Past Travels

This morning I’ve been working on a dedication page and an acknowledgement page with the dedication going to my mother. She would have been so excited about me going on this trip. Even though she hated to see me leave, she also recognized my need to occasionally get away. I dared to do things and go places that she never did.

It wasn’t like she never traveled. She and her twin went to Florida in 1947 after graduating high school to spend time with their father. She cut her time short because she got homesick for her mother while Margaret stayed awhile longer to attend college. In 1959, when I was 5 years old, Ma returned to Florida with her brother to attend the funeral of my step grandmother. The only thing I remember from that trip is going over the George Washington Bridge in New York at night and that we couldn’t go swimming in St. Petersburg because of the jelly fish in the waters of the gulf.

Ma didn’t travel again until 1972 when Margaret retired from the service. Then she flew to Colorado to help Mags drive her car back to N.H. Over twenty five years went by before my mother went on a vacation and that was when I talked her into a cruise in 1998.

Ma was very much a stay-at-home person. As she grew older, she lived vicariously through me and the little traveling that I did. She enjoyed looking through my photo albums and hearing of the places I’d visit. I, myself, never traveled when I was younger. My first adventure in an airplane was in the 80s for a trip with the UAW to Black Lakes, Mich. for a conference. Other trips centered around my oldest son after 1990. There was a drive to S.C. when he graduated from boot camp and a couple years later, we flew to Ca. to attend his marriage. There were two trips to Arizona; a place I absolutely love. I’d made a deal with my boyfriend… if he went to Ariz. with me, I’d go on a cruise with him the next year.

There were eight trips to the Caribbean, 7 were cruises. The last vacation was a third trip to Arizona in 2005. Since then, I stayed home to take care of my mother.

I have found that the more I stay at home, the harder it is to leave. I NEED to get out, need to get away. It is time.