When Dennis suggested that we rent a place on the beach at Sea Isle City, New Jersey for vacation I have to admit I was excited but horribly apprehensive at the same time. My history with vacations was far from good, so much so that I tried to avoid even thinking about the word "vacation".
Growing up there were two trips to Wisconsin to see Mother's family. The first one Dad managed to run into the back of a trailer in Illinois and we had to have the headlights replaced in order to continue on. At the age of six I was pretty small to realize any strife but I don't think Dad was too impressed with staying on a dairy farm for two weeks. The next year Dad stayed home and Mother took my two brothers and I on the train. I remember having fun but that was the last time we did that.
When I was twelve Mother and Dad decided to rent a cabin in Colorado for two weeks in the mountains. How much fun that was going to be! Only they got in a spat loading the suitcases in the car. Do you have any idea how small the interior of a 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk was? Small enough that Mother and Dad almost touched shoulders in the front seat. When we passed through the same western Oklahoma town twice in one hour Mother said to me "Donna, would you tell your Father he is on the wrong road". I learned to read a map very quickly but they still did not speak to each other for the entire two weeks and probably for weeks after we got home. Thank heavens that was the end of family vacations.
Maybe I carry a vacation cloud over my head as they did not get any better after I married Dennis. For many years there were trips out of town to drag race. One can't call those vacations by any means. Those were drive all night to get someplace, attempt to race all day and drive all night to get home. When Wes was three we actually planned a two week trip to Colorado. In three days we saw a few sights, Dennis had read all his drag racing magazines, he tore a night light off the wall in the cabin because he couldn't get it to turn off one night and in three days we headed home.
Perhaps I should not downgraded the Ford Motor Company trips. They all sounded fantastic, chance of a lifetime adventures to St. Maarten, Freeport, Nassau, a Cruise, and Spain. They sounded fantastic but when you go as a host and have to keep anywhere from 300 to 500 people happy and on schedule it leaves a little to be desired. Add to that Dennis did not travel well to put it mildly. To be brief there were always clothes that were too small, people he could not deal with, horrible food, his suitcase not showing up and the inevitable illness that always occurred.
Being an optimist I really did hope a week at the shore would be fun even with Dennis' Mother, Alpha, and his Aunt Hazel joining us but it is hard to shake seventeen years of vacation disasters. Good points to remember was that the house was huge, three stories with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a fully stocked kitchen plus the fact that you walked out the door onto the sand of the beach and a washer and dryer, everything brand new. Add to that was the fact that both ladies loved to cook and we were only a few blocks from the Boardwalk and lots of places to eat with good old American food.
The stars must have been in line that week. I am not sure what made that vacation be the only good one I can remember in all those years. Was it just being at the shore where you did not need to do anything else but fly kites or make sand castles or work on a tan? Were Alpha and Hazel a great buffer to keep Dennis from throwing one fit or another? Did he not get sick because his Mom was cooking good old American food? For one glorious week I wasn't stupid once, the boys had too much fun to fight or argue and Dennis was on his best behavior. I will never forget my long walks on the beach as the sun came up or went down, the laughter at the dinner table every night or the sheer beauty of the shore. I will always thank Alpha and Hazel for that week as it would not have been the same without them.
Alpha and Hazel stayed another week after we got home and I did make some appearances at my job at the Library but they seemed to be doing very well without me. Any time company came to visit I always jumped at the chance to take them to New York. The two ladies had never been and a little reluctant to go but I managed to talk them into it so off we went. They were worried about all the terrible things that could happen to them since they watched far too much television. I was determined to make it a trip of a lifetime to two rural Oklahoma ladies.
Bright and early one morning Alpha, Hazel, Wes and I headed up the Jersey Turnpike to New York City. Wally elected to stay and play with Sis all day since he was not crazy about New York at the age of nine.
I had carefully studied maps and sights to see because I was not all that good getting around in New York. Mother liked to go to Macys, Tiffany's, eat at the Plaza Hotel or Trump Tower but that was Mother. This needed to be a different sightseeing tour.
I decided to do the Statue of Liberty and would have loved to go to Ellis Island but it was closed at that time. I managed to take the Brooklyn Bridge into New York and find Battery Park which is a part of the city I had never been before. Alpha and Hazel were showing real signs of terror but I parked close to where you get on the Ferry and the parking guy started a conversation with me about being from Jersey. I could see both ladies clutching their purses and waiting to have them ripped from their arms. But maybe they realized that even in New York people can be friendly. Off on the ferry for a tour of to the ferry, a great tour of the Statue and a ride back to the city in pretty cool fog.
Next I wanted to take them to mid-town Manhattan but truthfully I was a little lost. Sitting in the left turn lane at a stop light a guy in a limo signaled to Wes to roll his window down. Panic in the eyes of the two ladies. He merely wanted to make an illegal turn out of the wrong lane and asked if he could turn in front of me. I said sure if he could tell me how to get to mid-town. He said "Follow me", the deal was struck and off we went. That was fascinating as we passed all the waterfront docks and drove under an overpass similar to what was in Serpico and where all the Mafia guys kill people in movies and on TV. I loved it, knowing we were breaking all speed limits but I knew the ladies had seen the same movies and TV that I had and were terrified. At some point the guy waved his arm out the window and sped away and I recognized the Empire State building so we had made it.
A tour of the Empire State building, lunch at a tiny Jewish Deli, my usual visit to Tiffany's and a visit to Central Park was all we could fit in the day before we headed back down the Jersey Turnpike. I can imagine they went back to Warner, Oklahoma quite thankful they were still in one piece. Over the weekend the whole family did the grand tour of Philadelphia which like New York would take weeks to see everything. Having people come to visit was always great fun for me as there was so much to see and do.
Oh, it might be time to show up at work. That was really okay since it never seemed like a job. The summer was going to be a busy one with the reading program, the area tours with the kids and a Muppet play I had written while getting all tan on the beach. I also had a bike safety program planned and a pet show.
It was going to be a busy summer but a continuation of what had so far been a really fun one.
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