Everything Was Up to Date In Kansas City

When I was in the second grade, my father had to go on a business trip to Kansas City and decided to make it a working vacation. There were eight of us kids, and the four youngest girls(me included) went along. Our household life was mostly chaotic and far from perfect. And most of the time, so were vacations. Usually we all piled in the orange Volkswagon bus(this was the mid-seventies)from Oklahoma City and set out for two days worth of sweaty summertime traveling, a few days of chaotic visiting some relatives and a two or three day drive home. We kept busy in the car by making peace signs at passing cars(remember this was the seventies) or sleeping or waiting anxiously for the next bathroom stop.

But this time was different. This trip was in the fall, a couple of months after school started. Not only was that a treat,( missing school) but only four of us kids were going this time so it might actually be fun instead of draining. The morning of the trip as we stopped at a restaurant to eat breakfast I noticed the vibe was better than at any of our other trips. Even though it was a business trip my father was more relaxed, and my sisters were actually nice to me(ha!) When we got to Kansas City, Missouri, we checked in at the hotel and began to unpack. My father unloaded a shoebox size package of different chewing gums. It was gum my father had confiscated from us because he didn't like us chewing gum in the house. It was open season on the gum. I know that sounds weird to some people but for me it was a special forbidden treat. The strictness was gone, and the vacation was going to be all about fun for my sisters and me and my mother.

We were there for about five days. We would look in the department stores downtown(that's about all they had back then, besides dime stores.) The stores would display their festive holiday decor, and we would walk in and look around. I don't even remember buying anything. It was just the idea that it was for fun, looking around; no pressure. At night we would eat out and one time we went to a circus in which Phyllis Diller rode atop an elephant. She was staying at the same hotel we were. One night when my sisters and I were catching the elevator in the hotel Phyllis Diller had gotten on the elevator right before we did(or so my sisters said). I did not see anything but the doors closing, shutting me out of the all-important celebrity moment.

The week went by too fast. When it was time to go home, back to Oklahoma City, I felt sad. It was like I was on top of a ferris wheel and to come crashing down and to face real life was disappointing. It seemed as if that vacation marked the last time in my life I had felt truly free. Being a child, I had no obligations. I had freedom and fun and adventure on that vacation, like I had never felt before, and frankly, never felt since. Yes, everything was up to date in Kansas City.