I remember Sunday drives. Some of the time we would still be in our church clothes, although us girls could take our hats and gloves off. If Dad had a long drive planned, we would go home first and change. In the early years that was an easy do because we were only blocks from our church.
It was fun to sight see with my parents because Mom always knew or wanted to know about everything and Dad just wanted to have fun and tell stories, lots of stories. His stories were about people he knew, Mom’s stories were about people she would like to have known (historical characters). So I always got the best of both worlds.
Dad was also always good for treats. Mom never objected, but rarely did she ever suggest and the children were never allowed to beg and quite frankly what we might deem now-a-days as just asking, in my folks’ book it was begging.
Things are so different for my children. We “church” on Fridays and other random days of the week with just a few people in their or our homes, dress normally, eat a whole meal and drink wine as our communion and never know when we will be ending the afternoon or evening (for that matter we are not real precise about the starting time either). Church for us is not an event on a certain day at a certain time and it is definitely not a place. It is a who. And we are the who and we are who we are all the time.
With gas at four bucks a gallon you would have to be a nut to drive all day for nothing. Every time we get in a car it is for a purpose and if it is over twenty miles or so it better have several purposes. Sight seeing is an extra thrown in.
But then again things aren’t so terribly different, my girls have a daddy who loves to buy treats. It appears that he doesn’t, but I sure wouldn’t have hit McDonald’s this morning for breakfast, whether I was fasting or not (see Good Start) And never in a million years would I ever buy the full meal for each person. If we, the girls and I, ever do stop at McDonald’s or Jack in the Box or the like, we get one, maybe two items off the dollar menu and water. So they knew full well they were being treated this morning.
So why were we out this morning bright and early, so early we were at Cabela’s an hour before they open? Because Anna bought fifteen quail from nice folks out on the peninsula who offered to bring them down to Cabela’s this morning.
And the concept of multi purpose tripping? Well, Phil had a knife sharpener to return and a new one to buy; the girls have never been to Cabela’s and have been waiting since it opened for their lame-o parents to take them; and Costco is right across the freeway. So I figure our mileage was well accounted for today.
I know that my girls will cherish the trip to Hawk’s Prairie today. It was very full of: new accomplishments, valley quail and Cabela’s; silly times, taking a picture of the moose, change shooting at us from a vending machine; important things, identifying road signs for future driving tests and remembering that flavored-no-calorie water usually has Splenda in it.
So no, it isn’t flowers in the Puyallup Valley while dressed in crinoline and getting the elastic chin strap snapped by your brother, but it was memorable. Our memorables.
