Carcations.
Lucky kids! Mine.
At least when it comes to family vacations.
Barcelona. London. Paris. Rome. Venice . The Caribbean. Luxury cruises.
Now, when I was a kid, growing up in The Bronx…
none of those places were on my itinerary.
But that didn’t mean that my family vacations were any less magical.
And funny, when I think about what made them so memorable…
they all started in the car.
I come from a working class family.
My Dad and Mom worked together in their floor covering store.
And they worked hard.
When you own your own business…
the hours are long and there are very few opportunities to “close the store”
and take off on vacation…
but my parents made sure to find time that we could “go away”.
Usually it was Memorial Day or 4th of July or Labor Day long weekends.
The majority of these getaways were to Long Beach Island
on the Jersey Shore,
(Long before it became home to Snookie and her gang).
We’d rent a house for a few days right near the beach
(at that time I think it was about $400 for the 4 days!?).
There was also one memorable trip to the New England States
and one “exotic vacation” to Niagara Falls.
But as much as the destinations…
I will always remember the magic and intrigue of the car trip itself.
I remember my heart beating a little faster as we packed up
the back of the 1956 turquoise Ford Station Wagon.
Suitcases, board games, fishing equipment, inner tubes and floats,
pots and pans…
all sorts of wonders to make for fun vaca!
The best part was how my Dad would lower and flatten out
the back seats of the wagon…
and somehow, with all the other packed stuff,
my Mom was able to create a “mini-suite”…
where my sister Ellen and I could stretch out as if on our own magic carpet.
She’d lay down a “bed” of towels …
and then cover it with a tiger-patterned blanket.
We’d have our games, our snacks, our pillows …
talk about “going first-class”!
And then, we’d hit the road!
The journey was absolutely as much fun as the destination.
There was a constant stream of entertainment:
There was the classic “License Plate Bingo”…
when I remember being ecstatic at sighting Minnesota or Wyoming or…
be-still-my-heart… Alaska!!
There were family games…
EyeSpy, Password, Minute Mysteries…
and some imaginative custom-made activities
invented by my uber-creative Mom.
There was no Sirius Radio.
But there was a very democratic playlist of A.M. radio stations…
“old-time classics for Mom and Dad”,
some rock n’ roll for Ellen and me.
The music was of course greatly enhanced
by hearing my hard-working parents able to unwind, relax
and gleefully sing along with “oldies” from the ‘30’s and ‘40’s.
I was both impressed and amused to hear how they knew every single lyric.
My Dad went into his “Tony Bennett voice”…
while my Mom just wailed enthusiastically.
To this day I can recall their sweet voices
AND…
I remember the words to many songs that were released before I was born.
And then there was the AAA “TripTik”
At the beginning of each road trip…
my Dad gave us kids this enchanted, multi-paged,
combo guide-highlight–treasure map…
which allowed us to follow along with every mile of the trip.
We were able to identify where we were at all times…
and build anticipation as we approached various attractions and landmarks.
As we pulled further and further away from my hometown Bronx…
it was exciting to see a whole new world opening up to me.
And year after year, there was nothing that created more anticipation…
than seeing the giant billboards announcing…
”Only 6 more miles to Stuckey’s!”…
and soon…
”5 more miles…4 more miles…YOU’VE ARRIVED!”.
The marketing strategy worked!
We’d stop every year at this “candy heaven” for the dreamlike Pecan Log Roll !
Sure the journey was great,
but even when we arrived at our vaca destination…
our beloved station wagon played an important role in the vacation fun.
I still have home movies of us driving up the challenging Mount Washington
in New Hampshire.
(We even got a bumper sticker to trumpet our achievement)!
And I remember my amazement at how we could actually take our car…
onto a boat!!
I still find a ferry ride a breathtaking experience.
And perhaps my favorite in-car activity was the Drive-In Movie!
I LOVED IT!
We’d sit in the comfort of our own car/ theatre.
We’d roll down the window and attach the bulky metal speaker
(which, more often as not, provided the rather muffled, dramatic sound).
And we could do whatever we wanted…
move around,
talk to each other,
check out the romantic couples in the other cars.
In addition to seeing two feature films…
there was the “Intermission”.
On screen, we were tempted by a wide array of junk food
that you could access at the wondrous “concession stands”.
(With on-screen animated ‘countdowns’, warning…
”Only 2 minutes to showtime!”)
Giant screen Technicolor movies while seated in your car…
deep-fried egg rolls…
what more could a person could want??
I must add one addendum to my Drive-In experience.
One warm summer evening in 1958…
we headed to the Drive-In to see the epic hit…
“The Vikings”.
Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis heroically boarded
the giant Viking dragon longships to lead a revolt against distant lands.
To do so, they planned a sneak attack, hidden by an intense fog.
Almost unbelievably…
that summer night in Long Beach Island…
brought in a heavy fog of its own!
We struggled to see the screen through the fog.
It may have been my first “immersive experience”!
Now, if all these “CarCation” adventures seem merely like
a bit of out-dated nostalgic warmth…
I assure you, it is not.
I have been fortunate enough to have kids of my own…
and I was able to bring this same kind of fun and excitement
to our family road trips.
(Of course, my wife and I were groovin’ on Motown as our “oldies”
instead of Sinatra…and the Rock ‘n Roll was replaced by Beyonce and Biggie).
But License Plate Bingo still plays…
and Stuckey’s is still only a few miles away
Would love to hear about your CarCation memories.
