VACATIONING CONTINUED

For families whose father's worked for the Soo Line Railroad, rail passes where given for all the family to travel by train where ever the Soo Line ran. This was especially nice for the Anderson's, a family of seven. They took numerous trips to the state of Washington to visit Ella's sister who owned a hotel.

It is not known what the family did beyond visiting with Nora and Louis, yet, I can assure you they entertained themselves during the days or weeks they were there. Ella was the family photographer and always rounded everyone up to take a photographer; first with Lloyd missing and then herself because cameras didn't have a timer like they do now.

Perhaps we do reclaim a vacation by the photographs taken. Little notes on the back may help us recall the time, day, and activities.

In July of 1982, a pencil written note states: It is 76 degrees at 9:05, we are now out of the city limits. Rachel is reading her book, Bud is getting home runs on his electronic baseball game, and Ryen is getting 'hang ons' with a draw poker game. Ryen called "J's" hang ons and the card that was coming up on the electronic game where jokers.

While at Rockaway Beach, we fed carp and rainbow trout, the two older kids rode go karts and bumper cars. Bud played a pitching machine game and won a hat for throwing the ball 41mph. Pictures were taken of Rachel on a horse, Bud on a Buffalo, and Ryen on a rabbit.

What does one do if there are no still pictures, only moving pictures of telephone poles along the highway driving 70 miles an hour down some small highway in Mississippi then forgetting the camera in the car at special places like Ringling Brothers Baruman and Bailey Circus? Places you have been as a child and wish to share real images with your children? You can only be hopeful they can imagine it or even experience it themselves.

My questions are:

Will they ever dive into the ocean to discover what salt water tastes like?

Will they see a member of there family sprayed with cud chewed grass because the member of the family was teasing the animal?

Will their grandmother's girdle be hung up on a line in the kitchen every night?

Will they get to see the dog jump from ledge to ledge in the Dells?

Will they pick oranges off the back of a convertible?

Will they take a pet along that has major gas because he ate too much lobster?

Will they get far enough into Canada that you pretend to lick an ice cream cone so the clerk knows what you want?

Will they pet animals in a petting zoo?

Will they ride horse back on back trails?

Will they go to county fairs and look at the animals?

Will they at least try foods of the area, like grits?

Will they be amazed at people of different cultures?

Will everyone be refreshed when they return home or is it the old saying, "I had to come back to work to rest up from vacation?"

Old Trunks knows that money is tight right now, yet money for vacation is always extra over the normal every day living expenses. When the Anderson's packed their suitcases for train trips to Washington, there were still outside expenses. As stated earlier, we could not budget for everything at the Dells so we went two years. As a child, vacations didn't happen every year and they were generally ten days.

I saw Daddy at his desk with his old Remington Rand adding machine crunching miles on the map and probably detailing what it was going to cost.

Certainly the many campers, vacationers, and fishing people we saw over the weekend did the same thing. The important thing is we did see a lot of campers and boats on the highway. Perhaps like us, we took our check and put it into a gas fund. Next year we will have to come up with a new plan. Because even if you go to a lake place, there is still costs, still gas to get there, and still a need to eat. And a big boat, which has sat in the harbor and gotten algae on the bottom is not going to get good mileage crossing the lake.

Try hard to take a few days away for refreshment, regardless of where you might go. Put something aside each week throughout the year if you must. It is important.

e