What's your most memorable vacation? It's really hard to say for me. They have all been good and that makes it hard to narrow down. That is partially because the worst moment of vacation is better than the best moment working. That's just a fact. I know they say that about fishing. But if you think about it, fishing and vacation are sort of the same. Both are times spent in quiet contemplation... except of course while you are catching a great big fish or zip lining through a jungle.
I used to love the family vacations we all took together. The bulk of those memories occurred in the backseat of a Ford, be it Fairlane, LTD or Granada. Most of them while driving through Colorado. No matter where we went, I always remember the parts when we were driving through Colorado. I guess it's just a memorable state. I have a friend who amazingly enough is able to remember back to when she was two. I can't do that. I am challenged to remember things I did yesterday. I don't remember much from when I was four that wasn't recorded on Dad's 8mm movie camera and played over and over again throughout my childhood forever embedding it in my memory. If it wasn't for that 8mm camera I probably wouldn't have any memories of one of the best vacations of my life.
When I was four we lived in Alvin, Texas. Robbie, Ronnie and I had never seen snow and I guess Mom and Dad decided to pack us all up in the Ford Fairlane for a November vacation to Colorado in search of snow. For those of you who weren't fortunate enough to experience the beauty of the 8mm movie camera, I'll explain. There was no sound. So your Dad would stand in front of you with the camera running and you would stand at attention as though you were being photographed by a still camera and then he would say, "Do something!" Your first response was to wave at the camera and say "Hi!!!" Then he would say, "They can't hear you...." and you would start making faces. My parents have reels and reels of 8mm film and about 40% of it is me and my brothers waving and then jumping around and making faces. Anytime my Dad was on the screen, it means my Mom was filming and you can read Dad's lips in the footage saying "There's no film in the camera" over and over again just to mess with Mom.
So anyway, on this memorable vacation in November of 1967, they packed us and our coats and the 8mm movie camera up and we went off in search of snow. There are movies of snow on the side of the mountains as we drove along in the car. I suppose Mom filmed that as Dad drove which is really funny to me since she never wants to watch home movies because she says they give her motion sickness. Seriously? Maybe if she hadn't filmed from a moving car, this wouldn't be a problem. But anyway, we finally stopped at a roadside park and we were all excited to get out of the car and play in snow for the first time. Apparently, Dad got out first and turned the camera on to film all of us getting out of the car. Robbie, my older brother, who would have just been turning 7 at the time got out with his arms sort of stuck out in the air. He was wearing a bomber jacket and one of that hats with the flaps that come down over your ears. After a minute Mom walked over to him and took his jacket off, turned it right side up and put it back on him. He had put it on upside down with the collar around his waist in his excitement at seeing snow. The whole family always gets a big kick out of that part of the movie.
I have to say that my parents were very attractive in this home movie. Mom was really skinny and wore pencil capris's and a really cute winter white "leather looking" car jacket. I say "leather looking" because it was the 60's we were in a Ford Fairlane and there is no doubt in my mind that Mom would not have spent the money for a real leather jacket. But I would love to have that jacket now if I could pull it off like she did. She had platinum blond hair and was really cute. The incident with Robbie's jacket was really the only thing of any interest that took place at that first stop.
Later in the movie, we stopped to play in snow. Once again, we all piled out of the back of the Fairlane in the movie and then the "fun" commenced. There was a snowball fight. For those of you who really know me, I was even less coordinated at age 4 than I am now, if you can believe it. In the movie I am wearing a really cute little houndstooth coat with black fur trim that buttoned up. I have a black fur muffler that goes around my neck and you put your hands in to keep them warm. I was precious... right up until my dad threw a snowball that hit me right smack in the face. Then I was a crying, screaming, bundle of 4 year old anger the likes of which no one wants to get locked up in a car with. In the home movie, I was red and crying with a wet face (the snowball had disintegrated on impact and the cold, wet remnants had slid down my face into my coat). Perhaps this was the moment when I initially discovered that I HATE to be cold and vacations are best if taken in a tropical climate. To make me stop crying, my parents told me to hit Dad with a snowball, but again, I had no coordination, so I couldn't throw a snowball and hit the broadside of a barn, much less my Dad. So finally, he bent down and I sort of rubbed a snowball in his face and everything was better.
The next footage on the 8mm film is of Ronnie attempting to walk on ice. I must tell you that there are few things better than taking a 3 year old who has barely mastered the art of walking on a flat surface in warm dry Alvin, Texas and sticking him on a sheet of ice and watching him walk. The footage of Ronnie walking in Colorado could entertain you for hours. But to his credit, he never gave up. Each time his feet slipped out from under him and he wound up on his back he immediately got up and tried again. At times, if the fall didn't make you laugh out loud, the effort he put into trying to get back up and falling again numerous times will. All of these years later, it is still one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
Those highlights that were filmed on the movie camera are really about all I remember of the trip. But they were great. That trip, even though I was cold and probably whiny the entire time, is still one of my best vacation memories. VHS cameras were not invented until much later and my Dad never got one until I was an adult so, we don't have talking home videos of us as kids. All of ours are silent which probably makes the memories better. After all, who wants to hear a screaming 4 year old whine about the melted snow sliding down her front? Not me!
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