Saturday, November 15, 2014

Reflections -- Flower Child Years

I was driving on a country road the other day, and toodling on ahead of me was a Blast from the Past that made me smile and sigh.

I, too, had a VW van of this vintage that took me many wonderful places. The middle seats were removed and an air mattress became a safe and comfy bed.

My dad built a cupboard "kitchen" that opened when you lifted up the back door. The door of the wooden cupboard folded down and became a little table.

 

Mine was forever breaking down and leaving me stranded. I loved it nevertheless.

 

There was always a long line of cars behind us on hills, but we chugged along at a driving pace that let you look around and enjoy the scenery.

 

 

 

I only have slides of my VW and no way to put those onto my computer. I do have a few actual photos from that era, though.

My first years of teaching, living in an old farmhouse in Wisconsin

 

 

Living in the NC mountains, with goats and sheep and chickens, teaching in a small, rural elementary school in Appalachia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traveling in the summers, this time to Arizona

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The van was eventually replaced by a Bug and the summer travels continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camping on the beach, waiting to buy shrimp from the shrimp boats in Charleston, SC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backpacking in the Smoky Mountains

 

Remember Granny Glasses?

And now, here I am, a real granny!

How did that happen?

 

18 comments:

  1. I, too, loved all those VW's. Ours was red. Great montage of photos. You were an adventurous lass!

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  2. I am also a great van of the VW. A wonderful blast from the past.

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  3. What a beautiful flower child you were! :) I love your hair in pigtails. Funny, a few months ago a couple of guys from Florida rented a place out here near us. They drove an old VW van painted purple and green with a black and white checkered front end. The VW sounded like a helicopter, except louder. They disappeared one day. Sure enjoyed your post! You have certainly had an exciting life!

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  4. We lived a good many years in Germany when my husband was in the army and we had VW Beetles and a Van. Drove all over Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, great little car. Our silver beetle eventually became my car and I loved it.

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  5. Love it ! How cool were you? we have a VW camper round the corner from our house and we can always hear it coming a mile away. The fella who owns it wouldn't part with it for anything not even a bug x

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  6. What a time you must have had with lots of adventures. have van will travel. Love looking back at the fashion of the day.

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  7. Would love to have a hamburger with you if you come to Savannah. You know I'm a retired teacher too, we could swap war stories.

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  8. The years go so fast! So you had the travel "bug" all those years ago. Cool photos.

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  9. How fun to run across that old van bug. I had a black bug in my twenties, and I loved that car. Loved to drive the stick shift.

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  10. Cynthia it is wonderful that you have had a great collections of photos... I love your photos with long hair.. The best photo is in the long skirt..It was a great time for you.. But granny's glasses is a wonder of nature..

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  11. He He these are great photos and lovely to take a peak into your old album :) Our office christmas party has a flower power theme this year!! Looking very cool in your Granny glasses!
    Wren x

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  12. Great post! The granny glasses were sure better than the horn-rimmed glasses. I appreciate your love for travel.

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  13. Great to see your photos. I like your glasses :) We called your 'bug' a 'beetle' and you had a clever dad.

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  14. The VW memories! My first date with my husband was in his red convertible bug in college. Not that many years later we were returning home from California in our blue VW bus. His stint in the army had ended and we drove across country with our daughter and six-week old son. We put our baby in a basinet between the front and back seats - wildly unsafe now, but so convenient back then. We have a surprising number of photos of that van - we loved it.

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  15. Oh blast from the past! You've got great photos there, you look great too. Recently my hubby and I are also digging some old photographs and it gives us many good reasons to smile. :) First years of work must've been one of a kind experience. And ih, those goats are cute, they seem to be small like baby goats? :)

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  16. Nice memories of sweet times. It seems we all did the same in those times, travelling and nice holidays!

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