When I think of my childhood, I can't believe my parent(s) did this...

Every year we would go on vacation- either to the Jersey Shore or up to the Mountains. Either one was less than 2 hours away. It always took about 5 hours either way. We would always run out of gas. My Mom kept saying that we needed to stop for gas- and Dad's famous response was always "You could go from here to Atlantic city on a 1/4 tank of gas." Then we would run out of gas and someone would have to hitchhike or walk to the nearest gas station to buy a can of gas!

When we didn't run out of gas, Mom would want to stop at every yard or garage sale (we always took back roads to avoid the traffic). The most memorable thing that Mom brought was an old electric hot dog cooker. There were metal spikes that you stuck either end of the hot dog on - and an electric current was shot through the hot dog. I plugged it in and electric current shot from one spike to the other- like in an old science fiction movie. I tried to cook hot dogs on it and they were the worst hot dogs I ever had. I can't begin to describe the taste of electrocuted hot dogs!

But all of this happened on the way or on the way home from every vacation. 6 Kids were piled in the station wagon in 95 degree August (with no air conditioning) and just dying to get to the beach or pool- and never getting there until after dark. -To make things worse I always had to pee every hour (we would carry a bucket for me in the car) and my younger sister always got car sick!

Another classic- actually our favorite family photo. We were in the mountains for vacation. It was Sunday- our first real day of vacation, after another ordeal to get there the day before. We just returned from Sunday Mass. Missing Mass was unheard of. We were all dressed in our Sunday clothes - dresses, coat and ties etc. The station wagon pulled up to the cabin- we all made a mad dash into the cabin to throw off our clothes and put on our swimsuits and hit the pool- the temperature was in the 90's. Mom walked in and said that she wanted a picture of all of us in our Sunday clothes. She insisted. We all got dressed back in our clothes- after much trepidation- and posed for a picture with Mom in front of the cabin. My mom had a bright, proud smile. The rest of us kids had looks that could kill on our faces. That picture has been used as "The" family picture on posters and collages- and we all get a great laugh every time we see it!