{"id":1715,"date":"2013-12-06T07:18:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T13:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2013-12-06T07:55:27","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T14:25:27","slug":"gettysburg-1970","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/?p=1715","title":{"rendered":"Gettysburg 1970"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"July<\/a>

July 1970 11 months before his death, Dad “pulls” and Brenda resists.<\/p><\/div>\n

two score and three years ago our father, full of determination and
\ncuriosity gathered his young family into a green Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser
\nand journeyed 200 miles southwest into the belly of American history,
\nthe fields of Civil War death, the tourist traps the land of hotels and<\/p>\n

cyan colored swimming pools. The fierce fighting for the window seats
\nas mom chain-smoked Viceroys with windows up, AC on, seatbelt s off,
\nFM radio tuned to rock classics of the day “Which Way Ya Going Billy?”
\nPoppy Family,”In the Summertime”by Mungo Jerry,”Hey There Lonely Girl”<\/p>\n

by Eddie Holman, The Hollies with “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”
\nthis station wagon featured speakers in the back seat panels, and
\nthis was modern day coolness unheard of in the day. We breezed thru
\nInterstate 76 pass the Esso billboards and Roadside America invitations<\/p>\n

Bushkill Falls, Crystal Cave, the Amish in Lancaster, covered bridges, and
\nthe Hershey Factory. So it was, we as a family took our one and only
\nvacation and not everyone was invited and some invited guests didn’t
\nwant to come! If you were clad in diapers than you stayed home<\/p>\n

with Mrs. Askew. Beverly was lost in teenage phone world and requested
\nto be left alone forever. Against her will she was dragged into the
\novercrowded station wagon and we endured the three hour struggle
\ninto the sweet beauty of Pennsylvania’s mountains with our mighty V8<\/p>\n

spectacular blue skies, puffy white clouds, fields of lazy cows and
\na dreary mundane depression that forever lurks in these small towns.
\nTheir shops, schools and slow walking slow talking locals with accents.
\nWe stopped once for 36 cents a gallon gas as Apollo nine flew hundreds
\n

\"!969<\/a>

!969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser Wagon<\/p><\/div>
\nof miles overhead and the Vietnam War raged on overseas.Just being in a
\nhotel is the vacation.Soda and candy vending machines.Running down
\nhallways screaming and taking the elevator up and then down, over and
\nover Dad sitting in the chair smoking a cigar, planning our days with<\/p>\n

maps and brochures the TV blaring,nobody watching Jumping on the bed
\nsuddenly,how many glass displays of dug up bullets, marble statues of
\nmen on horses, riffles hanging on walls, hundreds of B&W photos
\nof dead men can one person view? This was an endless history class in<\/p>\n

the hot Summer sun.It wasn’t my fault I was a kid with different ideas of
\nadventure and that by the third day of endless hundred year old history
\nI had enough and made it my point to say so. Somewhere in between
\nLittle Round Top and Devils Den, my whining had warranted a beating<\/p>\n

I was sent to the car crying On the way home this hungry family did
\nbreakfast and dad ordered pancakes for all which finally came stacked
\nbigger than anything we had ever seen. Psychology won and just vision
\nhad made us full. Dad paid the bill shaking his head at the biggest waste<\/p>\n

of money and food and Brenda picked up her “underbrella” and we left
\nThe longer drive home hypnotized sleep. Dad the accountant adds
\nexpenses in his head. It wasn’t a vacation it was an education he later
\n said. And as we finally pulled into the concrete driveway I knew that<\/p>\n

if I became a dad, my kids would be riding roller coasters on our
\n vacations.We would take luxury ships and planes to get there. Never
\nlong lines, hot sun, ‘education’ or hours to get there but then if I did
\nwould my future son ever write a memory poem such as this? <\/p>\n

\"Because<\/a>

Because she is missing, Bev probably took this photo. Lost tourist.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

two score and three years ago our father, full of determination and curiosity gathered his young family into a green Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser and journeyed 200 miles southwest into the belly of American history, the fields of Civil War death, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,8,92,20,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mighty-ten","category-mom-dad","category-new-jersey","category-tall-tales","category-the-beginning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1751,"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themightyten.com\/blog19\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}