Since we had just moved into our new Beavercreek home on Winterset Drive, and in the midst of decorating the house and erecting a new two-car garage, we didn’t do much extensive vacationing during the Summer of 1978. In fact, for the first trip that we took, we didn’t even leave the state. We headed north east to Youngstown, Ohio for the annual convention of the HET (Hudson Essex Terraplane) club – offically known as the 19th Annual Central National Meet. This national meet was held in a hotel district that included a Holiday Inn, a Days Inn, and a Motel 6. Dad is fairly certain that we stayed in the Holiday Inn, where the central headquarters was located. The dates of the convention were July 26-30, but we probably didn’t stay for all of the days.
We ventured to Youngstown, which, although in the same state, was over four hours away, in our black 1949 Hudson. No one seems to have many specific memories of the trip, other than the many Hudsons that came from around the country. Dad recalled the Essex that Max and Esther had towed to the meet in order to prevent extra miles from going on it. Max had a lot a cars and obviously a lot of money.
Dad took pictures of many of the cars that were at the show, but the ones here are the most interesting to the casual Catsafterme buff. These also illustrate the convention as I came to remember it: hanging out at the playground at the Holiday Inn and the swimming pool at the Motel 6. In fact, my aunt Darlene went along on the trip for this very purpose. This allowed that Denise and I would have a babysitter at the pool for the day while Mom and Dad could go off and participate in the club activities. Then we’d meet up for lunchmeat sandwich lunches in the afternoon and probably go out for dinner in the evening.
Two-year old Denise inches her way into the water
Braving the danger of the twisty slide
Denise towels off. That may or may not be Dad behind her.
I was obviously getting pretty brave. Diving would come next year.
Denise reluctantly braves the slide at the Holiday Inn playground
Mugging it up at the playground merry-go-round. I barely noticed the Hudsons behind me.
This was all fine by me. I didn’t care if we were in Ohio or if all I was doing was tooling around in the Summer sun. This represented vacations as I liked them. To just get away, stay in a motel, and be free was what I liked best. However, I wasn’t all that happy when Darlene met a boy from Kentucky named Darrell who took some of her attention away from me. Darrell even made her a leather bracelet and mailed it to her sometime later. Thankfully, he eventually got out of her life altogether after the bracelet incident.
Although there are few memories or photos of the trip, it is one that lives on in my head during which I had a lot of fun. And that’s really all that counts.
And just for the record, this is the 1000th posting on the Terrible Catsafterme.
1978 with our second trip, another one where we got off cheaply…
The person behind Denise is definitely your Dad.
Mom
May 26th, 2010
I am saddened to learn that I have, indeed, been to Youngstown.
Denise
May 26th, 2010
Congrats on the 1000th posting. I look forward to the next thousand.
Peter
May 27th, 2010