TAKING VACATIONS?

My, how times have changed! Perhaps it's because growing up in the 1950's was already so pleasant. But, I suspect that the reason our family took so few vacations was that we couldn't afford it. Actually, the word vacation just wasn't in our family vocabulary, or just not considered at all. There was work to do, and it was done six days a week. Sunday was for church and rest. There were one or two times that I think I can say we were on a vacation, but not often, and certainly not every year.


I don't remember my dad even taking days off, or having a set vacation time every year. He went to work every day, even when he was sick. He had no "sick days", and I don't believe he had "vacation days" at any of his jobs. We just stayed home. We had short trips on weekends, but those were always to family within driving distance, and we went fishing in the summer evenings. That was dad's relaxation time, not to mention it filled our freezer for winter meals. He also hunted on winter Saturdays, and I went along most of the time, and my mom would come along sometimes. We hunted squirrel, rabbit, quail, pheasant, ducks, and deer. I didn't go along when he went deer hunting. That required too much sitting, and you had to be very quiet and still. Quiet I could do. Still was another story. The commom quip from my day about me was that I had "ants in my pants". Winter meals were pretty much established by fishing and hunting, and of course, there were canned vegetables and fruits from the garden.

I looked forward to Falls City's "4-H Fair Days" every year. During these three days of parades and a carnival on main street (Stone Street) there was a rodeo every evening, and during the daylight hours there were 4-H entries at the auditorium that were being judged, winning ribbons, and people wandering around admiring all the entries. I was in 4-H for many years, so I always had baked entries, hand sewn clothes, and crafted items. There were many farmers in the area, and so there were livestock entries, rabbits, and other domesticated animals. Those three days were usually the highlight of the summer. They were the first week of August, just before State Fair and County Fair, and we always had so much fun, even though I wasn't allowed as much money for the rides as other kids. But I did my best to save pennies. Rides were usually 5 cents, some were 10. My dad would give me 50 cents, and I made it last most of the day. The best part about a small town is that I could go to the fair without my parents. My dad worked in the downtown area, so I always had access to him. If it was a good day, and he was in a good mood, I just might be able to stop by his store and weasel another 5 cents, but he had to be in a good mood. It helped if there were other people around.

Almost every year my mom and I traveled by Continental Trailways (bus) to visit my Grandma Campbell. I remember twice we took a train. That's my idea of a vacation. My grandmother lived with her son Raymond and his wife Marian and their son Jerry. I really loved going to their house. It was always fun. For a while they lived in Waxahatchie, Texas, and that is when we traveled by train. I was very young, but I remember it very well. We usually went at Christmas time, and in southern Texas it was usually pretty warm, so there was lots of outdoor time with Jerry and his friends. My grandmother would sit with me for hours to teach me things like embroidery, and crocheting. We did crosswords together, and the whole family played board games every night. My uncle would challenge me to spell really long words on the blackboard they had in their kitchen, and he would tease me constantly about everything. I loved being in that house.

They moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma later, and I loved going there as well. Their home was a Cape Cod style brick, with a wonderful climbing tree in the back. Mom and Grandma and I would sit on the back patio for hours and drink iced tea and talk and sing hymns. I was a little intimidated by my Aunt Marian. She was about four foot ten, talked so fast you really had to pay attention, chomped ice incessantly, and was a stick of dynamite. She and my uncle were both Baptist preachers, and they were fun. But I didn't mess with her. I did exactly what she told me to do.

When I was about nine or ten my dad planned a fishing trip to Minnesota in September. September in Minnesota is pretty cool, and I remember a bit of rain that year. We all went up together and the lake and fish odors, and the autumn damp smell will be in my memory forever. There were no other children to play with because the normal tourist season was over, so when I wasn't out on the lake with my dad and his friend I would be in the little cafe that was on the grounds. This is where I learned to slow dance. The daughter of the owner of the campground worked in this little cafe, and she was a teen, probably fifteen. She was just old enough for me to think I wanted to be just like her. And I was company for her. So she played the jukebox or the old piano they had there, and taught me to dance, and especially to waltz.

Being on this trip was the first time I had ever seen a chipmunk, and it was the very first time in my life that I was allowed to wear something other than a dress or skirt. My dad was very old fashioned and strict, and I wasn't even allowed shorts in the summer. We were in Minnesota, almost to our destination, when my dad asked my mom if she had enough warm clothes for me. She said that I had a coat and a sweater, but she thought I would still be cold out on the lake. Dad hadn't even considered this, so we stopped at a store in the next town, and they purchased for me my very first pair of jeans and a hooded sweat shirt. As far as I was concerned, it might as well have been a princess dress. I was so happy to finally have pants, and I wore them every single day I was there. Mom washed them out and hung them to dry or I would have worn them dirty.

I remember another time when we travelled to Tuttlecreek Lake in Kansas for a weekend fishing trip. This was just after a tornado had leveled a lot of the area around it. We saw a piece of siding from a house trailer that was speared into a tree. And I remember going to Joplin, Missouri a couple of times to visit my dad's sister, my Aunt Vera. This was in the Ozarks, and that was enjoyable because we not only went to her house, but we did some sight seeing. Beautiful country, and my mom almost got wiped out by a mama buffalo because she got to close to her baby buffalo. That was exciting. On our way home we stopped at some caverns called Bridal Cave and saw stalactites and stalagmites.

My dad had stomach ulcers, and once I remember he and my mom had to go to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, so they dropped me off at my dad's brother's in Iowa City. That was sort of a vacation, and I got to meet their friend's children, and grew closer to my Aunt Bettye. I also can tell you what music was popular at the time because my dad played the car radio a lot. He seldom did this, but on a trip he did because my mom enjoyed the music. I rememer hearing songs like Personality, and Don't Know Much About History, the first version, so this must have been in the late 50's.

I was allowed many times to spend weekends with friends and family who lived on farms. Those are wonderful memories, and I really enjoyed farm living. Once, when I was eleven or twelve, someone in our church paid for me to go to church camp with the kids. Initially I wasn't able to go because we didn't have the money, but someone came forward to pay my way.

Well, there you have it. I can't think that there were any other times that we left home for any length of time. Even leaving home for a day trip to visit aunts and uncles or even the cemeteries was like a vacation at our house, and we did that often.

Today, Ron and I travel to visit our grandchildren. We enjoy being around them more than going anywhere else. That family planned a trip with us to the ocean, which was my first time to see it, and that was lots of fun. Ron and I seldom go to places without our children. When you live away from all of them there is just no where else we want to go, though, I will say I do have this desire to see the Grand Canyon, and I am campaigning for the trip, but I'm not holding my breath. When I take a trip, I go alone lots of times, which is fine with me, but after about four days I get very homesick for Ron, and sometimes I cry and get a little cranky until I can get passed it. I always love going home.