Best Summer Vacation - Summer of 1974

I remembering Bennie and Jet blasting on the car radio as my parents made the trip from Long Island, Kansas to Denver, Colorado. I had cool parents, very cool parents who were taking me and my twin brother and my grandparents to California. It would be our first plane ride, our first trip to Disney, to the San Diego zoo and also into Tijuana, Mexico. At just six years old I asked my mother if the sunshine was the same sun we had in Kansas. "Yes, why?" she asked me. I replied, "it just seems better here."

I couldn't really appreciate all that my parents had sacrificed to take us on that trip. Both of them teachers, their salaries were modest but we lived like kings for two weeks. While in Tijuana I met a little girl about my age, she spent her days selling gum for a few cents. It made me sad and I clutched my mother tightly feeling somewhat spoiled as I held a bag of treasures that had been purchased for me that day in Mexico. Sadly Tijuana is no longer safe for tourists and it makes me sad to think my young niece and nephew will never experience the magic of Mexico I was afforded. My day at the beach was unforgettable, I had my hair braided into cornrows and felt beautiful. The first gulp of ocean water I swallowed was much to my horror not at all refreshing. "Why does the water taste so yucky momma?" She smiled, "because it's full of salt."

It's been nearly 35 years since that first trip to California and not a summer goes by that I don't think about that vacation. Many of the people that went on that trip have died, including my grandparents and my father who passed away most recently. I'd like to think that heaven will be a lot like that summer vacation. We'll all be together again, enjoying our endless summer in the sunshine. The view will look much like it did in 1974, when all the world was right.