Childhood past

I read a comment from an earlier post from anonymous, and anon got me reminiscing. Anon mentioned that road trip beatings have probably ceased because of all the multimedia options available in cars today, and I bet that's true. So i had to recollect about the roadtrip fun my brother and I had as youngsters.

I am 2 years and 7 months older than my brother. That being said, he just bought a house (in the Heather Ridge subdivision, aw) and has been married for more than a year. He also has a masters degree. While I will be paying off groceries from my Jersey City days in 2000 before I can even think of purchasing anything bigger than a new pair of boots, this kid has hit shit together. Perhaps my beatings inspired him to strive. (side note: that atomic wedgie when he was 8 also might have).

Back to the road trips...when we were wee ones, we lived in upstate New York, Rochester to be exact. Our entire extended family lived near Detroit, MI. So from 1983-1986, every Christmas holiday we would drive the 6 hours through Canada to visit the family in Detroit (side note: that Ambassador Bridge still scares the bejesus out of me). My parents purchased us a red, portable Texas Instruments tape recorder and off we went with our tapes of "Cabbage Patch Kids" and the soundtrack to the musical "Annie," and kids singer Raffi. And after our first trip to Michigan, with only one pee break courtesy of my dad and Father Time, my parents decided they had to put the cooler between my brother and I, since I just couldn't keep my tiny fists off him. I was one little biyatch.

I don't really remember all the details of every car trip, but there's a vague sense of my poor harried mother trying not to lose her shit, cooped in a station wagon for 6 hours, trying to keep 2 kids from killing each other in the back seat. I remember her half turned for almost the whole ride, trying to separate us and shut us up. Annie and Raffi and Cabbage Patch Kids helped. One year, I even got to sit in the front because I was such a brat. So you know damn well I will be blessed with kids even worse.

Ah, those car trips I will always remember. And I'm sad that kids today are too distracted with Disney DVD's to listen to cheesy tapes, or to pound their brother, or to drive their parents crazy in the front seat. For all the times we probably drove each other nuts, we still always remember.