We were driving down the road last week with the kids in the back seat of our mini-van, watching their tv of course, when the conversation turned to all that has changed since we were their age...
Do you remember traveling when you were a kid? I remember my mom and dad waking all of us up at 2:00 am to travel at night so we would sleep most of the way. They would put the bags on top of our station wagon (in the luggage carrier) so we could all lay across the back and sleep. Then, when we got rid of the station wagon we each had to choose new sleep locations - my brother (the oldest) got the backseat, I laid across the floorboard and my little sister (the "baby") got to sleep in the back window. When did seatbelts come along?
Do you remember playing "punch bug" and "I spy" while traveling? I remember my dad slowing down the car and telling us that if kept fighting he would put us out right then and let us find our own way home (and we believed him)...nowadays kids have cell phones and would probably love to be put out of the family car! (which is one of the 100000 reasons mine do NOT have cell phones despite their pleas!)...I also remember mom trying to make everything better by drawing an imaginary line in the middle of the seats to tell us not to cross or bother one another...and my brother putting one finger on the line and daring me to say anything! Yeah...you're smiling - you remember too, don't you?
Traveling has sure changed - albeit for the better in sooo many ways! Now we have to tell ours to put away the nintendos and turn off the tv that Santa brought them...we would actually like to talk with them while we travel! Who would have thought that we would go from "how much further" and "he's looking at me"- when our parents would have begged us to hush! - to now we have to beg them to talk to us!
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