These Three
My sister and I loaded the kids in the car and headed over to the beach to visit my parents for the weekend.
I have lots of car trip memories as a kid. Any where we went we went by car - mainly all around the Pacific Northwest. There were no family vacations via airplane for us back then. I think the first time we went together (my parents + siblings) on a plane was on a trip to Arizona when I was in college.
My parents would pack the back of the Suburban, their car of choice since the mid-80's (good for carting kids to sports and carpooling to Catholic schools), and they always created a "bed" in the "way back" for one of us to lay down. I remember laying in the back on a sleeping bag, riding along, reading VC Andrews books (did you guys read those too?) and watching the telephone wires go by. These days I get way too car sick to look at any printed materials in the car and besides, I'm often the one at the wheel. Seat belt laws were a little different back then too.
There were no ipod's/ipads/laptops either. I did have a walkman when I was in high school. And I think we had a Game Boy at one point too.
While visiting my parents this weekend I asked them what they remembered about our road trips:
MOM | We always had snacks and something to drink. A lot of the road trips were for soccer tournaments. Arguments didn't last very long because your Dad was in the car.
DAD | Someone always yelling "shotgun" and then arguing about who said it first. I think we used to play games like "I See, I See Colors" and the "ABC" game.
It was fun to chat with them a bit about our car trips - both in generalities and specifics. It was a good reminder about how truly personal our memories and interpretations of events are even when we were participating in the same series of experiences.
Just another reason why telling our own stories, in our own unique voice, is important.
I didn't take a lot of photos this weekend but here are two others that I love:
THANK YOU | I've been receiving really nice feedback on my new Storyology self-paced class. I've added some of that feedback to the bottom of the class page in my shop if you're interested in checking it out.
We traveled to California from Oregon every Summer. 1 adult and 7 kids in the station wagon! The best spot was always "the way back" cause the window was rolled down... no air conditioning then. VC Andrews must have been a staple, I read them all. Your stories always bring back such great memories, thank you for a happy Monday morning!!
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I love this post! Thank you for sharing it! I also loved V.C. Andrews books and read most of them, I think. In fact, I just got "Flowers in the Attic" for one of my daughters to read! I hope things are going well for you Ali!
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We didn't do roadtrips when I was a kid, just because of my car sickness. Our vacations were on a campground just 1 hour driving from our home LOL
These days I'm doing a lot better, but still can't read in a car. And it definitely helps if you're driving yourself!!
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Love these photos. Thanks for sharing.I have read those books :). I have never been able to read in the car without getting sick.
All of our family trips were by car too. When we would take a long trip to see out of state relatives we would travel from northern CA to AZ. My mom would have little presents wrapped up that my sister & I could open every couple of hours.They were little travel bingo games, small etch a sketches, travel I-spy etc.
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VC Andrews! There's a blast from the past. I loved those books!
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Oh, how I remember VC Andrews! How funny that almost everyone here has read her! I could never read in the car b/c of my motion sickness. And our longest drives that I can remember were about 4 hours to visit cousins. I know that we also took trips to Oregon (from California), but I don't remember those... I must have been asleep. :) What I do remember about car trips is that I was always sandwiched in the center seat between my two older brothers and my mom giving me citrus to smell to avoid getting carsick. Ahhh... those were the days. :)
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The only trip I remember lying down on camping matresses' with sleeping bags was when we got up at 4am to start our trip. I always had to sit up because of travel sickness.
I pity my poor parents having to listen to 80s kids song tapes [when Neil Diamond wasn't playing!]
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VC Andrews books...i read them too...Just found the a while back...
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I love your storytelling philosophy. I think storytelling is so important! Have you heard of the radio program "This American Life" on NPR? You'd love it...it's an hour of true stories (and sometimes literature) based on weekly topics.
Road trips were a huge part of my life growing up too. My Dad is in the army, so we moved around a lot. I'll never forget driving from Augusta, GA up to Washington! Other memorable road trips for me happened in college, like driving down to San Francisco from Tacoma with friends! I love hitting the open road. There's something kind of charming about road trips sometimes.
PS- Anna always has the most adorable outfits on. Kudos to you! :)
Love This American Life - big fan. And thank you :)
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Huge VC Andrews fan growing up!
Your post brought back memories of six hour road trips from NC to Tennessee. We would have a mattress in the back of a pick up truck! The truck did have a camper top. There were four of us kids. Maybe the baby stayed in the front. I remember my mom saying that she took me to Tenn. when I was two. I stayed in her lap most of the way. Not much for car seat laws either. ;)
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This reminds me of the scrapbook project that I started years ago, before my Dad passed, and never finished. Mainly because the dynamics of the family changed and we in mourning and just didn't feel like scrapbooking for a while. That was 7 years ago and slowly I've been getting back into scrapbook mode...where I'm telling our stories again. It feels right again and I'm eager to finish so many of those old projects. My book is a traditional CM album with the title being "On the road again"...we also traveled a lot since my Dad was in the Army. We played LOADS of games in our family station wagon and we all wanted to lay down in the back. We played "hang man", "I see something green" (or black/yellow/round/blue) whatever the person stated and the rest of us tried to guess what it was first. We'd pump our fists as we passed tractor trailer trucks to get them to blow their big air horns and if we were good our parents would "treat" us to the vending machines as we passed the state lines and stopped at the "visitor centers". So many fond memories ;} Just signed up for you stories class and looking forward to it so much.
Fondly, Roberta
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My parents had a 2 door car and they put a piece of plywood in the back seat and threw blankets and pillows back there once on a long car trip. It was great for my sister and I -- back when there were no seat belt rules.
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Ali your photos are amazing - what type and model camera are you currently using. I can't read road maps or any printed matter either but when my boys were young we played a game of making a sentence using the 3 letters on the number plate of the care in front of us eg: 123 YAB ... You Are Beautiful. I had played the same game with my own mother and now my grandsons are old enough to play.
Those first two photos were taken with an iphone. The second two with a Canon 5D.
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