How entertainment has changed

I was talking with my daughter yesterday about a long road trip with her kids. She said they had two dvd players with screens that attached to the back of the headrests so the kids could stay occupied. Can you imagine that? Two movies in the car at the same time?

The discussion reminded me of a trip I took with my family back in the early fifties. Yes, I'm older than dirt. We went from WV to NM in a 1949 Chevy with no air conditioning and only an AM radio for entertainment. Not only that, but back then we had only two lane roads and my parents loved to stop at every tourist attraction. Since much of the trip was along the legendary Route 66 there were lots of tourist attractions from which to choose. As a result of all of that, the trip took about five days, I knew we would need more entertainment while we were in the car. So, I brought my ukelele to fill in the dead spots.

Yep, a four string plastic ukelele and I used it to entertain my parents and my older sister. I'm sure the fact that I knew only part of one song contributed to the problem that ensued. I was about 10 years old. That meant my sister would have been about 15 years old. Under ordinary circumstances 15 year old girls do not like their 10 year old brothers, anyway, and the ukelele seemed to make that situation even worse.

After the second or third day my sister must have gotten tired of Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue being played over and over by me on my ukelele. My parents hadn't said anything so I figured I was doing a good job entertaining everyone. My sister was laying down in the back seat and I was sitting on the other side of the car strumming away. Without warning she slammed her heel into the back of my ukelele, crushing it.

I'm still traumatized by the fact that my parents did not take my side in this situation. They obviously loved her more than me. Maybe I was adopted like my older siblings told me. Anyway, we had to spend the rest of the trip with no entertainment at all. I was very glad she was not invited the next time we went to NM. Of course by that time she had escaped the house and was married. Oh, well.

To add insult to injury, I was relating this story in a restaurant. For some reason my wife and daughter were laughing uncontrollably and were attracting a lot of attention. I couldn't believe they didn't understand how this incident had caused me to never want to travel with kids again. They obviously didn't love me.

Oh, I never played the ukelele again.