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You probably remember vacations when you were a child. Sticky fingers from ice cream. Harbors perhaps. It’s A Small World one hundred times over. Maybe even a historical landmark or two.
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I’ll never forget the summer we went to Nantucket. I have a few typical Nantucket memories. Pedaling bikes to the beach, smacked with luscious whiffs of honeysuckle along the cobblestone path there. Tossing a Frisbee on the beach for so many hours I developed a sunburn. Singing “Back in the High Life” and “Mad About You” at the top of my lungs with my older sisters. You know, the usual.
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But another memory floats to the surface of my thoughts whenever I think about that Nantucket vacation.
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Muppet Mayhem.
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To the pig and frog it must have seemed we’d trekked to their biggest nightmare. Me and my older sisters claimed several high ceiling loft rooms upstairs. Awesome sleeping arrangements. Miss Piggy did not find them so awesome when a bat kept circling her and finally landed. In her hair. It tangled around her fat curls. I don’t think the bat or Miss Piggy were happy campers.
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As if that wasn’t enough for the Muppets.
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The next evening Kermit decided to sit a little too close to the light bulb. His left eye, bulging and glossy white no longer appeared to be either of those things. It was fried. And it smelled. Charred and sunken in.~
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It wasn’t a good summer for the Muppets. But it was a great summer for me. A great vacation. (That could be because Miss Piggy and Kermit didn’t belong to me, but to my sisters. I wasn’t so calm when one of our Norwegian Elkhounds chewed off my Cabbage Patch Kid’s nose.)
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Don’t you find it odd what gets stored in the memory bank?
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Do you have any unusual family vacation memories you’d like to share?
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*I’m excited to join the team over at The Writers Alley. Check out my introduction there tomorrow.
**photos by flickr
Methinks Blogger is wonky. Hopefully you'll be able to swing by and leave a comment soon.
ReplyDelete~ Wendy
I love this!!! Great memory! Mine isn't quirky so much as a little neat and a little weird at the same time. Every fall my parents and I went to the Upper Peninsula of MI. When I was 21 my Dad and I were sitting on the shore of Lake Superior and my Dad breaks the silence and says, "You know, honey, next year at this time you won't be sitting with me, you'll be with the man God has for you".
ReplyDeleteNot sure why he said that - I wasn't even DATING Nate yet ... but sure enough the next year Nate proposed to me at the U.P. and we sat on the shore of Lake Superior.
Ooo, I got shivers rememberign!
My childhood memories are a lot less adventureous:) I loved this!
ReplyDeleteI hope my kids look back one day and smile at their memories.
Awww! That's so cute! I love it. Poor Muppets.
ReplyDeleteOne of my fave memories is traveling with my mom. She always had the weirdest things happen to her. We were driving through that big park up north (forgot the name) and there were some buffalo crossing the road. They got mad at some of the stopped vehicles and the big one started nudging a van full of adventurous, dumb teenagers. LOL It was exciting and scary!
What a great vacation memory!
ReplyDeleteI remember trips to St. Louis to visit family and playing marathon games of PayDay with my cousins.
Congrats on your Writers Alley induction! They are blessed to have you.
ReplyDeleteI loved our trip to British Columbia when I was sixteen, especially Victoria Island and Buschart Gardens--spectacular displays of creativity from a former salt mine! Wow.
Love this post, Wendy. Love the picture. I remember we went on a cruise to Jamaica once and we stopped at this touristy island where they filmed Gilligan's island and all I remember is my brother and I walking along this bed of sea shells, pretending to speak a foreign language. We were weird even then.
ReplyDeleteHey this brings back memories of my own! I remember bargaining for puffy stickers. Hello Kitty was all the rage, wait, still is!
ReplyDeleteI remember getting tipped out of my pink float by a wave when I was about four or five at the beach and being underwater for what seemed like an eternity before my dad drug me up by my arm. It was scary, but it didn't keep me from getting back into the ocean.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite teddy bear drowned in the toilet on one of my family vacations. Thankfully I hadn't *gone* yet, but still...We all know how clean hotel toilets are, right?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great memory. The vacation I remember most is one we took to South Padre Island. We decided to cross the border into Mexico for a day, and when we came back, the border patrol wouldn't let my mom through. She didn't have ID and she's dark complected. I don't remember how it got resolved, but my somehow got back across. I remember being scared, but it's funny now.
ReplyDeleteMy dad put us 8 kids, my grandmother and mom in a station wagon with a "pop-up" tent trailer in tow and cross countried us from TN to CA to visit Disney Land. Somewhere in the West my 3 yr old brother rolled out of the pop-up onto the ground in the middle on the night and we found him the next morning in the grass. My grandmother and I got lost in Disney Land. We played every car game known to man. It was a crazy vacation but we still bring up the memories every now and then.
ReplyDeleteEvery year, we worried a bat would land on our head during the evening children's Christmas service! That was the only time we saw them in church, but we were petrified!
ReplyDeleteJaime, Pretty cool prophesy stuff in that statment your dad made. Gave me chills.
ReplyDeleteTamika, I know I'm doing all kinds of things now that will cause my kids to laugh (at me) years from now. ;)
Jessica, That happened to our car in Montana when we were driving across country. We through pretzels out to get the big guys to budge. I'm not thinking they're all that fond of pretzels.
Erica, Pay Day? Jogging memory. Nope. I come up short. Must look into it. Getting a little tired of Pictureka.
Jeanette, We've been to Buschart Gardens. Love it there. Gorgeous!!! We took a day trip (looong day trip) when we lived in Seattle.
Katie, No, I'm so with you with speaking foreign languages. I used to do that to my mom in the elevators in Germany. Poor Mom.
T.Anne, Yes, the puffy ones were the best and the ones with holograms. Remember Garbage Pail Kids? Glad that was short lived.
Lauren, Cool you are still an ocean-goer. Scary memory for sure. I fell through the ice on our pond on several occasions and my sisters pulled me up.
Sarah, What was that poor teddy bear's name? He must have thought he was living a nightmare.
Susan, Just so glad it got resolved or your mom might still be there, right? ;) That is crazy. I can't imagine the emotions that would come with that one!
Okay, wait! Julie, I've gotten lost at Disney, but I certainly haven't had a family member spend the night on the side of the road. This is good stuff and a little terrifying. Must know more of this story!
Jill, I love that it got tangled in Pig's curls. She's so into herself. It must have taught her a good lesson. I better watch it or next I know I'll wake up to a bat in my hair!
Ladies, thanks for keeping it real and sharing your stories. I seriously think it's what makes writing this blog worth it--the exchange of stories...your comments!
I'm considering going on a washing dishes strike. Who is with me? :D
Colors have finally arrived here and they take my breath away when I carpool all over God's colorful earth.
Here's to hoping you wake up hopeful.
Changed.
~ Wendy
Congrats on your new gig at the Writers' Alley.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, vacations were unknown. The closest we got to a vacation was visiting relatives or going to the zoo. Summers meant eating on the screened-in porch, consuming Mr. Softie ice cream, playing with neighborhood kids, and "swimming" in a 3-foot deep pool.
They were fun times.
Blessings,
Susan :)
Ooo, I'm writing about Nantucket. I might have to pick your brain! Well, I was an only child, so it was me and my diary and a bag full of books when we went on vacation. Oh, and my imagination. One of our best-loved vacation spots was a cabin in Vermont. It was a beautiful spot and I used to sleep in loft room, laying awake at night listening to noises on the roof. We used to go in late August, and sometimes school would have already started in the area because I remember seeing the yellow school buses and wondering what it would be like to ride one. We don't have them in Bermuda. It was already chilly there by our standards, so we'd always light a fire, wear jeans and sweaters, and watch the racoons come out at night on the back porch.
ReplyDeleteAnd then I would have to come home and go back to school, and life would be terrible again.