Tag: Camper

One Photograph – Your Memories

I have a blog that I want to write, but can’t really bring myself to do it emotionally. I’m still trying to sort through the feelings and the best way to write about it. So, today, I have opted to go to the Daily Writing Prompts to find my blog topic.

Today’s Prompt:

“One Photograph – Glance through some old pictures. Write about the one that brings back fond memories.”

As a Nostalgic Italian, almost every picture causes me to reflect on it and remember the moment. The one that jumped out at me today was from when I was about 6 years old.

My Brother and I in front of Grandpa’s truck.

The photo above was taken in Ohio. It was taken on our trip to King’s Island. My folks, my brother and me all packed up my grandpa’s camper and went down for a family trip to King’s Island and Sea World.

The first thing that stands out in the picture is the shirts that my brother and I are wearing. It must have been Summer of 1976. Americans were celebrating the country’s 200th birthday that year. I am guessing that elementary schools throughout the country all ordered the same shirts only with their school’s name on them. I say this because while we were on this trip, there was a family that were wearing the same shirts sitting and eating at a table. I remember getting up and walking around in front of them until the mom said, “Hey! Nice shirt!”

I don’t recall how many days we were there, but at least one day was rainy. Other photo’s from the trip show my brother and me in jackets and the King’s Island “bucket” hats.

While we walked around, they had many of the cartoon characters walking around the park. The gang from the Banana Splits were out and we got a picture with one of them. I believe my brother hates this picture, but I thought it was funny.

I remember riding a lot of the kiddie rides there. One ride had you sitting in a boat and we went through this tunnel with all kinds of characters in it. The photo is long gone, but I remember asking my dad to take a picture of these two skeletons dancing. One had on a top hat. It was one of my favorite pictures, but it was lost in a move probably.

Going back to the weather, I remember this trip scaring the heck out of me. After we went back to the camper, it began to rain hard and then a strong thunderstorm came through. Along with it, came tornado warnings. The four of us were all inside my grandpa’s camper and I was scared to death. I was terrified of tornadoes (thanks to my grandma) and I thought one was going to come through and pick us up in the camper! It was crazy. That wind was tossing us back and forth and it was the worst storm I had ever lived through.

It’s funny how one picture can bring back so many memories. This was the only time I’ve ever been to King’s Island. A buddy was just there last weekend and posted pictures on his Facebook page. As I looked at the other photos from MY trip, I have to believe that Fred Flintstone is no longer there and the Banana Splits have probably been replaced with Sponge Bob or some newer character.

It may just be time for me to take the family there for a trip! Now, if I can only get someone to make me that shirt in a bigger size….

Chasing Fireflies

Last night, I sat outside on the porch after I put Ella to bed. It was still light out, so I grabbed the baby monitor and my Bible and went out to read. As evening rolled in and it started to get dark, I looked out into the yard and watched as the fireflies were turning their “lights” on and off. I set my Bible on the chair and walked out into the yard to just watch the magic of these little bugs.

As I stood watching them, a memory came rushing back to me that I wanted to write about before I forgot about it. It took place when I was probably between 5 or 7 years old. We moved to a new house in 1976, and I know there is a picture from this trip with me in a shirt from my old elementary school, so that narrowed the time frame down for me.

Our family borrowed my grandpa’s pickup truck, which had one of those campers that sat in the bed of the truck on it. It kind of looked like this:

We drove it to Ohio for a trip to King’s Island and Sea World. My mom had an old friend that lived in Ohio and we visited them on the trip. My mom’s friend had three daughters and two of them were twins. I think this was the first time I had ever met twins and I probably always got their names wrong. This picture is of my brother and I with the girls in the camper.

We only have one other picture of us all together and I am going to guess this was at Sea World because I think this is supposed to be a walrus. Not sure who the two guys in the back were, but I remembered hating that they were in our picture!

Any way, I remember we spent the night at their house. I am guessing we stayed in the camper, but I am not certain. At any rate, I remember their back yard was huge. There were train tracks that ran along the back of their property and we actually got to see a train come through.

That night was first time I ever saw a firefly. We we all outside playing and the fireflies started flashing. I asked what they were and the girls told me. They seemed surprised that I had never seen them before. As I recall, we all got jars and began to catch them in our hands and put them in the jars. I remember being amazed at these things.

I remember not being afraid of them (I was afraid of wasps and bees). I remember watching them in my hand and in the jars. They just kept flashing away. It wasn’t until a few years later, that we learned that the fireflies were signaling each other in search of a mate.

We have plenty of pictures from our trip to Kings Island and Sea World. However, we have no pictures of us chasing the fireflies. Yet, this memory came back to me as vivid as ever. Go figure. I probably stood out in my yard for about 5 or 10 minutes just watching nature’s light show, remembering a very enlightening evening!