Actually, this is a fairly extensive list. Did not have sleepovers, or go camping, take family vacations, or eat in sit down restaurants. Did not go to theme parks…most notably Disneyland or Fly on an airplane. Also never cut down our own Christmas tree. Honestly, doing these things were for other people. I never felt that I missed out on that much. The closest we came to camping was pitching a pup tent in the back yard. Roasting marsh mellows and eating hot dogs. One of my dreams was to have a tent with walls, one that you could stand up in. That never happened.
We never went on family vacations. The only trip I remember was from Wichita to Sewickley, Pennsylvania just outside Pittsburgh and this happened when we got word that Grandad, mom’s dad, was going to pass away. We made the trip and mom did get to see him before he passed away. That trip was like a vacation. We stayed in motels along the way. Always travelled on secondary roads. Took winding roads through the Ozarks. I don’t think we ever reached 50 MPH. I learned all about Burma Shave Ads. These were a series of signs, each sign basically had one word on it and you needed to read all the signs to get the message. It was fun and at our speed we didn’t miss any word. We stopped at little diners along the way. I remember one in particular. We went in and were the only customers, we hear a fight in the back. There were some loud noises and then the waitress came out to take our order. I am sure you have seen those Southwest Airlines commercials where they have something bad happen then say… “Wanna Get Away”. Believe me that is exactly how we felt. We would have preferred to be anywhere but there. The waitress came out sporting some fresh wounds to her face. None of us said much and we acted like we didn’t hear what had just happened. Placed our orders and hoped that the cook had calmed down and wouldn’t take out his anger on us or our food. I have to admit that travelling on back roads like fugitives from Wichita to Pennsylvania and back was in itself a real adventure. We stopped one time and got a Coke out of this really cool machine. It had Cokes in cold water and there were steel strips that the coke bottles hung on. You would open the top, slide the bottle you wanted to a place at one end, put in your money and then take out the Coke. It was very cool and so was the drink. The combination of the winding roads, the ups and downs really took their toll. The experience was enough to make me happy that we didn’t repeat this on an annual basis.
Can We Talk About Dancing?
When I was in the 6th grade two things happened that had a profound impact on me for many years to come. First my mom enrolled me in a Be Bop dance class. I have no idea to this day what prompted her decision. It turned out to be fun but frankly none of the moves were transferable to real life so let’s just say it was a way to introduce me to dance. The other thing that happened was my next-door neighbor Carolyn invited me over and, she and a friend of hers, taught me how to swing dance. This was other worldly. I was hooked. Eventually there were school dances on Friday nights that I could go to and practice swing dancing. I literally never sat down. I loved it and found out that if you know how to dance you always had a great time at any party or event. I remember that there was a dance held every other Saturday night at the basement of a huge church in downtown Wichita. It was called TAC which stood for Teen Age Club. Everything about this place was cool. There was a huge dance floor with DJ type music, there was a place that was set up like a club with tables and a bar where you could get food and soft drinks. The place was always decorated. I would mark the days between the Saturdays that TAC was to be held. I never missed an opportunity to go there. I got to see couples who really knew how to swing dance and jitterbug. I rarely sat down and danced the entire night. Dancing really served me well. My friends wanted me to teach them how to dance and I became kind of a dance snob. Like Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, who took dancing very seriously and expected his dance partner to do the same. The music had to be right and my partner needed to be a good dancer. I can’t emphasize enough how knowing how to swing dance made my social events really great. I simply was there to dance. By the way, my wife Kathy was a great dancer and we went dancing a lot during our 53 years together. We added the two-step to our repertoire and danced the night away on many occasions. I miss that.
