Carousel

The old fashioned carousel at the Milwaukee zoo offered horses, lamas, ostrich, zebras and a camel. But both nieces seemed to prefer the galloping ponies. Aunt Wendy was feeling a bit queasy but the girls seemed to love it!

Photo: Chloe and Maclaren

South Pacific

Performed a full length version of South Pacific with my nieces while I was vacation, too. Maclaren staged a dock in the living room made from cardboard boxes and fish nets. Pictured here is my blond niece, replete with mustache, in her sailor costume. I also played a sailor, as did my brother who wore a coconut bra for the “honeybun” number. He told me that he’d kill me if I posted it. Sorry you will miss it!

Drive-in Theater

If you remember going to the drive-in as a kid and want to relive a piece of your youth, don’t put it off too much longer*. There are a lot of reasons for their demise in the 1970’s. And as I drove 45 miles to the Jefferson, Wisconsin, I could think of a few. For starters I was about to sit in a four passenger car with my brother and my two squirrelly nieces for four hours!! But I was wrong. It was a beautiful summer night at the Highway 18 Outdoor Theater and the girls were intrigued with the idea of sitting in the car (or on the grass) and seeing two movies for the price of one, enjoying ‘speakers on a pole’ under a sparkling canopy of stars next to a cornfield. Life seemed simple and it felt like heaven.

Some die-hards trust that the drive-ins will make a comeback. I can’t say. But I’m glad that the 18 Outdoor was recently restored and that I got a chance to share the experience with my two favorite girls. When was the last time you got to go to the movies in your pajamas?

*By the 1950’s, there were 3,775 drive-ins nationwide. Today there are less than 900.

Pictured: Chloe, the birthday girl, intently watching “Underdog”

My Night at Burger King

I had every good intention to be in my home town of Milwaukee late on Thursday night and to wake up with my nieces. The dear girls waited up for me only to get the bad news around 11 PM that I would be detained in St. Louis due to thunderstorms in the Midwest. In all the years I’ve traveled, I’ve never spent the night in an airport. I hope that the experience isn’t repeated any time soon. The molded plastic benches at the Burger King the main terminal are really hard and uncomfortable. Armed with a PGA (pretty good attitude), a group of stranded passengers found our way to the King where the lighting was more subdued, located near a public restroom and the seating unobstructed by arm rests. A charming 6 year old boy offered me three sticks of red licorice for dinner which I supplemented with a mozzarella cheese stick from the bottom of my purse. I admit I didn’t sleep an ounce and instead, struggled to read for five hours until little by little, person by person, the terminal came to life and I was standing in line for a flight to Memphis, TN. Then onto MKE where there were two delighted girls awaiting me who didn’t mind that I was in the same underwear for 24 hours.