Memory Monday # 18

     My dad wasn't one to go on vacation very often....he felt and probably justifiably so...that he couldn't be gone from his business.  He was an auctioneer following in his father's footsteps...and the primary owner of the Community Sale Barn.  Sale barns offered very important services in farming communities so he felt an obligation to always be available.  I'll tell some "auction" tales in  later blogs.
     But a memory I have which I think must have been the summer after we had moved back to town was of a family trip...mom, dad, Judy (9) and me (7).  We drove North...(Pittsfield is about in the middle of the state..Illinois and to the west side..Pike County).  I have a memory of driving through Chicago very early...just at dawn..on a Sunday..and the city seemed deserted...very eerie even to my seven year old mind. (Remember this would have been in the mid 1940's so traffic any where would not be anything like today!!)
      Then we drove through Kalamazoo...a city I thought was just in a song...my dad liked to sing popular songs.  I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo!  was a Glen Miller tune (see on youtube) he really like to belt out...and I was excited to see the town with the funny name really existed!  From there we stopped to visit some friends in Racine, Wisconsin...then on North eventually into Canada.  I am pretty foggy on the chronological order of the whole trip, but I have spot memories.

Me...in the North woods

    I have a memory of us stopping in a park area for a picnic lunch...my dad and I heard, of all things, bagpipes playing!!  So we wandered through the woods and came out on a whole band of bagpipe players!  All playing; all in Scottish kilts and attire!  I love the sound of bagpipes to this day...and the memory of that North woods forest on a crisp cool day; coming across such a rare scene always comes to mind when I hear them play.

The Scottish Bagpipers