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This is a question Family Holidays

Back in the 80s when my Dad got made redundant (hello Dad!), he spent all the redundancy money on one of those big motor caravans.

Us kids loved it, apart from when my sister threw up on my sleeping bag, but looking back I'm not so sure my mum did. There was a certain tension every time the big van was even mentioned, let alone driven around France for weeks on end with her still having to cook and do all the washing.

What went wrong, what went right, and how did you survive the shame of having your family with you as a teenager?

(, Thu 2 Aug 2007, 14:33)
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1974 - Two parents, three kids, a granny and an Austin Maxi.
It was the seventies, and I was 9. We were driving to Switzerland in our Austin Maxi 1750.
In the back were me, my siblings and my grandmother. She was doing a great job of keeping us entertained in the back - a real trouper.

We drove from Rotterdam ferry port across the Netherlands and stopped at the Dutch/German border (they still had border checks at that time).
The guard (German) leaned into my Dad's wound-down window and asked if he had anything to declare.

From the rear seat, I gleefully proclaimed
"Only the heroine in the back!"

Next thing I knew, my Dad was outside the car, frantically trying to explain, in broken German to a very unamused guard, that I was just a stupid
kid and that he didn't really have a couple of kilos of smack concealed in the vehicle.

At this point, something very strange happened.

Dad started jumping up and down, doing a weird "funky gibbon" type dance which culminated in him removing his T-shirt and throwing it to the floor.

The guard was laughing his grey uniform socks off and eventually waved us on. He'd seen the wasp crawl inside the neckline of Dad's shirt.

I often remind him of it - from a healthy distance.
(, Thu 2 Aug 2007, 22:32, Reply)

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