I love to see my friends’ vacation pictures on Facebook. In the years before social media, it was rare to see such pictures — at least in my world. What about yours?
I do recall my friend Sandy doing a slideshow of her trip to the Holy Land. That was around 1976. My Sunday School teacher Martha did a slideshow of her honeymoon to Hawaii on Nazarene Missions Night at church. That was around 1980. And then there was my friend Cathy. She had a picture of her 1981 Caribbean Cruise in her yellow zipper notebook. (Do you remember those? They had clear plastic around the binder and you could put notes and pictures inside them and secure them with “ziploc technology.”) Anyway, Cathy was 13 at the time and wore a long sundress in the picture. She was blonde and tan and shaking hands with the cruise ship captain. It’s like she was living Vicki Stubing‘s life on the Love Boat. I was so mesmerized by that picture!
So, in honor of the first day of summer (June 20), here is an awesome vacation photo from Nelson’s photo archive. The picture was taken in the Summer of 1968 in Yellowstone National Park. It features a black bear greeting a family in their blue Ford Fairlane Country Sedan Station Wagon, 390. I’m not sure what I love more – the bear or the car.
Where was your best family vacation growing up?
Where are you going this summer? Did you know kids can ride AMTRAK to national parks this summer for 75 percent reduced fares? There are so many national parks I’d love to visit. Acadia is probably at the top of my list.
I’d love to hear about your summer. Please drop me a line or leave a comment.
Here’s another one of Nelson’s pictures.
I’ve been reading your posts in my downtime the past few days. You motivated me to start my own blog. I’m one of a few people at all even over 25(!) on tumblr, so there’s even more explaining, but it’s another “preserve our stories” one mixed in with things like “come check out these 80s/vintage/antique books (I mean I have books going back as far as 1898 that I’ve saved)/ tapes/ this is called and 8 track player,” so I explain more than just blogging about my life between Japan (Kansai) and here (NY, FL, now CA–no, not army, just biracial). This blog inspired me to do that.
Unfortunately, I lost all my pictures in the Hanshin Earthquake and then the newer ones in the fallout after my dad died (single dad). But there was a weekend trip to Oosaka in ’88–The Oosaka Hot Spring Disaster Vacation. Someday, I’ll put it all on…not paper…the Web, I guess.