Vacations

The summers in New Port , Rhode Island were a special time and even at the age of 8 and 9 I knew that. I knew my dad was smart and was doing special work that meant we got to live in a very cool location for the summer. He NEVER talked about his work, I just knew it was top secret (SSHHH, defense of the nation work, not to be talked about). Nobody else had a dad doing secret work!! And we got live in New Port with the ocean right there, Pop often sat in the easy chair in the evening, with a yellow lined tablet, working. In this day of computers it seems funny to remember him with a pen and paper, working out the physics of whatever project had his attention. The mansions in New Port fascinated me at the time- the opulence of that era was impressive. It was balanced out by beach time, Portuguese man of war jellyfish, laundry in the “basement” of the Waves and baseball on the field in front of the Waves. I can still remember the smell of the little pink roses bordering the property. The donuts that mom bought for Sunday breakfast were fabulous also- I think I could have eaten a half dozen, but we always got two because they came in a box of twelve. They were wonderful at the time, but just think if we had been able to warm them up in a microwave for a few seconds. I met and made friends with Eddie Donovan one summer at the Waves. He would come watch us play ball and it turned out he was retired and had been a coach at Princeton most of his life. Every year at Christmas we would exchange cards and he would send me $25. This continued until his death in 2005. I still have a little stuffed tiger puppet (Princeton’s mascot) that he sent to me, as well as some silver cocktail spoons he gave me when I got married. He never had children of his own and married for the first time when he was in his 70’s.

One year, after our stay in New Port we took a ferry to Nova Scotia. After eating greasy donuts (I should have known better though donuts seem to be a recurring theme in this chronicle) all I can remember of the trip was being violently seasick. You would think that this should have cooled my enthusiasm for donuts, but it didn’t’ and I still love a great Crispy Cream donut. I do have a healthy respect for the violence of my digestive system when subjected to boats of almost any kind. Even short boat trips make me wary to this day.

Fourth of July in Santa Barbara was always a fun time. It was pop’s birthday, so that added a little to the fun and then there were fireworks put on by the fire department at La Playa Stadium. I’m sure we would be annoyingly hyped all day, take a short nap in the afternoon and then go to the stadium for the evening. There would be regular fireworks and the firemen would bring their hook and ladders and drive around the track and then go up and down the ladder.

My parents seemed to love road trips. We would often pile in the car on the weekends and go for a drive with a picnic lunch. At Christmas every year we would take a day to drive and cut down a tree, having a picnic along the way. The weather was usually very cooperative- quite different from my experiences with my own kids trying this in Colorado. There was usually a struggle between the kids about how was going to sit facing backward in the rear of the station wagon. Nancy and Roy usually won out with Al and I in the back. There was always a little power struggle with Nancy trying to roll the window up all the way and bake Al and I in the back. One year I ate green apples while we were driving home from the annual tree expedition and had a little problem with vomiting when I walked into the house. I have never felt quite the same about green apples, though I do love pink lady apples. At Christmas we would also drive around at night admiring the lights on the houses and the decorations downtown. Allison would take her glasses off so the lights spread out and looked more magical. We would go to Thrifty’s for ice cream afterward. Ice cream was my favorite food as a kid and was often the favorite food I received for Christmas. There was an energy shortage when I was in high school and that one year no one put up outside lights and it was very strange to miss that part of our holiday tradition.