Nearly every Thanksgiving we would drive to the town of East Dennis in Cape Cod. There we would visit Dad’s Aunt Murial McGuire, her husband Oswald McGuire, his cousin Priscilla McGuire, and his Aunt Hazel Butler. It was a two bedroom Cape Cod style home with weathered gray cedar shakes. We were bored to death there and mostly played in their back yard or went down the street to buy some rock candy. Even though it was only a three hour drive, it seemed like it took forever to get from Upton to the elbow of Cape Cod. Back then, we three boys and our dog Gizmo slept where ever we could. Entertainment for us was reading and rereading comics, looking out the window, playing the license plate game or I Spy, or teasing one another. There were no seat belts, and both parents lit one cigarette off the other while listening to Frank Sinatra or Perry Como on the crackly radio. There was no ventilation system in cars then, so the little vent window usually allowed some smoke to escape. But for the most part, the car was like being in a cloud. Back in those days, all cars only received the AM band. The speaker was mounted dead center on the top of the metal dash because stereo wasn’t available then. You basically had three choices of programming then, Sports, news, or music. The music options in the late 1950’s was swing (Make Believe Ballroom), classical, or popular music. Popular music at the time was Chubby Checker and Dion and the Belmonts. At Christmas the Grandparents would usually visit us from Kansas along with Uncle Dean. Dad always insisted we all get dressed up at these events. A jacket and tie with dress shoes were required. I suspect this came from his time in prep school where I’m sure he had to wear jackets and ties all the time.

NEXT UP – Kookie the dog