Monday, July 9, 2012

Road Trips: Vegas

This will be the first of what will become a series of entries featuring family travel memories..  Without a doubt both Richard and Audrey enjoyed traveling and given the era, most adventures were done by driving.  

Richard writes:         Well I do not know but we (Audrey, Laura, and Martha, and my shadow taking the picture with our Chevrolet  purchased about 1970 in front of a motel, in the morning and I would guess it was in Las Vegas. 

We went there about every three month when living in Tucson.  It was a day’s drive; we didn’t gamble but enjoyed the free entertainment in casino lounges.  I remember shows at Circus Circus, seeing the Ink Spots, and other entertainers that probably never made a name for themselves.  We would go to the buffet for breakfast; I think it was $.99 then.   
There was usually a line and it moved quite fast but snaked thru the rows of slot machines.  One day we were chastised because I gave Laura a dime to drop in a slot machine and pull the lever.  Yes, in those days slots were mechanical (not digital or electronic) and you activated the spinning wheels with oranges, plums, bars, and cherries, and if you got a cherry you got one coin back, and of course three bars was a jack pot.  Well security saw us and came and wagged a finger.  I could not give Martha a chance to play.  
This may have been the motel where Aurdrey lost her girdle.  But that would have been on a previous trip in 1967.  We stopped in Vegas on our way to Los Angeles for Martin and Patty Volla’s wedding.  Audrey forgot her girdle on the back of the bathroom door and did not miss it until she was in LA dressing for the wedding.   In those days a lady could not feel dressed without a foundation garment.  Fortunately we had enough time to get to Robinson’s Department store and purchase a replacement and still make it to the wedding on time.  That was the summers the chicken pox was going around.  Laura was thru but Martha still had evidence but went to the wedding and Disneyland, blotches and all.

As the years pass, some of the details get a little fuzzy.   This particular photo was reclaimed from a collection held by Grandma Irene (Big Grandma, the girls' maternal grandma).  Audrey would routinely send photos to her mother and was great about noting a little detail about the photo.  (Editor's note:  See?  Audrey was a scrapbooker ahead of her time!).    

Anyways, this photo (with marking on the side indicating it was printed in February of 1971), "this is our new car.  The stuffed animals Laura and Martha are holding are their souvenirs from the zoo". 

Stay tuned for more stories from the road. Enjoy!


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