Continued

[susandennis]

We were a family on the move always. We moved from place to place but even in place. Daddy traveled for work constantly and, it seemed, at the drop of a hat, we were on a road trip. In the early days, we had a regular 4 door sedan with bench seats in the front and back and a trunk for luggage.

Daddy built a 'floor' for us in the back seat. It was a platform that extended the back seat to the front seat. No cars had seat belts. So we had this nice, big area - covered in soft quilts and blankets - to crawl all over, sprawl all over and fight over. It was actually pretty cool. Daddy drove and Mom rode shotgun. Always.

And we sang. Always. Old standards 'Casey would waltz with the strawberry blonde...' 'Daisy, Daisy, tell me your answer true'... And we sang hymns. Dad and his parents were Baptists with an amazingly rich history of hymns and we knew them and sang them all. Also musicals were coming into their own and even as tots we learned to 'Wash that man right out of my hair'.

There were no fast food restaurants and we really weren't restaurant people anyway. We had a Scotch cooler. I found this picture on Etsy and I will testify to its perfect authenticity.



Mom would make up a trip full of baloney sandwiches. If she was feeling kind, she put mustard on most and made some for me with mayo. All on white bread because that's all there was - mostly Wonder Bread (builds bodies 12 ways, according to the ads).

Daddy was a champion luggage packer. He had car loading tetris down to a science. But he could also pack clothes - suits, dress shirts, ties - for 2 weeks into a small suitcase and cause not one single wrinkle. I used to sit on their bed and watch his packing ritual and it was not only fascinating, it was educational. To this day, I not only can pack without wrinkles, I'm great at lasting days and days with a bag that fits under an airline seat.

One more memory that really doesn't fall into anywhere else... our naked house. Neither of my parents had the first qualm about being naked in front of us. For as long as I can remember, seeing them dress, undress, bathe was common, natural and comfortable.

My Mom was a tennis player and later on we had a house with the washer dryer near the end of the house where we parked. She would often come in, strip and put her sweaty tennis clothes in the washer and then go through the rest of the house totally naked - maybe stopping at the kitchen for a snack or stopping at the den to read the mail. I always knew one of my friends were going to be there one day for this parade but it never happened. We often and causally saw Mom and Dad naked. It was no big deal at all. I was listening to a podcast of 30-somethings not long ago talking about the horrors of catching a glimpse of their parents naked. They were therapy-required horrified. I scoffed.

To Be Continued

Comments

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

Therapy-required horrified. That's just sad.

[meowmensteen]

God forbid a child learns that it's okay to be cool with your own body and that their mommy and daddy love each other. Traumatizing.

[roasted-beets.livejournal.com]

We had a Scotch Cooler!!!! :-)

[fitzjameshorse.livejournal.com]

I dont recall nakedness in our house.

[rejectomorph]

LOL the naked house. That's priceless, but it never would have happened in my house. In fact I don't recall ever seeing a naked adult until I was in high school and one of the gym coaches would occasionally use the showers.

I did suffer considerable embarrassment over nudity a couple of times, once when the little girl from next door came into the room where I was changing for school one morning (I was about five) and, on seeing my male equipment said loudly "Oh, poor Joe has a boo-boo!" I don't know if I was more mortified by having been seen naked by her, or by the fact that she mistook my genitalia for some sort of injury that required sympathy.

The other time was when when I was about twelve, and a female friend of my older brother was staying with us, and I opened the door to the room where she was changing and briefly saw her naked breasts. I don't count her as an adult because, though she told everyone she was 19, we later discovered that she was a 14 year old runaway. Yikes.

My embarrassment only lasted until, some weeks later, I mentioned the incident to one of my friends and he acted as though I'd found the holy grail. After that all the guys in the neighborhood (little pervs that they were) treated me like a hero because I had seen actual boobs. Ah, the 1950s. Another world, really.

[susandennis]

It's amazing to remember what we thought and knew and felt and believed in the 1950's. It's other worldly. I now totally have this image of you and your buddies and the boob peek. I love it so much.

[rosegardenfae.livejournal.com]

My dad fixed up the back seat just like that for my brother and I when we went on vacations.

[susandennis]

oh yeah? How cool! Must be something in the Dad Manual.

[ladythmpr.livejournal.com]

My house is a naked house too. If it's warm enough, most of us will be in some state of undress, and we think nothing of taking off our clothes in preparation for the shower in front of our kids. In fact, an adult still showers with the kids most of the time (they're 5, and that's the easiest way to get them to actually wash). Our only requirement about nakedness is that one puts a towel between a seating area and one's naked bum.

travel

[(Anonymous)]

Keep traveling on, I'm with you all the way and love it! Joey from South Africa.

[sea-weed.livejournal.com]

We had a station wagon growing up in Australia in the 70s and my brother, sister and I would lay in the back a lot of the time. It was very comfy. And we also had a little nakedness in our house and it was absolutely fine, my dad used to streak from the shower down the hall to his bedroom to save carrying his towel back and forth. It was funny more than anything else. And I would sometimes go into the bathroom to talk to mum while she was in the bath. It was just life, nothing terrible at all about it.

[sea-weed.livejournal.com]

PS yes and white bread was all there was. We'd have devon and tomato sauce. Not sure if devon is like baloney seeing as I've never had baloney, but tomato sauce I guess is your ketch up. Good times. :-)

[maju01.livejournal.com]

I'm Australian living in the US and yes, devon is pretty much the same thing as baloney.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

We always had a station wagon, but it was a special treat to ride with all the seats down! It's funny what excited us as kids. For a while, we had one with a special seat in the back that faced out the back window, which was THE MOST FASCINATING THING for us. I don't know why.

I was raised by never-nudes, I would have freaked out if I ever saw a naked adult!

[susandennis]

Station wagons weren't invented yet. But, once, they were, they were a staple at our house. And we had that one facing back too. We called it the Back Back and we FOUGHT over the chance to sit there. Supreme prize was getting the Back Back to your self with no siblings!

One time my mom called Back Back and we could not believe it. We'd never seen an adult sit anywhere but the front seat. We were shaken.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

So strange! Once in a great while, Mom would sit in the back seat so that one of us could ride up front with Dad...usually my younger brother, since I liked the back seat better. :)