Surviving the Road Trip
Remembering vacations is sometimes more fun than taking them
Dear Readers:
This summer is going well for me. Well enough, anyway.
As usual, the season seems to be flying by, and now — entering the first week of August, I’m starting to see those back-to-school ads which always fill me with a deep sense of melancholy.
Why this mood? Because — summer is ending. Autumn is in the offing and I no longer have children at home who I can send off to school wearing their crisp new outfits.
Sigh
[My teen companions like me enough to act like they’re having fun — for the length of time it takes to snap a photo.]
Last week I announced a pause in subscriptions until next week because instead of updating this newsletter in July, I was busying myself trying to cram a summertime of memories into a few weeks, as I hosted my granddaughters for their annual summer vacation at our house.
These lovely and lively children, who live in Florida, have been coming to “Camp Amy” every summer for over ten years.
Now that they are teenagers, entertaining them is both easier and harder than it used to be. Easier because there are fewer tragic ice cream cone failures during our almost daily stops at the Frosty Cow. (I mean, is there anything sadder than seeing your just-scooped ice cream land upside down in the parking lot?)
Harder because there are often times — entire days, even — when teenagers simply don’t want to do anything at all.
Once I adjusted to this reality, I settled down and read a sweet summertime novel while they sat on the porch in their pajamas and colored.
SERIOUSLY. THEY SPENT AN ENTIRE DAY COLORING.
[Did you know that coloring is a thing for teenagers? I didn’t … but I do, now. I mean, I know that adult coloring books have been in the market for a long time, but I didn’t know that teens had taken up this very leisurely sport.]
And when you think about it, coloring is actually incredibly relaxing, so if relaxing is what you want to do on your summer vacation, then — pick up some coloring books and felt-tip pens and go crazy!
In so many ways, summer vacations have changed pretty radically since the time I was a kid.
Last night I got together with a group of friends on my porch and we all started reminiscing about the endless road trips our parents took us on during the summer.
Riding in vehicles lacking even basic safety or comfort: No seat belts, no air conditioning, no radio, (and — in the case of our family car — no back seat,) brings out a certain amount of tension when the family is crammed in there together. We all seemed to remember the discomforts of the road trip itself much more than the destination.
These stories reminded me of a wonderful radio story I made many years ago, featuring a symphony composed by my friend Charlie Barnett. Charlie’s evocative summertime symphony is called “The Blue Chevrolet,” and for my NPR story I sat down with the composer AND HIS WONDERFUL MOM, MARTHA, as they reminisced about their hilarious and hellacious summertime road trips from Virginia to Maine in the 1960’s.
As Robert Siegal says in the intro: This is for all of the drivers and passengers on long-distance family trips right now. It’s about you, and it’s about the fight you’re having in your crowded, luggage-packed car. Or about the fight you will have a few miles from now, or possibly the fight you just had.
My favorite line in the story is when Charlie quotes his long and loudly-suffering father, pulling the Chevrolet into a restaurant parking lot and saying to his five children:
“THIS IS IT. I’M GOING TO BEAT YOU ONE BY ONE…”
How did the children respond? They put books into their pants.
Do yourself a favor: make yourself a nice tall Arnold Palmer, have a seat, and click on the picture of my old-timey radio collection below to listen to this radio story.
The story is 8 minutes long, and I guarantee that for those of us of a certain age, it will bring on many many summertime memories, which I hope you’ll share in the comments section
CLICK ON THE PHOTO ABOVE to listen to the story.
The full orchestra performance of Charlie Barnett’s “The Blue Chevrolet” is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and many other outlets.
The piece is 33 minutes long, and it is an absolute delight.
You can check out many more wonderful musical pieces by composer Charlie Barnett on his website: Charliebarnett.com
I hope you have a lovely, peaceful week — full of memory-making moments.
Love,
Amy
I was born in 1941, almost 1942. So my memories of road trips are vivid from the 40's
I was raised as an only, that means I had the whole back seat to myself. That sounds wonderful until you hear the rest. I was prone to motion sickness.
We lived in West Virginia, a place that gave new meaning to curvy roads, aggravating the motion sickness. So every ten minutes or so, Dad would hear me whine that I was going to throw up.
So he'd pull over (quickly), and I would open the door and get out (or lacking time to get out), throw up on the road shoulder.
There were no interstate highways or any road resembling straight.
I've given you a different perspective of "Country Roads." That John Denver song hadn't yet been sung. I don't think it would have settled my stomach any.
Steve Norcross
Thanks Amy. In the 50’s my parents had a Nash Rambler wagon with the seats that folded down. My Dad decided he and my Mom should take us three kids and camp at a campground and sleep in the car. It was horrible, no one slept and at 3 am we drove home!