Rain, Rain, Go Away My parents met when they were both
by Maureen Gregory
The travel budget was limited, and my father students at the University of Alabama; my father resisted all our impassioned pleas to stop at was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio while Stuckeys and all the other roadside tourist traps my mother was born and raised in Palm Beach, that were advertised on the many roadside Florida. When they married in 1944 and settled billboards. Our disappointment was very vocal in Cleveland, my father promised her parents as our father zipped by the freeway exits that that he would make sure their daughter could had promised us glorious must-see adventures come and visit them at least once a year. He and a trove of gift shop treasures. We stayed kept that promise faithfully. at budget motels, but always with a pool – the one luxury concession my father made. Within As the years passed and their family grew to ten minutes of our arrival, we were splashing in include eight children, we kids knew to expect the water and burning off our pent-up energy. that our summer vacation every year would Meals were almost always sandwiches made by be a three-day-long drive to Florida to see our my mother, with provisions she had packed in grandparents. The annual pilgrimage involved a our large green Coleman cooler or purchased at crowded station wagon with no air-conditioning. a Lawsons store along the route. There were no seat belts back then, so we were free to move about the vehicle, with usually With the expense of hotel stays increasing every one child in the front seat with Mom and Dad, year, a friend suggested, “Why not try camping? three in the back seat, and the remainder loosely We have a 6-man tent you can borrow and your sequestered in the back section by the tailgate. kids will love it!” The thought of saving money It was three days of being cooped up in the car was always attractive to my father. Less than $10 while singing songs, playing games, arguing over a night at a campground instead of $50 or more the window seats and general mayhem. at a hotel? It was a bargain he couldn’t resist. So
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