The Poconos
When I was growing up, we never took vacations. Our family would go with my father on “business trips”. He would do what ever it was he had to do, and my mom would take the kids all over the city we were in (remind me to tell you about Washington DC sometime!). There was one trip to Florida that resulted in my parents buying a timeshare (a long tale all of its’ own, including egg shells in scrambled eggs).
So, apparently my parents started putting a priority on taking vacations. At the very least, they were now committed spending money on them. I was about 15 at the time, so my older brothers were 19 or 20 and out of the house by that point.
My parents decided to take vacation – but without any of us kids. I highly suspect the last time my parents had gone anywhere alone at that point was probably their honeymoon (and I think their honeymoon was just somewhere local – no where fancy like Hawaii). So, I was left in the care of my grandparents who lived across the street from us.
Towards the end of the week, my parents called my grandparents. Apparently they missed me. Missed me so much that they wanted my grandparents to drive me to them in the Poconos to spend the weekend before their vacation time was over. And my grandparents agreed to do it.
Now, I am not sure who (mom or dad) talked to who (grandma or grandpa). I’m not sure how it happened, but apparently history was being made. My grandmother HATED travelling (which I never knew until she had passed away). So somebody did some arm-twisting to get it done – I’m just not sure who did it. In all honesty, my grandmother was a softie, so she may have wanted to make me feel good by letting me go. My grandfather could be a bit gruff and shall we say, set in his ways. She may have had to convince him that “we should take the poor girl to see her parents”. Or it could have been my grandfather saying “Let’s go drive her – it’ll be nice to take a trip”.
So we drive from our lovely little hometown and worked our way to the Poconos Mountains. I think we left on a Friday after school was out, so of course we were driving when it was dinnertime. So we started looking for a place to stop and eat. The roads we were taking were, as family tradition dictates, back roads – little 2 lane highways were God forbid if you get behind a truck you are so stuck! So we find this place. In my memory, it is a German restaurant, but really the thing I remember is how dark it was – dark furniture, low lighting.
We get seated. The hostess gives us each a glass of water and the menus. I am hungry (after all, I am a growing girl!) and so looking forward to dinner. My grandfather looks at the menu, looks at my grandmother, looks at the menu and says, “We’re leaving.” I look at him; I look at my grandmother. I look back at Grandpa. Clearly there will be no discussion. Grandma is a bit distressed – they served us water! – but she also knows it’s no good to argue. We get up, walk past the hostess, me looking at the floor and wishing there had been bread at the table before he looked at the menu.
We get into the car. He says, ” I’d never pay that much for dinner – that’s too expensive! We’ll find something down the road.”
Now, I have no idea if we actually did find anything “down the road” before we got to the timeshare. All I can remember from that drive is sitting down and getting up without a word to the staff.
But, on to the “making history” portion of the story…
My grandparents actually had a pretty good time (I think). I have some pictures from the trip – just to prove that my grandma actually was there. One of them is of my grandfather, on the second floor of the condo, looking down at me. The stairs were a spiral staircase – which, when I think about how hard it got for grandpa to walk is amazing to think of. But the one I have to share is this one, actual proof that Grandma left her safe little hometown to make her granddaughter (and her daughter in law) happy:
And this was apparently the last trip she ever took out of state before she passed away from cancer. I am so glad she went and had a good time!