Back in the Day Road Rules

 This weekend, we loaded up our car to drive to a memorial service a few hours away. As two of my upper-teenage children sat in the back seat complaining about poor radio reception and our need to use their Spotify for better music. At that moment, my husband and I both muttered, "This generation is totally missing out on what makes a real road trip." I know. I'm starting to sound like a white-haired granny, but there truly is something to be said about an old-fashioned road trip. The first thing the road trip taught me was the art of negotiation. I'm sure you remember the key word that had to be uttered for primo seats- shotgun! This worked for short trips, but when everyone came along, rules changed. Parents got the front, so the power struggle for the best seats shifted to the back seat. A tussel unfolded as you ran for the best seating in the back. This is where size worked against you. My older brother would hip-check me out of the way leaving me with the lesser leg-room behind my dad. If we had friends along, then I was relegated to the dreaded middle seat with the hump by my feet. You would try to move your feet to one side or the other until a sibling would yell, "She's touching me!" The negotiation continued over the radio station. Now, young ones, this may be hard to imagine, but there were no cell phones and no Spotify, so you were at the mercy of the driver. However, in order to maintain the peace, there was the alternating method of every 30 minutes someone in the car could choose a new radio station. Or, this is where negotiating and strategy filters in, you could exchange your better seating for radio privileges. If the struggle became too spirited, then my dad would pop in his favorite cassette tape of Jerry Clower, a Southern comedian. It certainly was a different time when you had to deal with whatever was given to you, and things were not tailored to your specific wants. I think it helped build conflict resolution, resilience, and communication- things we definitely see in limited supply in this day and age. So maybe what our world and powers-that-be need is simply an old-fashioned road trip. Maybe it would help everyone get along a little better. 

Have a great week high-heeled warriors.

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