One of the routes for this annual family vacation took us to Mt Rushmoore, The Corn Palace, Custers Last Stand, The Bad Lands and of course Yellow Stone National Park. What a fun, fun time. Lots of laughter during and after this trip. My dad was always pulling jokes on use kids as well as my mom. Of course, back then everyone would feed the black bears from their cars and we were no different. My mom would roll the power windows down just a little bit to shove out some Oreo cookies at the brown bears. My brothers and I still laugh at how my dad all of a sudden rolled the window a tiny bit more and how my mom jumped on my dads lap in the drivers seat, (good thing I was in the back this time between my 2 brothers).
Our sleeping arrangements during these trips was either 2 connected rooms with one roll away for me. :) But that changed when my oldest brother Micheal realized that one way to get his own bed and not share it was to scratch Marks legs with his toes during sleep. I still think that Michael did it on purpose, even though he said he didn't know that he was doing it while he slept. So our sleeping arrangements now became, Mom and me sharing a bed, my Dad and Mark in the other bed and Michael on the roll away. The only time that this did not occur was when we stayed at Yellowstone. They ran out of roll aways because of a storm that caused more people to stay over night. I had to sleep between 2 chairs pushed together. I didn't care cause I just fit.
The majority of time, I sat up front between my Mom and Dad. But my Dad always had the air conditioner in the car turned up all the way, now sure I could move it away from my face or close it but some how I broke it or something just happened. So the air just always hit me in the face until I figured out how to block it by putting a wet wipe on the dash board, problem solved! It was during these trips that all of use kids learned to love the sounds of the "Big Bands." In the Mood, Fly me to the Moon, Mares eat Oats, just to name a few, but when we got tired of singing, the discussions of current events or just random questions became the family debates. This is my favorite memory....I remember one time asking my Dad why a spoon was called a spoon or a fork called a fork....well at first my Dad just said because, now being a kid I asked, "why?" There was another pause and this is what my Dad told me, "well it was because the women of the tribes were the gathers and the men the hunters, so I am thinking that it was the women who decided to call it a spoon," Now seeing that it was a woman that decided to call it a spoon and being a little girl, no more questions were asked. Little did I know that I would later find out while in college, it was considered more than likely the case, women of the group or tribe would be the gathers or those that tended the crops so they could talk where as the men who hunted had to be quiet. Wow, my Dad was right. Now when it came to my Mom, it was she that drove the historical side to our trips. When not stopping at the historical markers along the way, our discussions would be along the lines of think of all those that came before us... all those people who brave the cold and unknown in a journey to head west. I would just sit there trying to look out the windows and think how we could be driving over the bones of dead pioneers. When driving over the Rockies, talking about the Gold Rush, or standing in the middle of Dead Wood, the gun battles, or looking over Custards Last Stand, the Indians against the Army, and what it took to venture out west to settle it. I can honestly say that this is where my love of history came from, and I am pretty sure the same holds true from my brother Mark. And it did not stop with the family vacations, but every Christmas, my mom would give us kids some type of reference books. One year it was the World Encyclopedia, or a reference book on WWII, Civil War or WWI. She was always getting us these unbelievable books on history. I got a great set of the history of the States. Some where along the way I handed them off to Mark who gave it his kids and now they are lost and long gone, but not forgotten. To this day, and even when growing up if a movie about the Civil War or WWI or WWII was on one of the "big" Three channels, Mom, Mark and I would pull out these reference books to verify the facts. I still have all of my College books from the late 70's in the basement in boxes. Now I just google it. The Christmas prior to my Mom's death, both Mark and I got or usual gift of National Geographic Magazine for the year from our Mom. The funny thing is that this trait or unusual desire to know unusual fact has been handed down to my brothers Mark oldest kids, What a great tribute that we could pass on...Thanks Mom.
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