FAMILY VACATIONS

I remember going camping with my family (the famous trip). The family included my dog name Chummy. Chummy had to ride on the running board closed in with an expandable bar and be tied into one of the seats. I think we went somewhere in Mont Vernon. We stopped at a farm house and asked permission to camp in their field and they said yes. We had a good size temt but I did not sleep in it. I slept stretched out on the rear seat of the car all by myself. We did not have sleeping bags so we just brought blankets. I was very comfortable. My mother camped with us, I don't understand how she did it. They probably had a mattress of some sort to sleep on. I think we had permission to use the farm house toilet. We must have started a little fire to cook over. I wore what we would call a gym outfit - big wool serge pants like bloomers. I don't understand how my mother stood camping, she was brought up in a rather dignified family. My mother was ahead of her time in women's clothing so she would have been wearing something sensible although not pants.

I remember another family trip to the mountains. We went to the Basin where my father fell in. He got all wet and had to take off his clothes down to his Union Suit, long arms and long legs, to get his clothes dried out. This was also an overnight trip where we camped. There is a picture of him somewhere standing in his Union Suit. If we find it we will post it later.

We would go to the beach in the summer when my father was in summer camp for the National Guard. We would stay at the Villa Mer. I think my sister Ruthie found a boyfriend one year while we were there. My Auntie Vic could not go because she was "allergic". We would see my father sometimes because part of his duty was to lead band concerts and we would go to them. I think my father liked the times when he would go off to camp without us.

After awhile my brother could not go with us because he got a job for Mrs. Barnett as her chauffeur during the summer. He would live upstairs over the garage so he could be on call for her whenever she wanted to go someplace.