Forgotten Vacations

When I was blogging about my childhood I left out a couple of fairly memorable vacations... Yeah - I somehow managed to forget about a couple of memorable events :-)

The first one was a trip to Chicago (from St. Louis) when I was four years old. Dad had some business there so we all drove up for a few days and stayed at a hotel within walking distance of the Museum of Science and Industry.
On the way there we passed through the south side of Chicago on surface streets - this was before the interstates. There had been a car accident and we were stuck in a traffic jam in the "Black Belt". It was a hot day and tempers were short. A crowd had gathered around the wrecked cars and there was a lot of yelling and my parents were visibly afraid... I was really taken aback by that - that's why I remember it so vividly... I'd never seen my parents afraid of anything before :-)

Aside: That reminds me of another incident about that same general time... Dad took me to downtown St. Louis one Saturday and stopped in front of a building to run a quick errand. He left me in the front seat and mentioned that he was leaving the keys in the ignition because the car was illegally parked...
And a couple of minutes later a black man in a uniform got into the driver seat and told me we needed to go for a short drive. In retrospect it is obvious that he was the building's doorman - I bet dad even asked him to keep an eye on me - but at the time I had no clue who he was or what he was doing in our car.
He was trying to be very reassuring and comforting - probably because he saw the expression on my face :-) I'm sure the last thing he needed was some little cracker freaking out and screaming about being kidnapped... But I really was freaked out - I'd been raised to be very wary of strangers... Still - I managed to keep calm as he started the car... I was sooo relieved when he only moved it forward into a space that had opened up.
When dad got back I told him what had happened and he said he had expected that... And I was thinking " You left me in the car alone knowing that a stranger would probably get in and drive??? And you didn't make that absolutely clear to me??? You have got to be sh*tting me!!!" Parents are so clueless sometimes... But I digress :-)

The main thing I remember about that Chicago trip was the Museum of Science and Industry. I have always loved that kind of stuff. Even though most of it was beyond my comprehension I was still completely amazed by it. The thing that impressed me the most was the German U-boat. I could not believe that people actually went underwater in that thing. It was so dark and cramped - quite scary, actually :-)
Oh - and there was also a machine where you put in a penny and turned a crank and it changed it into a "Chicago Museum of Science and Industry" medallion. It was magic :-)

The other vacation I forgot to mention was to Lake Brantingham in the Adirondacks. This was in the summer of 1963 when we lived in Philadelphia. Apparently an acquaintance of my father's owned the old Inn on the lake (no longer there) and told my father he'd give us a "special" deal. I guess they didn't discuss the details because I remember dad's reaction when we got the bill in the mail afterward. Apparently the deal was a lot more "special" for the friend than it was for us :-)

Something really strange happened on the way there: Dad asked mom for a cigarette and she picked up her purse and fumbled around for a minute and said "I know I put 2 packs in here before we left but now I can't find them!". She handed her purse back to my sister and I and we looked and found nothing. We searched the car - on the floor - under the seats... Still nothing... So we stopped at a store up the road to buy some more smokes - and when mom opened her purse to pay - there were the two packs - right on top...
Dad was certain it was one of Karina's practical jokes, but if she had done it I sure didn't see it... Now - I certainly don't believe the cigarettes actually disappeared and reappeared... (That is theoretically possible according to Heisenberg but is astonishingly unlikely.) I just think that our perception of reality is not as "solid" as we like to think. It's just odd that 3 people failed to see something that they were looking for even though it was apparently there... Or maybe things really do disappear... How else do you explain all those unmatched socks? But I digress again :-)

We arrived late in the evening during one of the worst storms I'd ever seen. The Inn was not that easy to find under ideal conditions and I remember dad having to get out of the car at each intersection to look at the signs because it was raining so hard the wipers were useless. There were a couple of fishermen in the Inn's restaurant who had gotten caught on the lake during the wind and rain. They said they felt lucky to have made it back to shore...
I also recall that the restaurant had one of those shuffle puck bowling machines. I'd never seen one before and I was fascinated by it. (I've always liked pinball machines. I still own one - but it's not working at the moment.)

I think we were the only people staying at the Inn... I would get up around sunrise and head out to the lake. It was dead calm in the mornings - quite beautiful... It was perfect "rock skipping" conditions. I had never quite been able to get the hang of it before but by the time we left I was routinely getting 7 to 10 skips :-) I also remember that there lots a hiking trails and chipmunks everywhere.
There was also a golf course. It was in pretty sad shape at the time but it was still playable. That was the first and only time I ever played golf. I was left-handed but all we could come up with was a set of right-handed adult clubs - that made it especially challenging for me. I did manage to shoot a 108 - but we didn't play the back nine... We had just about run out of balls anyway :-)
Whenever I completely whiffed a shot dad would give me a "mulligan". But when he blew a shot he wanted one too. I didn't get it... I was a 10 year old who had never played before and was using "wrong-handed" clubs... He was an adult who had been playing for years and was using proper clubs. Yet he somehow felt we should be treated equally with respect to errant shots... Like I said - I didn't get it - still don't... That was just the way he was...

It just now occurred to me that the Lake Brantingham trip was our last family vacation. Dad was out of work by the next spring and then my parent's split up...

Yeah - it was a good time...