On a New Year's walk, my daughter and I talked about the number of trips and the distance my granddaughter, Lily, has traveled in her short 7.75 months. It turns out that Lily has traveled from her home in Savannah north to Lake Erie, south to Boca
Raton, and up the east coast to Baltimore. This distance involved three separate, weeklong or longer trips, and involved visiting more than eight different homes and a variety of hotels and motels.
I, on the other hand, never got further south than Harrisville, Pa. until I was 12. The 60-mile trip to my mother's parents' home seemed as though it took forever, and it was all farmland. Stopping at Isaly's ice cream in Grove City was always the highlight of the trip, which took more than 2 hours. When I was 12 my parents took me to Washington, D.C. - not to see the nation's Capitol, but for my father to buy guns at the international dealers in Alexandria, Va. The closest we got to a landmark was the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum (not much in 1962) and the Museum of Natural History. When I was 23, my employer (Meadville Public Library) offered to send me to Pittsburgh for library school, but I could not imagine myself in a major city like Pittsburgh. How would I survive?
What has happened in the years between my childhood and Lily's? To start with, a change in women's attitudes. My parents sheltered me, told me the world was big and bad, and encouraged me to stay out of it. I, on the other hand, told my daughter to get out in the world and experience life. When she was 12, we went to Florida, but she had already been to Pittburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toronto.
Vehicles have changed, too. Today's cars are more comfortable. Roads are better, air travel is more common, and because most families have two incomes, occasional air travel is affordable. But all of Lily's trips have been by car, so she gets to see the sights!
Most of the time, I don't envy youngsters today; they have a lot on their plates for the future. But I do envy Lily's travels. I've been to Pittsburgh -- more than I wanted to my husband was ill. I've seen hospitals from Milwaukee to Cleveland to Pittsburgh, and I even squeezed in a few art museums along the way. But I am still looking forward to Boston, Montreal, New Orleans, and San Francisco.
Maybe Lily will take me with her when she travels to THOSE places!
Mrs, B
Raton, and up the east coast to Baltimore. This distance involved three separate, weeklong or longer trips, and involved visiting more than eight different homes and a variety of hotels and motels.
I, on the other hand, never got further south than Harrisville, Pa. until I was 12. The 60-mile trip to my mother's parents' home seemed as though it took forever, and it was all farmland. Stopping at Isaly's ice cream in Grove City was always the highlight of the trip, which took more than 2 hours. When I was 12 my parents took me to Washington, D.C. - not to see the nation's Capitol, but for my father to buy guns at the international dealers in Alexandria, Va. The closest we got to a landmark was the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum (not much in 1962) and the Museum of Natural History. When I was 23, my employer (Meadville Public Library) offered to send me to Pittsburgh for library school, but I could not imagine myself in a major city like Pittsburgh. How would I survive?
What has happened in the years between my childhood and Lily's? To start with, a change in women's attitudes. My parents sheltered me, told me the world was big and bad, and encouraged me to stay out of it. I, on the other hand, told my daughter to get out in the world and experience life. When she was 12, we went to Florida, but she had already been to Pittburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toronto.
Vehicles have changed, too. Today's cars are more comfortable. Roads are better, air travel is more common, and because most families have two incomes, occasional air travel is affordable. But all of Lily's trips have been by car, so she gets to see the sights!
Most of the time, I don't envy youngsters today; they have a lot on their plates for the future. But I do envy Lily's travels. I've been to Pittsburgh -- more than I wanted to my husband was ill. I've seen hospitals from Milwaukee to Cleveland to Pittsburgh, and I even squeezed in a few art museums along the way. But I am still looking forward to Boston, Montreal, New Orleans, and San Francisco.
Maybe Lily will take me with her when she travels to THOSE places!
Mrs, B
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