Going to the grandparent's was always exciting growing up. Running throughout my room grabbing a backpack filling it with books, crayons, coloring books, and later on cd player and cd's and random crafts, the most popular was friendship bracelets. Also the three MOST important items, first pillow (a must), second blanket (the one made by Grandma Ostberg of course), and perhaps the most vital item, my teddy bear. Never go on a trip without my teddy bear, who was aptly named Teddy (how original). As we would hop into our 90 silver Plymouth van, I in the far left corner of the backseat, Caitlin next to me, in the middle Erik in his car seat in front of me and Erin, the eldest of us siblings, closest to the sliding door. As we would stuff our backpacks filled with goodies for the car ride and either I or Caitlin would put a pillow between us, so we would have our own sides, our mom would do the final check of who else has to go to the bathroom. Finally after bathroom checks and everything loaded we would begin our journey to the Grandparents. During this time of life we lived in Columbus, Nebraska and our destination was to Central City, Nebraska. A nice 42 mile jaunt on Highway 30. Looking back that 42 minute car ride was the longest of my entire life.... the road is quite straight and the train tracks and electrical poles seemed to go on forever, how joyous I would be in the final bend into the lovely town of Central City, home of Pizza hut, dairy queen, wendy's, Lincoln Manor, and Waffle's 'n' more. This 42 mile jaunt on Hwy 30 which later turned into 2 hour jaunts hopping onto Hwy 92, is filled with many memories. Memories of riding home after a long day of M&M's, playing games with Grandma such as booby trap(always scared our fingers would get snapped), and helping Mom perm her mom's hair are filled with many emotions. The fondest memory I have is listening to Stacie Orrico and Zoegirl and crying into my pillow as I would pray to God. God and I had many a talks on Hwy 30 and Hwy 92 as I would lay my head against the cool glass of the van looking up at the stars. Other memories on this road are those of the "I have to go to the bathroom" one sibling cries, parent answers "Can you hold it?" the sibling answers "No...I really have to go" The van pulls over at a corner and dad would get out take out the child in need and the tall grass became the bathroom. This experience also reinforced one reason it is better to be a boy than a girl. Many a tantrums were thrown while on these two hwys, milk bottles thrown at the front seat by my brother, Caitlin and I arguing about who is touching whom, the asking of parents if they have any batteries, the parent's telling us to turn off the flashlights because they can see them under our blanket, and the unbuckling of the lap belts that seemed to tighten every time you took a breath in. One car ride I was laying in the backseat and unbuckled my seatbelt and laid the blanket over me and meticulously balanced on the seat, afraid of the next abrupt stop, but it was well worth it not to have the seat belt cutting into my waist. Also another trick Caitlin and I utilized was stretch our seat belts out to the other person's clasp. This gave ample room to move and not feel as if our seat belts were corsets tightening at every breath we take. Our positions in the van did not change until Erik had grown out of the booster seat. The arrangement then was Erin in the middle on the left, I next to her on the right. Erik in the back left and Caitlin in the back right. Today the seating arrangement has changed back to booster seat time because our little brother is no longer little anymore. Whenever we leave on a trip together everyone still gathers a bag a fills it with mostly books, and ipods and then our pillows and no longer baby blankets but fleece ones either the tie ones you can make or just a generic one. Also, Teddy stays at home, at the moment, in the comfort of his box in the quonset.
No comments:
Post a Comment