In “My day” I never thought of going to Europe, Mexico, Alaska, or wherever for a vacation in the summer, not to mention in the winter months.
My family only took a “vacation” to either paint the house, do the lawn work, or go to the big metropolis of Black Earth, WI, to see my father’s parents. My father was a salesman and when he was home you couldn’t get him out of his recliner to save your soul, much less leave in a car for a family vacation.
One way that I would spend a special time “vacation” would be to spend time alone with my cousin, Betty Ann, n/k/a Akira, her business name, at her home in Madison, and we would also spend weeks at a time at my grandmother’s house in Black Earth. In Black Earth there was a filling station, post office and a few hundred people who lived there at that time. So, our entertainment was quite limited. We would climb the hills as this is a village tucked inside of large rolling hills. It is really beautiful, but not to a small person who wanted some excitement in their life. We were given some money at the start of the week for candy at the filling station, which needed to last us all week. Then the highlight of our days was going to the post office with my grandma. Quite the change from the vacations today’s kids seem to experience. Am I jealous, hell yes, but at the time I didn’t really know any better. Thank goodness. Just one of my ramblings, sort of off the subject, a/k/a Ramblings!!
My cousin would spend her time making doll clothes with my grandma on her old Singer throttle sewing machine. In the alternative, I would find a nice cozy spot under a tree, or whatever, and read smut novels. Her time spent doing something productive resulted in her becoming a world known doll maker, having her creations featured in the White House, Smithsonian Institute, and she went all over the world it seems giving classes and promoting her dolls. She has even been featured in magazines, etc. I ended up as a paralegal. Not entirely bad, but interesting as how things turn out.
Then after I got married and had children, we started tent camping. I really love this and still do to this day. It forces you to enjoy nature 24/7, and I love every aspect of that. The smell of a campfire, waking up to being in the middle of nature is the best.
Now, as a rather “old” adult, I have had the privilege of going to Ireland, Mexico, and all other parts of the United States.
We now have a cottage which is great when it rains, but some of us still would like to the tent camping once in a while. It is just so easy compared to getting ready for setting up a campsite “The Rettschlag, Goodson, Hoffman and Schneider” way. We make nothing easy so to speak.
I hope to have many, many more vacation memories. All good, of course.
#sidetrackedsisters #sidetrackedsandy #surroundings #camping #vacation #family
