Ich bein Griswold! (I am Griswold!)
In 1970, when I was 5, my family (Mom, Dad, 17 year old sister & 15/13 year old brothers) camped cross-country from New Jersey to California and back. It was my Dad's dream trip. This trip would later be immortalized in the film National Lampoon's Vacation (hence the title of this post). Okay that's not really true, but here are the highlights of that trip.
1) Crossing the Mojave Desert in a 1966 station wagon w/ no air conditioning in August when the temperature was 110 degrees. All we had was one of those little rubber fans that plugged into the cigarette lighter. There were six of us in the car and since I was the smallest I got stuck in the very back of the station wagon, farthest away from the fan. I could have died back there! ;-)
2) Our tent blowing into Lake Mead during a storm. All six of us slept in the car that night.
3) My Dad driving 100 MPH on the highway through the Utah Salt Flats, while my brother Greg encouraged him to "Go Faster Dad!". Unfortunately for my Dad, my Mom woke up at that moment. She was not happy!
4) My Dad driving along Route 1 in California, while filming out the window with his Super 8 movie camera. For those of you who don't know Route 1, it's a winding road along steep cliffs, which drop off into the Pacific Ocean. When I was younger we used to pull out the film and count how many times Dad almost drove off the road! He used this same camera technique when we drove to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado and that's back when Pikes Peak didn't have guard rails. And my wife wonders why I have a fear of heights!
5) Not being able to see Alcatraz because Native American protesters had occupied it. I'm not joking about this. For 18 months Native American activists occupied Alcatraz. Click here for the details.
6) My Dad leaving us in Kansas. This is my personal favorite memory of this trip! ;-) We were only about 10 days into the trip when my Dad got fed up with my brothers not helping him put up the tent each night at the campground. So he woke up early one morning, called a cab, left a note for my Mom and headed for the train station. What he didn't count on was that the train going back east wasn't running that day, so we caught up w/ him and dragged him kicking and screaming back to our car. Okay it wasn't quite that dramatic, but it took a promise from my brother Greg to cut his waist length hair (remember this is 1970) to get Dad back in the car. I have to give Greg credit he followed through on his promise. Of course it was 10 years later!
It's now been over 35 years since we took my Dad's dream trip. It was the last time my whole family went on vacation together. My sister died in a motorcycle accident three years later and my Dad died last Summer, so now there's only four of us who remember the trip. Being the youngest by so many years (8 years) there will probably come a time when I'll be the only one left, but I'll still be telling these stories to my kids and grandkids. Our trip might not make it to the big screen, but it will live on...
1) Crossing the Mojave Desert in a 1966 station wagon w/ no air conditioning in August when the temperature was 110 degrees. All we had was one of those little rubber fans that plugged into the cigarette lighter. There were six of us in the car and since I was the smallest I got stuck in the very back of the station wagon, farthest away from the fan. I could have died back there! ;-)
2) Our tent blowing into Lake Mead during a storm. All six of us slept in the car that night.
3) My Dad driving 100 MPH on the highway through the Utah Salt Flats, while my brother Greg encouraged him to "Go Faster Dad!". Unfortunately for my Dad, my Mom woke up at that moment. She was not happy!
4) My Dad driving along Route 1 in California, while filming out the window with his Super 8 movie camera. For those of you who don't know Route 1, it's a winding road along steep cliffs, which drop off into the Pacific Ocean. When I was younger we used to pull out the film and count how many times Dad almost drove off the road! He used this same camera technique when we drove to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado and that's back when Pikes Peak didn't have guard rails. And my wife wonders why I have a fear of heights!
5) Not being able to see Alcatraz because Native American protesters had occupied it. I'm not joking about this. For 18 months Native American activists occupied Alcatraz. Click here for the details.
6) My Dad leaving us in Kansas. This is my personal favorite memory of this trip! ;-) We were only about 10 days into the trip when my Dad got fed up with my brothers not helping him put up the tent each night at the campground. So he woke up early one morning, called a cab, left a note for my Mom and headed for the train station. What he didn't count on was that the train going back east wasn't running that day, so we caught up w/ him and dragged him kicking and screaming back to our car. Okay it wasn't quite that dramatic, but it took a promise from my brother Greg to cut his waist length hair (remember this is 1970) to get Dad back in the car. I have to give Greg credit he followed through on his promise. Of course it was 10 years later!
It's now been over 35 years since we took my Dad's dream trip. It was the last time my whole family went on vacation together. My sister died in a motorcycle accident three years later and my Dad died last Summer, so now there's only four of us who remember the trip. Being the youngest by so many years (8 years) there will probably come a time when I'll be the only one left, but I'll still be telling these stories to my kids and grandkids. Our trip might not make it to the big screen, but it will live on...
ohmygawd, that is hilarious! We spent that same summer vacation from California to North Carolina with our nextdoor neighbors in one van. 13 of us! And my mom was into antiques and before long, we had an old sewing machine and a church pew in there! This was in 1977. We ranged from 7 - 19 in age. We spent 6 long weeks. Once we stopped at the Crystal caves in S. Dakota (?) and after we paid, the man said showed up down a long rusted ladder with his failing flashlight. "Flood destroyed it in '69". And off we went back up the ladder!! My mom kept pinching my butt climbing up the ladder telling me to steal a crystal to make up for the money we lost on our tour! I tried! Oh, how I tried! But they were in good!
Keep up the great writing. Your sense of humor will carry you through...
Posted by
shawn |
8:21 PM