While cleaning up over the weekend, I came across my old scrapbook packed-full of drawings, stories, letters, photos, newspaper articles and whatnots.
If you click on the photo, you can see my old skin taped to masking tape. Torn off by the ashcan in the car.
I remember that day.
I was riding in the backseat of my mom's green Ford Galaxy 500 to San Francisco with my mom and Nana in the front seat and my sister and brother in the backseat . While the two smoked cheerfully in the front seat, us kids would roll down the window for fresh air and Nana would turn around and say, "Now kids, roll up that window. With all that wind blowing in your ear, you might get an ear-ache".
So we'd roll our eyes and the window back up and hold our breaths for as long as we could before fainting.
"MOM! Kelly's touching me!" Wally tattled.
"Am not."
"Are, too!"
"No, I'm not!"
"You kids get along! Do not make me stop this car on this busy freeway!"
"Shawn's looking at me funny." Kelly squealed.
"I am not."
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes, you are! You just did it again!"
"Mom? Kelly's lying!" I'd protest.
"Oh! never mind!," she'd giggle. "I forgot. She didn't mean to look at me funny. She's just funny looking!"
"That's enough!" my mom would shout from the driver's seat. " I don't want to hear another peep from any of you the rest of the drive!"
"peeeep!" someone would whisper.
And then there was silence except for the beating of our hearts. And sheer panic.
"Okay! That's it! I'm pulling over!!!"
I nervously played with the ashcan in the arm of the door when it caught my skin.
"Now who's crying!? Is that you Shawn? If you don't stop crying, I'll really give you something to cry about!"
"But ... mom!" I'd sobbed. "The ... (sob) ashtray .. . just ... took ... the skin ... (sob) ... off my finger!!" I'd cry through blinding tears.
It was just a short ride to the City but it always seemed much longer when you're sitting in the backseat with the windows rolled up with your brother and sister squeezed in there beside you.
9 comments:
yer so funny! I feel like i was on this trip! Aaah the memories I get to relive through you, wonderful!
that is soooo funny! though I was an only child, my experiences were limited to rides with my cousins, so I can still relate...
haha! i think I might have experienced that same drive as a kid!
Thank You for the Laughs!!! You are hilarious girl! I think we knew each other as kid-friends. Or, if not, we should have!!!!
OH no! You poor Pumpkin! Getting your little digit caught in the ash can! Although, I have to ask...is the ash can the same as an ash tray? I remember those! They had that sharp little grill kind of thing in there to put the butts out on--and the lid that flopped down with a spring to make it snap shut. Ouch!
Hi Doodlestreet! Yess! You have a wonderful memory! It WAS the ash tray that got me. And not an ash can. (an ash can?) That just made me laugh. That sounds really ancient like something out of an old black and white world!! :O)
Hhahahahaha! That's funny! I was thinking of those ol' buckets with the metal shovel that they used to dig out the ash from the wood stove!!!
What!!? I thought my sister and I were the only kids that pulled that "peep" response to the parental, "I don't want to hear another peep from you."
My mom still laughs about that to this day. I guess I'll have to break it to her that her children weren't exactly working with original material.
But, anyway, thanks for reminding me of sitting in the backseat behind smoking parents? Nothing like getting ashes blown back in your eyes, huh? Yep, those were the days.
Hey, remember driving with no seat belts? Ah, the 70s were great.
Thanks for the memories and the laughs.
That does it michele! We really must BE long lost relatives! Or clones. :O)
Half the time, those little lap seatbelts were lost inside the seats, and no on ever used them. I remember my mom thinking she could just put her arm out in front of us when she slammed on the brakes and that would protect us! :O) Do you remember climbing from the front to the back seat while the car was doing 65mph? I remember when my brother was little, he would just stand up on the seat.
Thank you Valgal and Claire for your comments and encouraging me to keep writing my memories...
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