My Summer Vacation

By R.M. (Dick) Griffin

My Summer Vacation is an autobiographical short story about nine wild and wonderful days on a camping trip with the author, his best friend Don, his Dad, Mr. Hall, and their family dog Sarge in 1949. The transportation was a 1928 Model A Ford, 2dr that had a top speed of maybe 45 miles per hour. The trip started in Rawlins, Wyoming and covered more than 400 miles all the way to Yellowstone National Park and back home to Rawlins. It turned out to be one of the greatest adventures of a young boys life.

Excerpt: Be Careful When You Play With Firecrackers!

Mr. Hall occasionally would have a little fun by throwing a fire cracker out on his side when a fancy car went by. He was kind of intimidated by fancy cars. I think it was because he had to drive the Model A which even then was more than twenty years old. It was fun watching them slow down to check their tires and stuff. Don and I also had become very good at laying them down just right as we called it and we were getting a little cocky. Don spotted a flashy 49 Buick coming at us and he said Lets get this guy! Don took a couple puffs on the cigarette to get it real hot and I waited with the firecracker in my left hand for just her right moment.Now! Don said, and I touched the fuse to the cigarette and immediately flung it right past Mr. Halls nose out the drivers side window!

Suddenly everything seemed to start happening in slow motion!....................

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465386021

Book preview

A Trip to Yellowstone Park!

Rawlins, Wyoming

April 1949

I was up at my friend Don Hall’s house about four days after Easter. Mary Hall, Don’s Mom, Red Hall, Don’s Dad and I were setting in their kitchen nook discussing what had happened during Easter vacation. Mr. Hall was drinking black coffee and smoking another Camel cigarette and going on about the gaw damned Model A Ford. He couldn’t get it to start early that morning when he came home from working on the railroad. Mary said, Was there really something wrong this time or did you just forget to turn on the fuel line? (When ever you turned the motor off on a Model A Ford it was a good idea to turn off the fuel line. Sometimes they would leak a little if you didn’t.) He grumbled, I’m going to tear that son—of—a—bitch down this spring and rebuild the motor so we can go to Yellowstone this summer. Mary started laughing and said, I hope you do a better job this time than last year because it hasn’t worked too well since! Don without thinking said, No wonder it hasn’t run well Dad had a bucket full of extra parts left over the last time! Mary always seen the humor in everything and was prone to laugh a lot more when Mr. Hall was the subject involved. Don’s statement really tickled Mary and she started laughing, which made Mr. Hall’s face turn really red. (Apparently he had red hair years before but I was never sure that they called him Red" for his hair, or for how red his face got when he was mad, or when he was swearing about something. He hardly had any hair on his head as long as I knew him.)

How Mary could have been so jovial and light hearted was hard to understand because she was terribly crippled with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Some days she could hardly walk at all. It was all through her body. Her feet were twisted so badly that she could only wear house slippers, even outside! Her little hands were twisted and the knuckles were large and swollen. It took both hands for her to lift a cup of coffee and she couldn’t raise her hands over her head to comb her hair. In spite of her illness I never, ever heard her complain about the pain she was experiencing. Not even once in all the years I knew her. She somehow managed to endure the pain and take care of Don and Red and through it all she retained her wonderful sense of humor and that beautiful laugh that just seemed to explode when something struck her funny, which was often.

Mary’s illness probably made her a lot more sensitive to the problems other people were having, or at least it seems that way to me now. She would know the minute I entered her door how I was feeling. Things at my house were very bad during this period and if I was sad, she made me feel happy. If I was happy she would laugh with me about why and the happiness would last a little longer.

She was a devout Irish Roman Catholic! She never missed going to church until her illness prevented it completely. Then the priest would come to the house so she could receive the Sacrament at home. She loved Don above anyone else in the world and could never do enough for him. I like to think that she loved me too, but then she showed love to every one of Don’s friends that came into her home. She gave council to many of Don’s classmates simply by listening patiently and by giving encouragement to each individual. You always felt welcome at the Hall’s. I am absolutely positive that Mary resides in Heaven and I am fairly sure that, because they were related to Mary, Don and Red were allowed to join her.

When Mary finally stopped laughing over Don’s comment she said, I think that trip to Yellowstone would be just too much for me but I bet Dick would like to go in my place. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I had never been to Yellowstone in my whole life and I figured I probably would never get to either. Yellowstone Park, the first National Park in the United States! The geysers, the lakes, Yellowstone Falls! All the sites that we had read about in geography and the animals! Bears, deer, elk, buffalo and MOOSE! You could even see wolves! Mr. Hall smiled and said, I don’t know Mary he eats an awful lot and I am not sure that the three of us could fit together in the front with the back all full of camping gear. Don said, Dad, can we take Sarge with us too?

Good Old Sarge!

Sarge was they’re much maligned, mongrel dog who had lived with them since a few years before Don was born. Sarge was a no man’s dog and he was always barking at everyone that went by. On many occasions, especially when the kids were dressed in big bulky snowsuits he would run out and snap at them and they would run home crying! His favorite target was the Postmen that he seemed to hate! The Postman felt the same way about Sarge and due to his complaints the U.S. Postal Office sent a note to the Halls stating, in no uncertain terms, their concern for the safety of their employees. When he received the notice Mr. Hall just laughed and said, Hell that dog has never really bitten anybody, that’s just his way of showing his affection for you! Fortunately Sarge and I were on pretty good terms because I was at their house so much I think he believed I actually lived there. Mr. Hall was the only person that Sarge was scared of and he tried very hard to stay out of his way but was seldom successful doing so. Red’s control over Sarge melted away rather quickly in February of 1949. Mr. Hall had been out on the town having a few drinks, as many railroad men were apt to do occasionally, and was returning home about one in the morning. It was Don’s job to let Sarge inside at night which he had forgotten to do! They put Sarge inside so the neighbors wouldn’t complain about his barking at the moon, or whatever. Poor Sarge, who was not used to being outside at night and probably thinking he was protecting the property, came up behind Mr. Hall very quietly and started barking! This scared Mr. Hall and he started swearing which probably scared the hell out of Sarge! Sarge, unwittingly, bit him high up on the back of his left leg! (Don always said, Sarge bit my dad right on his ass!) It is said that Red’s swearing woke up more people that night than any of the air raid warning whistles that had blown during World War II. The very next morning Red was waiting outside of Ferguson’s Dry Goods Store to buy a muzzle for Sarge! When he put it on Sarge the dog showed little resistance. He was probably still traumatized by the recent encounter with Mr. Hall earlier that morning. Mary and Don tried to defend the dog. I was there because Don had called me that morning to tell me that he was pretty worried. I asked him why and he said, I think my Dad is going to kill Sarge! Well naturally this was really exciting so I beat a trail up the alley to their house. From that day forward the dog’s loud bark became no more than a moof, moof. Mr. Hall wouldn’t even take the muzzle off for the dog to eat and he wore it until he died! Mary said many times that the muzzle should have been put on Red!

The Approach Talk

Getting back to my story, Red said, Dick you will need to ask your mother and you will need $25.00 to cover your share of the gas and food for the ten day trip. My heart sank because I knew we didn’t have that kind of money since Mom and Dad had got a divorce a year and a half earlier. Things were very tough and all the money I earned from delivering papers for the Rawlins Daily Times I had to give to my Mom.

We’ll be leaving on the trip Sunday, the 20th of August, Red said, and if your mother wants to talk with me about it have her give me a call.

I lived just down the alley from Don’s house. It was less than a half a block but, as I walked home, I tried to work in every reason I could think of for Mom to let me go. I knew I didn’t have the money but I was certain that I could pay her back over the next several years! I would promise her that I would not take another vacation until I was 18 and that any money I made between now and then would be hers! I would assure her that she would never need to worry about taking care of herself when she got old, that I would be in charge of that! I even entertained the idea that, if I could find him, I would ask my Dad for a loan. I knew it probably wouldn’t happen but I might get lucky who knew! Finally I figured it out! I knew that the best job for a kid my age was washing dishes at a café in Rawlins. It paid .50 cents per hour! You even got to eat there twice a day! .50 cents an hour and two meals a day that was the answer! I could split that with Mom and she wouldn’t even have to feed me! Let’s see, if my share is .25 cents per hour I would only have to work 100 hours! I knew she wouldn’t let me work until school was out so I would need to work at least 100 hours in June, July and the first three weeks of