GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL

School’s out! Summer is here! It’s time to reminisce about all those summer getaways with my nearest and dearest. Unforgettable memories. Lots and loads of extraordinary escapes from the city.

I’m waxing nostalgic over outstanding FAMILY VACATIONS!

Witnessing the Northern Lights dancing across the sky in Iceland – DAZZLING.

Luxuriating in an overwater resort in Bora Bora – BREATHTAKING.

That African safari – MIND-BLOWING.

Cycling through the lush, undulating hills of Tuscany – PICTURESQUE.

Extraordinary family vacations. Oh, the memories…

for someone else!

My family vacations were more of the let’s-get-in-the-car-and-go-an-hour-or-two-away variety, a homestyle staycation during Spring breaks, ice skating at the locally flooded playground for winter vacays.

And this is how it went :

… with dawn breaking I would sleepily make my way to the backseat of our Dodge Dart, Beetle or Camaro.

With pillow in hand – fast asleep by the time we had traveled half the block – I would awaken just as we pulled up to the our accommodations. Our five-star, top-drawer, perfectly terrific Holiday Inn or Howard Johnson’s.

Residing on Chicago’s Southside, we road tripped all the way to the northern suburbs.

I assumed state borders had been crossed. And nobody told me otherwise.

That being said, my requirements were no more than a swimming pool, a bowling alley and a drive-in movie theatre nearby. And since I had an August birthday, a celebration with chocolate cake was usually involved.

What more could a kid want?

Not having siblings to hang with, but with my pied piper of a dad, it was reasonable to assume that I (we) would make a friend or two when we headed to the pool.

And if not, I could show off my “watch me, watch me” variety of stunts when jumping off the diving board for all those lounging poolside to be oh so impressed by.

off the beaten track

When I was about to turn ten, our desire to venture off the beaten track brought us to Highland Park (IL). I have no doubt the long trip was cause for me to recline upon my pillow.

We caught a summer stock version of The Sound of Music at the Tenthouse Theater and after a bit of recent googling I discovered that Ann Blyth played Maria in that production.

At the time i was not the least bit interested in Ann … it was the children singing and dancing up on that stage that captured my attention. To say I was mesmerized is an understatement. I was hooked. I was all – how do I get to do that??

it was a trek

One summer we trekked all the way to Galena (IL) and most likely I was horizontal on the back seat. Me and my pillow.

Galena, a city known for many historic sites, was where a whole bunch of generals had once lived. In particular, it had been the home of Ulysses S. Grant (like I cared at the time.)

I mostly remember taking pictures of one another with our hands restrained in wooden stocks. It was a very popular photo op. Fun times right?

I remember the main street of Galena being lined with quaint little shops. It was in one of those old-timey establishments where I eyed a small handheld mirror decorated with three dimensional pink and lilac porcelain flowers. I wanted it. I had to have it. I needed it.

My mom implicitly said I did not need it.

Did she not know the difference between need and want?

On the contrary, my dad understood perfectly. I had that mirror in hand by the end of that day. Happy birthday to me.

globetrotting

Hopping in our white Volkswagen Beetle (pillow at hand) we headed for the Smoky Mountains; a for-real expedition beyond the borders of our state.

A LEGIT HONEST-TO-GOODNESS ROAD TRIP!

There were mountains where we white-knuckled our way while negotiating the curves and the drop-offs. Gorgeous views that I often slept through greatly admired. Picnics along the way, a ski lift that I convinced my mom to take part in (my dad – no way) and horseback riding.

When I wasn’t getting some shut-eye, I was spending my time popping my head out the open sun roof. And that’s when I spotted the bears just lumbering alongside us.

We documented this trip on our reel-to-reel tape recorder – providing details of our morning till night adventures. My mom barely got in a word.

It was the original podcast: Frankel Family Road-Trip Ruckus.

I threw out words like “mah-velous” and “dahling”, in between knock-knock jokes and WWI army song duets with my dad.

And how we laughed at all the larger Fords and Chevys and Pontiacs… stranded – hoods up – steam escaping …as our little white Bug rolled right on by and up-up-up those sloping roads.

galavanting

A subsequent road trip took us all the way to Wisconsin and this time my cuz joined me in the back seat – pillow secured. This vacay would turn out to be veeerry noteworthy… a combination of Psycho and Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

We arrived at our lodging excited to see where we would be staying. Sadly, the gloomy sight before us did not quite match the allure of the lovely brochure. It was a little bit sinister – a little bit Grey Garden.

With great apprehension, we followed the towering, dour schoolmarm to our dank room where she proceeded to count the hangers in the closet,”there are one, two, three, four, five, six hangers and I expect there to be exactly six upon your departure”.

We were convinced we had found ourselves at the Bates Motel.

I urged, begged, pleaded to leave the hangers and depart that freaky place immediately.

After much hysterical crying coaxing, we got the hell out of there only to discover that every other lodge, inn and resort was “no vacancy” – and it was getting quite late.

At long last we ended up in a cabin in the woods for the night. I was not particularly pleased with the rustic isolation and to make matters worse I began to express my dissatisfaction.

But the Kathy Bates in Misery we-are-not-going-anywhere look on my parents faces put the kibosh on that.

Making it through the night, we quickly packed up and headed to a resort where we had reservations and hoped it would not disappoint. And disappoint, it did NOT.

Me and my cuz had a room adjoining my parents, but we pretended to be on our own. We were fourteen.

While swaggering around the joint we captured the eyes of two guys. And I have no doubt that their conversation went something like this, one guy says to the other, “you take the one with the braces”.

Response, “no way, she’s yours”. Did they flip a coin? And yes, I was the one with the sparkling metal clampings.

Anyhoo, we made a plan to meet them later that night. And although our age hadn’t come up … what if they asked??! We had to decide how old we were going to be.

The only thing I remember about that discussion was me obsessing over the thought that my man might inquire as to what classes I was taking as an alleged upperclassman.

We did meet up and picked up where we left off – walking around and barely exchanging a word. At one point the four of us passed by my parents and as they began to acknowledge us … I shut that down real quick.

I believe my cuz and her guy drifted off toward the docks (and that’s all I’ll say about that), while me and my date sat on a couch in the lobby staring straight ahead – the bubble above our heads reading something like… it’s getting late it was so nice talking to you…. I’ve got to run or I’ll miss my flight… Bye, Felicia.

jet-setting

When I was sixteen, I took my first flight. Not that it was my first time ON an airplane. On the contrary, I once toured the inside of a plane while it sat on the ground and received plastic wings and a mini loaf of butternut bread for my effort.

However, this time there was an actually take-off to go sky-high.

It was a mother-daughter trip. We were headed to a wedding. I didn’t bring my pillow. I stayed wide awake.

I believe we landed at Newark and made our way to New Jersey. Since my mom was born in Bayonne there were several relatives who had remained and we stayed with Evelyn* and Murray. They were hilarious.

Evelyn, who was my mom’s first cousin, had been a dancer and owned a thriving studio (my kindred spirit). We spent much time laughing at our very different accents. What accent I say?

There was a train ride into Manhattan, a visit to Central Park and the Empire State Building, and a seat at Radio City Music Hall where we saw the Rockettes and the movie, The Out of Towners.

But the highlight was when my about to be married cousin (Bob) took me to Greenwich Village and the legendary Bitter End coffeehouse. How cool was I?

*On a side note: several years later, while working in NYC, I visited with Evelyn and Murray and got to witness her studio in action. Introducing me to students and parents she began embellishing my resume by declaring I was a regular on One Life to Live and had appeared in several movies. My listening apparatus stopped taking in her convoluted improvisation when I heard the word Broadway come out of her mouth.

What glorious, mah-velous recollections. Simple, uncomplicated and unpretentious. Wouldn’t change a thing.

Would love to hear about your family vacays!

Now where’s my pillow?