If you're as old as I am you'll recognize this little photo and remember scenes of your own like it. (Photo from the internet)
The road side picnic! My daughter has a romanticize memory of these, but as it was I in charge, not me!
Each summer we made two journeys across the country from where we lived in Essex, first to the West country for our annual holiday and then here, to S Wales to visit my family.
No service areas in those earlier days.
I'd have made sandwiches and we had flasks of tea and the toilet was behind a bush out of sight. With 4 children it was quite a feat.. the boys were fine, but it was me who did the treading down of stinging nettles for my daughter to squat!
How much easier it was when Service areas were built and indeed the M4 motorway in 1971. But it still took us 5 hours, more some times!
I suppose looking back it was fun in a way, but only on the days when the sun shone. We listened to Children's Favorites on the radio, singing along to Nellie the Elephant, The Run Away Train, and others like those.
We were off on our summer holiday!
Chrisxx
10 comments:
That photo looks remarkably like my husband's parents (except if it was them they'd have had some of their many children in the picture!).
We didn't have a car, but I remember people doing just that. Setting up camp part way through a journey, or even turning round and going back home after the food was eaten. People liked to drive out somewhere and have a picnic, or sit in the car if it was raining. We went on bus trips and took food with us.
Ah, the good old days . . . wink!
Still a great memory to have. Here in our state of Ohio they are removing the rest stops in lots of areas of the freeway. I guess they just want us to use the exits and go to the fast food stores and use theirs. Our family picnics were always at the state park when we got there after an hour drive or so.
I can understand why the children have such great memories. The photo is similar to our picnics these days!
I remember picknicking with my parents as we traveled. As a parent we rarely did that, instead relying on rest areas and fast food joints along the way.
We didn't travel far when I was a kid and by the time I was an adult there were services areas.
Our trips to see our families took 2 days and involved more than a few roadside picnics. I must admit I found it all rather tiring :(
I can remember days like these :)
All the best Jan
I have a photo like that of my mother and her mum and a friend, on their way home from Skewness. Their car had broken down so they had a picnic while they waited for help! I also have one of me as a child with my parents and siblings at a small park. We loved picnics, but not sure about Mom!
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