I rarely get to see my family now we live in different states of the US, but a recent rare reunion between studying allowed my sister, brother and I to reminisce about all those cross-US holidays our parents would take us on. You all know the sort, the ones where you stay with your grandparents in the middle of nowhere for half the summer, hanging out with random kids from the area and flirting with boys.
Well for us it would be to Kentucky, just down the road from the army base. Our grandparents on my mum’s side had live out there all their lives and we’d make the trip out for a few weeks to see them every summer or so. They were always fun but what we chatted about was how much we’d hate the idea of them back then, being taken away for our friends from most of the summer and feel like that time was never going to end. Not that it was too bad of course! The weather would always be good, we’d play in the pool all day and being spoilt by your grandparents is never a bad thing. I still remember how my Grandpa would sneak us some beer when my dad wasn’t looking, we hated the taste back then but it was adventurous and different and we’d never get the chance to do that sort of thing back home.
It’s funny how with hindsight those become some of your best memories…when you first start to find boys attractive and all that gooey stuff. Anyway the time we remembered best was only a couple of years back when we were at out in Kentucky again. When we were younger we never paid much attention to the army base down the road from us, we use to sneak around its fences and pretend we were spies or soldiers. But then we hit our late teens and you know how it gets! What were once playful girly holidays of us running around without a care in the world were turning into us being fixated by any kind of pretty young men we could fix our adoration on.
And fortunately for us that cam when my sister and I used to watch the young army trainees go past in all their uniforms. Now we look back at it and wonder if our dad knew the stuff that was going through our heads then he probably would have kept us away from our grandparents’ house! Anyway it might have been something to do with the heat but my sister and what started as us just picking who we thought were the cutest and comparing them – even our mum would join in with us on this providing our dad wasn’t around – turned into a bit of playful teasing, after all we knew they had to be on their best behaviour so we tried extra hard to get a reaction out of them.
Sometimes we’d just blow kisses and things, you know dumb stuff to see if they would wink back at us. Most of the time it would make us blush more than them anyway. We would even joke around and wash our grandpas car in our tiny denim shorts and cropped tees, splashing the water around like something out of a Daisy Duke scene, hoping we’d get a wolf whistle.
It was all silly stuff but it was the highlight of a slow day when these hot guys would come in and out of the base. Sometimes they’d have their downtime and were allowed into the town and we half couldn’t wait to see if they’d come and speak to us and we were half petrified of these army men. Of course our brother was listening in on all this over a drink and was rolling his eyes, he had no patience for us and would just stick his head into his video games.
I remember this one time in particular when my favourite guy came up to my sister and me in a store and my heart was pounding, then he gave her his number and I couldn’t believe it. It was the epitome of teenage heartbreak and I didn’t talk to my sister for days. She laughed when I told her that story and she said he wasn’t even her favourite by a long shot, in fact she was surprised and slightly shocked at my choice in guys!
They were always pretty innocent times and we’d love to get some attention whilst we were having ice cream at the diner, trying to get a reputation as frisky young girls by the locals.
It’s funny how much there is to see in America and how few of us even consider exploring it. So you shouldn’t look past visiting these places, of course I’m an advocate for traveling and experiencing the world but you’ve got to get to know where you are from first. It’s amazing how many people don’t leave their own states or even venture that far out of their home city or town.
So I guess if you are a parent who isn’t sure about taking their kids to something like that incase they’d get bored, just remember that they might kick up a fuss to begin with but they’ll look back on those times as some of the best in their childhood. Especially now that we’re so into our phones and technology, its best to let them enjoy the natural beauty and peace of a place, it helps to put things into perspective and that’s what we had when we went to visit our grandparents in Kentucky (of course having plenty of hot guys around didn’t hurt either).
I for one am grateful for those holidays and memories, they were carefree times and I wouldn’t change them for the world! Chatting to both my sister and brother I know they feel the same too and we couldn’t be more appreciative for to our parents for giving us that quality family time.
If there’s one thing I’d advise is to never overlook what’s in front of you, there’s so much to explore and do in these kinds of places, you just have to give them the opportunity. What more could you want than good weather, good BBQ food and good people?
