Car Rides-not short

Netflix recently started airing Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (better link) with Jerry Seinfeld.  For those of us who rely on things like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime instead of cable or satellite TV, well, we don't see all the things when they first come out.  I have no idea how long this series has been around and none of this is relevant to what I mean to write about.  The episode that I watched tonight had Sarah Jessica Parker and they drove around in some old station wagon that brought back memories of her childhood.  They talked about kids playing with their Etch A Sketch, Mad Libs, or ... something else... in the back seat and groceries rolling around when making corners and the lack of a cup holder.  I was thinking about this and how different things were for my kids and even more for my grandson. 

When I was a kid in the back of a station wagon there were no seat belts.  My brothers and I would fight over who got what spot, there would be a no man's land and if that line was crossed a hand was slapped.  I remember falling asleep in sleeping bags in the back of a station wagon, again, no seat belts.  I remember Mad Libs and Etch A Sketch in the car and also some thing that had a pen that turned the correct answers gray.  We would sing, play the alphabet game and something that had to do with cemeteries.   We would see how many different states we could find on license plates.  I used to think that we were in the car a lot, at least during the summer, but we seldom left New England.  My kids and I traveled quite a bit more, including across the United States a couple times.

Having painful memories of having my hand slapped I was determined that my kids would behave in the car.  Oh, the fantasies one has as a young parent.  My children had many of the same things I had.  We played Mad Libs and Etch A Sketch but we also had books on tape with read-a-long books with pictures so they could follow along.  We sang songs and played the alphabet game.  We would see how many different states we could find on license plates.  There were always atlases in the car (no GPS).  We played a game where I would say what state we were traveling to and from and how many states we had to go through to get there.  They had to come up with the states to go through and could use the atlas when they were younger, but not as they learned them all.  Eventually they also had Game Boy and read books and the adults could listen to music that wasn't Disney or Disney books.  Or they did school work.  Generally they would rather look out the window than do a worksheet though.  They also had seat belts.  I joked that riding in the car is the only place you can legally tie up your kid. 

My grandson, Gideon, is almost 6 and still in a car seat because even seat belts aren't enough for small kids even though their grandparents got to roll around on the floor in the station wagon.  Don't let that last statement fool you, I am pro seat belt and car seat.  Sometimes we play the alphabet game or sing songs.  Sometimes there is music playing from Mom's phone or a book from Grammie's.  There is an app on my phone if we want to play Mad Libs.  Gideon also has his own children's iPad with many options to keep him busy on the road.  This grandmother is okay with that, and that sometimes it is nice to sing or play the alphabet game.  Maybe I should pick up a road atlas for the next long trip we go on. 😎

Thank you Jerry Seinfeld and Sarah Jessica Parker (according to IMDB, I am a few months older than her) for bringing up some memories and the laughs.

Today my happy thing is happy memories, car rides and making new memories.  Tomorrow night my son and his partner will be here!!!  😁

Rain freezing to the trees today.

☮