I have only the most fleeting memory that we went on vacations back-to-back during August of 1981, so fleeting in fact that it would never hold up in court. However, I have one clue that our trip to visit my Mom’s Aunt Louise and Uncle Carroll immediately followed our trip to Detroit for the Classic Chevy Convention. This piece of evidence is a calendar from 1981, with the dates August 2 – August 8 marked as vacation. This was the Chevy Convention week. But the following week, August 9-15, indicates absolutely nothing at all. Every other week of the Summer has other appointments, sporting events, and reminders – but this one has nothing at all. So I’m pegging this trip as August 9-15…give or take a day on either end.
(A dissenting argument is that the photos from this trip are dated by the photo processor as AUG 1981, while the Chevy Convention photos are dated as OCT 1981 – of which I have no real explanation.)
The evidence
Of more significant relevance was determining where Louise (who is the late sister of my Grandpa Murphy) and Carroll lived at this time. Not a single soul in my family or even my Mom’s immediate family – including Grandpa Murphy – could identify the location of this house. We had to enlist the aid of her cousin Bobbie to help identify it as Front Royal, Virginia.
So even with all the confusion on the basics, I remember this getaway to Louise and Carroll’s as a wonderful fun-filled trip. Dad recalls that upon arrival, Uncle Carroll had to insist on clean-up duty in helping to eradicate the cream soda stains that adorned the cloth back seats of our 1980 Buick Skylark that carried us to our destination.
What I remember best is a relaxing trip of reading MAD Magazines and books and the set of Choose Your Own Adventure books that I borrowed from my next door neighbor friend Mark Staples, and playing lots of pool down in the game room basement – which was also stocked with a slot machine (to which Uncle Carroll gave me a roll of nickles to play with), a pinball machine, a Pachinko machine, and a refrigerator stocked with soda pop. My Great Grandma Murphy lived with Uncle Carroll and Aunt Louise as well, so it was great to hang out with her.
Denise hanging out on the front porch
The back of Louise and Carroll’s house
The house, Denise, their car, and our Skylark, freshly slathered with cream soda
The aroma of Uncle Carroll’s constant coffee and occasional pipe pleasantly wafted through the air. Denise and an unidentified neighbor or friend sit at the bar. Aunt Louise is behind the bar.
Denise and the friend enjoy some breakfast. My MAD Magazines and books are atop the bar. Dad is sitting near the porch where Denise and I slept.
The living room and the stairway entrance to the basement of many pleasures
He sure plays a mean pinball
In my natural element as Denise looks on
A more fun spread you’ll never find
Denise with Great Grandma Murphy
Me and Great Grandma
Denise and I slept on mattresses out in the screened in sun-room just of the dining room. This is where I would escape to get lost in my reading. And one final memory was that during our stay, the Laurel and Hardy movie The Big Noise – which I had never seen – was broadcast on one of the local channels. I watched this little pathetic gem down in the den off of the game room portion of the basement.
I had long forgotten my trip to visit Louise and Carroll in McLean in 1973, but the memories that I had of our 1978 visit to their home in Charles Town had ensured that I was going to have a great time whenever I visited Louise and Carroll’s house. Unfortunately, this was my last visit with them.
Per the calendar above, we returned from vacation in time for a Chevy Club meeting at Hueston Woods on August 16, the Sons of the Desert Picnic on August 23, and to mail a birthday card for Bev. Fourth grade would be beginning on August 25.
1981 will continue…
I totally remember this house even though I don’t remember where it was located (which shouldn’t surprise anybody because I have a terrible learning disability when it comes to directions, cities, states, countries, etc.) I do however have a fantastic memory for house layouts. I remember all the rooms you mentioned above, plus I remember the bedrooms, especially grandma’s bedroom; the size of it and the fact she had her own bathroom right across from her bedroom. Louise and Carroll’s bedroom was a really nice full size room with the bathroom connected to their bedroom. I remember the two bedrooms in the basement down the hall from the pool table and that was the room I stayed in. And yes, the refrigerator full of pop was located at the end of that hallway between the two bedrooms. Mailing a birthday card for Bev must have been another Bev since my birthday is in October.
Bev
March 19th, 2010
I remember it too, especially the staircase in the middle of the hallway area.
Darlene
March 21st, 2010