Mom gave me some pictures to scrapbook of an outing we took as children. I only remembered some things and thought it would be nice to scrapbook what our car rides were like since I don't think they are journaled anywhere else, so I took a little creative license.
OREGON WILDLIFE
SAFARI 1980
Jeff was 10, I (Jana) was 9, Paul was 4, and Rob was 2.
THE TRIP THERE
It was a long 2 hour trip, for us kids in the Brown family Station-wagon. Long enough for the usual “Dog Party’s” that went along with most family trips:
Jeff and I argued about Jeff’s “spring legs” that were squishing me. Dad saying, “Jeff, control your legs”, and Mom asking, “Do we need to put your “spring legs” in the trunk?”. Dad asked, “Shall we tie you to the top of the car?”.
Paul would sneeze so hard that it made Dad jump. Then Dad would ask if he had sneezed himself inside out. (Or maybe that was a different trip.)
Robert, who was 2, pointed out 57 Chevys all the way there. He was smart from the get go.
And we joked and laughed and played car games (like the alphabet sign and license plate game, and I see something that…” all the way there.
THE SAFARI
When we got there, Dad got strict and told us, “Let’s be quiet, now!” I think we must have still been having a dog party.
Dad was a professional photographer at the time and had a very nice, expensive camera that he took pictures of the animals with. Funny but he did'nt get any of us. That was probably just because this was a drive through safari. There was a dirt road that we drove on right through their territory. There were no fences or barriers, so we could get right up close to the animals. Dad had rolled down his window to take pictures of them. We saw buffalo, camels, and Zebras, which Dad got some great pictures of. But the one I remember is the emu.
The Emu
Then we got to an emu. He looked so funny to us because we had never seen one before.
Well, that Emu thought we were just as interesting as he was to us, so he came closer to check us out. This was great! It was fun for us kids and Dad got great pictures of him!
The Emu got closer and closer, until he was right at our car window. Dad was still shooting pictures, and getting great shots of him. We thought this was a blast.
Then Mr. Emu stuck his head right in the car window and grabbed Dad’s camera strap!
It became a tug-of -war between Dad and the Emu. And that Emu had a pretty strong grip! Dad finally pulled the camera free, and started pushing the Emu out of the window. He was rolling up the window, which was done with a hand crank at the time. As he was rolling up, the Emu kept sticking his head back through the window.
When He finally had the window up, with the Emu out, I remember us driving off in quite a hurry.
I think we had a little car celebration with yeas and laughter.
(I don’t think Dad liked the laughter very much.)
This is written from the memories of Jana, with creative license due to the time gap between the event and this journaling. If anyone remembers differently, please contact me so I can update the story.
If anyone remembers differently they can write their own version. :) Thanks for this post. A while back I tried to get the fam to write stories like this once a year, but that flopped. So, as you write 'em I'll add them to my family's collection. I had never heard this story ... probably because Paul was so young. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLoved it Jana! You added in bits and pieces from many memories. I'm wondering if that big wooly creature is a Yak instead of a buffalo?
ReplyDeleteI'll just have to send you more pictures!
Was looking through old journals and would you believe I even found a date for the Wildlife Safari event? It was August 1981. In fact that whole week was one that your dad had off work and we went to a whirlwind of different things. My journal says: Aug 9, 1981: Lamar's vacation has kept us busy this week. We've had a chance to shop in Portland, go canoeing,[perhaps this is the time that Robert had the stack of pancakes that he ate instead of feeding them to the ducks that were chasing us], to Wildlife Safari, to Sea Lion Caves and to Lake Cleawox where we slid down the sand dunes to the Lake!
ReplyDeleteWe also ordered our wood stove and 3 cords of wood--getting things in order for food storage.
The President won his tax bill that we sent our telegram about[?] and is about to do away with a strike problem--air traffic controllers.
I am anxious for this baby to come--but still have much to do before I'm ready. I just finnished Jana's canopy bed things and am very pleased with how they came out!