mckenney99
Member
misswired's thread about his old Coleman Water Jug brought back a lot of good old memories.
Each year my folks would load the 5 of us up for the typical 1 or 2 week family car vacation to see some national treasure, Niagara Falls, Great Smoky Mountains, Expo 67 in Montreal Canada etc.
However one trip stands out to this weak mind.
In 1966, (I turned 8 during this trip), my folks loaded all 5 of us plus grandma and all our luggage into and on top a brand new 1966 Ford Country Squire station wagon for a 3 week trip from Ohio across the United States to California via the southern route out and back via the northern route and we stopped at all the great National Parks we could fit into Dad's rigid schedule (ala National Lampoon's Vacation).
Finally in California we made it as far south as Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland. (We actually walked past Walt Disney walking out the main gate to his waiting car as we were going in the same main gate. Little did we know that 5 months later Walt would pass away from Cancer)
Each day we would eat at least 2 meals by stopping at roadside rest stops, mom and grandma would fix our meals using the attached Mirro Cook Set on the single burner Coleman propane stove (attached) and/or a Coleman double burner propane stove that has been lost. We ate a lot of Spam, Armor beef stew, fried up Armor hash, canned bacon plus a lot of fresh veggies and fruit from stands that you used to find all along the highways (non-Interstates) in those days. We also had the ever present Coleman water jug (attached) which is date stamped on the bottom 6/63. All our perishables were kept cold in the CocaCola cooler which required daily searches for Ice Houses as we passed through towns. (Remember Ice Houses)
My dad was the type that had everything scheduled rigidly and we only stopped when absolutely necessary. On that that trip I learned that a quart Mason jar is a GREAT item to have on hand
.
Every time we started to get irritable or began to need a snack, my grandmother managed to pull out of nowhere a vacuum sealed can of hard candies, butter scotches or packets of cheese and crackers. To this day I still can't figure out where she had all that stuff stashed.
54 years later it's still the best memory I have of my childhood and the only time I can remember my family being together without a fight breaking out between my much older sister and brother.
Each year my folks would load the 5 of us up for the typical 1 or 2 week family car vacation to see some national treasure, Niagara Falls, Great Smoky Mountains, Expo 67 in Montreal Canada etc.
However one trip stands out to this weak mind.
In 1966, (I turned 8 during this trip), my folks loaded all 5 of us plus grandma and all our luggage into and on top a brand new 1966 Ford Country Squire station wagon for a 3 week trip from Ohio across the United States to California via the southern route out and back via the northern route and we stopped at all the great National Parks we could fit into Dad's rigid schedule (ala National Lampoon's Vacation).
Finally in California we made it as far south as Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland. (We actually walked past Walt Disney walking out the main gate to his waiting car as we were going in the same main gate. Little did we know that 5 months later Walt would pass away from Cancer)
Each day we would eat at least 2 meals by stopping at roadside rest stops, mom and grandma would fix our meals using the attached Mirro Cook Set on the single burner Coleman propane stove (attached) and/or a Coleman double burner propane stove that has been lost. We ate a lot of Spam, Armor beef stew, fried up Armor hash, canned bacon plus a lot of fresh veggies and fruit from stands that you used to find all along the highways (non-Interstates) in those days. We also had the ever present Coleman water jug (attached) which is date stamped on the bottom 6/63. All our perishables were kept cold in the CocaCola cooler which required daily searches for Ice Houses as we passed through towns. (Remember Ice Houses)
My dad was the type that had everything scheduled rigidly and we only stopped when absolutely necessary. On that that trip I learned that a quart Mason jar is a GREAT item to have on hand
.Every time we started to get irritable or began to need a snack, my grandmother managed to pull out of nowhere a vacuum sealed can of hard candies, butter scotches or packets of cheese and crackers. To this day I still can't figure out where she had all that stuff stashed.
54 years later it's still the best memory I have of my childhood and the only time I can remember my family being together without a fight breaking out between my much older sister and brother.
And thanks to the OP for bringing it back to the surface. 
