Can it really be possible that all of us used to pile in to one car and drive to Canada for one-week family vacations? Imagine it now -- no interstates, no air conditioning, the rare bathroom stop and no McDonald's! To my horror, the last thing that would go in the car was the paper bag with the dreaded pot in it. We were supposed to use that thing? But Dad liked to fish, and apparently Canada was the only place that had fish, so off we went.
Here are some of the stranger things I remember:
- Mom and Dad driving off from a gas station and leaving Lois and I behind
- Rita taking her record player and '45s and playing Elvis songs on the porch of our cabin, making us the coolest place in the camp
- Getting leeches on us and screaming for help
- Don and John going into the frigid waters of Lake Simcoe, wearing desert boots to protect their feet from the rocky bottom
- Having ice blocks delivered for the primitive ice box on the porch
- Planning to meet Don at some lake that was unacceptable, then leaving to go somewhere else, and Don driving in from Army duty (probably AWOL) and finding us, even though he didn't get our message about where we were, just because he thought it looked like the kind of place Dad would choose
- Mom being stuck with cooking meals for all of us on her so-called vacation
- Stopping to see the extended Simpkins clan in Pontiac and being surrounded by the great-aunts and uncles and assorted relatives with names like Daisy and Coke and Lindell and Leroy
- Watching Grandma and the aunties play bingo after a hard day's work
- Sleeping on a feather tick on Grandma's farm and trying to milk her cow
- Buying a big plastic piggy bank at the border crossing and planning to save our money for next year's vacation
- Dad being stopped for speeding and being deferential to the state highway patrol, then raging at him later
- Losing my new beige tennis shoes somewhere among the millions of like-colored rocks at Georgian Bay and Dad not strangling me
- Thinking this was the most fun I ever had
4 comments:
Oh man. You guys are making me weep, wishing I had had a family like yours. My family vacations were so hideous that when I grew up and had my own family, I barely ever took my kids anywhere.
Poor things.
Anyway, I'm enjoying reading these memories, even if they aren't mine.
I don't remember for sure that all 7 of us were ever in the same car.
(And the potty was NOT the dreaded pot but a beloved thing!) Oh, that memory of Don finding us in what seemed like a spot so far from civilization we'd never find our way back, let alone be FOUND! I was so amazed that Dad wasn't worried, and then sure enough, Don came driving in with his big brother self-confidence!
And I remember YOU, Nannygoat, swimming in Lake Simcoe when I couldn't bear to put my toe in it! You, the polar bear minus footwear! Those rocks on the bottom were like ice cubes!!
Remember Murray, the adorable older guy (all of 16) who was Canadian and said, "Eh?" Oh, we were IN LOVE!!:)
And I remember on a later trip that Dad was getting up really early to go fishing and after much begging on my part, he agreed to take me, and Mom was supposed to awaken me early. But when I woke up, he had GONE WITHOUT ME! My heart was broken! Finally, after Mom and Dad were living in Sebring, Mom made Dad understand how badly I had felt about that and he finally "GOT IT" and apologized (through Mom). I knew he wanted one of the boys to go with him and thought I would just talk and scare the fish away. Oh, my poor broken heart to have been left out of that adventure way out on Lake Nippissing near the falls. I might not be recovered from that yet.
I remember those days well! One thing I remember is that I talked Mom into buying matching polka dot pj's equipped with a drop seat, no less! Of course, when I needed to go, it was the good 'ole outside toilet-yuck!! So, I sure wasn't going out there through the weeds in the dark; SO my Mom in her matching polka dots marched out there with me-Bless her heart!
To this day I avoid those little shacks to the very end!
About the 7 of us going in one car....I do believe that we went on vacation once in the station wagon that Dad got because we thought it would be so much better. WRONG! Some of us had to ride in the seat that faced backwards, and determining who was to do that was not a pleasant thing!
However, we all seemed to pitch in and make it through the week. Those were the "good 'ole days".
Nan and I didn't get any polka-dot PJ's?? Waaahhh!!!
I remember the long line of outhouses at the camp at Lake Nippissing. When we returned the next year, they had put flush toilets in them all! Wow! We were thrilled!
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