Now that schools out (for most of us) and the temperature is creeping up that can mean only 1 thing....family vacation time. For kids nowadays it's a breeze. They have their iPods, Gameboys, smart phones and portable DVD players to keep them occupied. But for us 80's kids we might of had a walkman...CD version if you were lucky or else you had your tape one with the songs you recorded off the radio because generally the antennas on them were bad so you could never get the station it just right but if you did you had to stay still but being in a car that was pretty much impossible. Other than that you had a book and the radio. And depending who was driving determined if you were lucky enough to get to listen to FM versus AM....more on that to follow.
For me I never took a vacation as a kid that I got to fly. I didn't get to go the beach and see the oceans or go see Mickey at Disney World or Land for that matter. Yeah yeah I know deprived child. You see our family vacations were determined by where my aunts & uncles lived. Considering pretty much all of my relatives but 2 sets didn't live too far away that left those 2 as the lucky winners. And since they were equidistant apart it set up for an every other year rotation between Colorado and The U.P......Upper Peninsula for you non Michiganites. And from where I grew up that meant an ever so enjoyable 12 hour drive each way which makes it borderline Clark Griswold status.
But even after those trips most of my recollection of "vacation" was actually spent in the car with my grandma. Since I was the oldest grandson in town that put various duties on my shoulders. Like mowing her lawn and riding along with her to visit those 2 same sets of relatives that I normally did with my own family. Worst part of this situation though was the music. She was a country music fan. Now you're probably thinking that's not so bad but you have to remember this was PG...Pre Garth. We're not even talking George Strait or Reba here folks. We're talking AM country music in the 80's...Hank Williams Sr (not Jr), Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Chet Atkins and Roy Acuff. I could have lived with Merle Haggard, Johny Cash, George Jones and Willie Nelson but they were a little to "hard core" for my grandma's taste so she resided on the AM side of the dial.
I've admitted this to very few people but on one of the trips I learned a trick to ride in silence. I'm not proud of it but it got me through and helped me keep my sanity. I figured out that if I pushed the window button up when the window was already closed it created a bunch of static interference with the AM reception. I stumbled upon it by accident but boy when I figured it out I was all over it until she had fumbled around with the dials enough to determine she just couldn't find a station that would be suitable. I'm actually pretty surprised we never got in an accident when she was trying to scan the dials...manually; since she didn't have a digital radio with a scan or seek button.
I have taken a couple Clark Griswold adventures with my own kids that had some hilarity ensue and my wife didn't kill me and we are still married after them so I'm sure there will be more to follow.
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