage ride through the historical center. That July day was rainy, warm, and humid much as it must have been over 200 years earlier. No air conditioning now or then.
The beauty of New England and the charm of Boston were behind us when we finally arrived at the Hilton in Montreal. We drove through the parking area a couple of times with no luck. As time wore on I became more vocally irritable. I began to tell Sharon how to drive. Finally, she could handle no more. “Chuck, shut up!” was met with a gasp and giggles by our three daughters. They would laugh about the incident for years. Sadly, 1986 would be the last trip for all five of us. School and work would never allow more than four of us to travel together again. In 1986 we went to a School Board Chairman’s Institute at Opryland in Nashville. While on the way an argument broke out in the backseat about what music to listen to on the radio. We decided on 30-minute increments, each person listening to their music for 30 minutes before yielding to someone else and their tastes. On the way we stopped at Memphis and visited Graceland and the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson. As we left the girls were in agreement to hitchhike home if they had to visit one more dead person’s house.
My time in Nashville was spent in meetings while the family women enjoyed the Opryland Amusement Park. We were having a meal at Captain D’s across from Opryland when I decided to sample from Melanie, our middle daughter’s plate. The move was against the basic rule of manners our girls had been taught. When I reached for her food Melanie greeted me with a fork to the hand. My response was less than kind. Another story that caused more than a few chuckles over the years. It was a little while before I could join in the fun. One or two of the girls traveled with us for enjoyable times, but it was never again exactly the same. The wonder of youth was passing and the responsibility of being an adult was settling upon all of us.
In government class her senior year our oldest daughter Sharla was able to share a July day of heat and humidity with her classmates. She could also talk of Washington, Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and even Elvis Presley one day with her own students. Maybe visiting dead people’s houses wasn’t so bad after all. Today those days in the eighties when Reagan was president and we spent too many hours in the car seem special. I’m glad I can look back and see that it was better late than never to share unique times with just the five of us. In 1989 Sharon and I were headed for a meeting in Anaheim. As we crossed the Southwest we realized we didn’t have to share the radio for the first time. Again, it was just the two of us. Somehow sharing the radio didn’t seem so bad. It’s all a matter of perspective.
"A happy family is but an earlier heaven." Bowring
"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Ephesians 5:21
No comments:
Post a Comment