What I did on My Summer Vacation by Diana Flegal

Do you remember the assignment? You haven't been back at your desk but a day or two and BAM- homework is assigned! You have to write an essay on what you did over summer vacation.

I would imagine the teacher had different reactions when she read them. Much like the ones we agents and editors have when reading submissions. Grin.

Here are a few lines from my memory book:

     We drove south then west one year- my Dad had lost his job, so we had the whole month of July to hit the road before he began his new one. Coleman box canvas tent, stove and cooler- along with our sleeping bags were stowed on the car's roof rack along with a box of canned goods, pots and pans and kitchen necessities. Aluminum foil and the iron skillet being mainstays. Our fresh groceries were bought daily, which my mother cooked as Dad and my brother and I pitched the tent- which involved digging a trench in the event it rained.   My brother Tim and I rolled around the back of our PINK Rambler station wagon, (seat-belt laws had not been written back then) as my Dad, peddle to the metal, clocked his goal of 500 miles a day. That might not seem like a long trip today, but riding west in 1959 without air conditioning in the dead of summer wore us all out. Six or seven paper maps guided our way along with a road Atlas.
     I loved the temporary homes we made as we traveled across the country. Especially the nights after we'd made our trek to the bathhouse for our showers and sat around the camp fire in our jammies before bed. Sometimes Dad told us stories, or we just took turns poking the fire, sending sparks up toward the star studded sky. Even when it rained and the drops pounded the canvas, it's rhythms and the fact I was 'snug as a bug' provided me some of the best sleep I've known. On clear nights, the muted sound of my mother and dad talking late into the night as the fire crackled and embers lit the fabric screened windows soothed me.
     That particular summer we panned for rubies in North Carolina and dug for diamonds in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, Crater of Dianonds State Park, where I drank my first Dr. Pepper. I picked up a pocketful of Fairy Stones  in Va. at Fairy Stone State Park. I think we also saw the giant ball of string and other cool things, but it's the time in the car and around the fire and the hikes we took together that I remember best.

I remember excitedly making a list on our trips return about our grand family adventure, planning how to write my essay assignment. I'm sure I 'told' more in the writing than I 'showed'. The evidence is long gone but my memories remain. 

I wonder how many writers were born from such a simple school assignment?

For those of you that enjoyed road trip summers like my family: Take a look at these Rand McNally anniversary Atlas covers here. You might recall a few of them. (be sure to scroll down the page)
The links I have embedded here will bring back memories for many of you if you have the time to look.