Well, that didn't take long. Within days of my previous post inviting people to visit the Dock, my children and their children have booked their Spring vacation with us. How exciting is that? Better book your visit soon!
Thinking about their trip, once again sends me thinking back to the days that were. The days that air travel was only for the elite. I think I was well into my twenties before I flew for the first time. What an experience, and today I love to fly.
As a child, I travelled mostly by station wagon, with a water bag tied to the front grille to allow a cool drink when passing through the dessert. We did ride a ship when my father was transferred to Europe, but that was a troop carrier. No luxuries there. The lower ranking soldiers actually slept in their tents on the deck, but those with sufficient rank travelling with family got rooms. The rooms were the size of a closet and there were seven of us stuffed in.
I also went to school and back every day by riding in an Army ambulance (the kind you see in the old war movies; the boxy green ones with the red cross) with my siblings from atop a mountain where the Nike base was, to a train station in a small town 35 miles away (about 50 clicks as they would call kilometers in Europe). I then would take the train (a steam locomotive) to the city where my school was, and then took the school bus the rest of the way. I think the travel time each day was about 4 hours. Can anyone better that travel story?
Ah... How fortunate some are these days. For that, I thank our Lord every day right from the Dock.
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Spring will be here soon and that lake sure looks inviting.
ReplyDeleteYou were the lucky one, getting to ride the train to school. The ambulance took us another 40 miles to our school. I remember doing a wide variety of activities during that ambulance ride....from smokin' cigars, to learnin' some foul words, and laughing. The GI's were quite entertaining. Pretty heavy stuff considering I, being the oldest of the remaining troupe was only in the 4th grade.
For the sake of the record....we flew home from Europe. Don't you remember????? The bloody nose Middle D had that got all over everywhere before anyone could tend to it (nasty.) The "dirty clothes suit case" with a weeks worth of dirty clothes was inspected in Customs when we arrived at Kennedy Airport. My ears plugged so badly over Chicago I thought my head was going to blow open. And Aunt Jacque meeting us at SF International, head in wrapped in a scarf she wore for three days before the funeral. I was glad to hear she was only covering up bobby-pins and not suffering from cancer. I don' know how mom did it with the 5 of us.....we were all over everywhere.
How about taking a guess how many silver dollars were tossed from the car in the Mojave Desert. I'd say a good 15 or so, wouldn't you?
Car travel, makes me laugh just thinking about it. Remember the pallet mom made for the back of the station wagon...that "somebody" threw up on????? Shrimp cocktail and potato chips....from the night before.
Yes those were the days. The stuff life is made of.
Geez Geo... Your memory is incredible! I need you as a consultant as I write more about days gone by. Thanks for that info.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you toss silver dollars out the car?!?! It's probably 5 decades later and I would never throw away money like that!!! Although I do throw it away in plenty of other ways... :/
ReplyDeleteAs I remember it, I received a collection of old Silver Dollars from my DiMeglio grandparents. Had about 20 orso dating back to the early 1800's. During one of those station wagon trips from the right coast to San Fransisco, my brother located my stash, and unknown to us, he began buying candy at each gas stop. After spending most of them, one shopkeeper apprached my mom as we began to leave and asked whether she knew that her kid was spending the silver. We all freaked out. She retraced the route several hundred miles to find the others. But no one would return them. I don't recall him tossing them out the window though. I think I still have three left, but I think your Mom may be saving them for me. Mom retained a few as well and they were given to some of her children's children at her passing. Oh, those days that were!
ReplyDelete5 decades later????????
ReplyDeleteuh
oh i guess it is. the 'splains a lot.