Auto-Biography - the family station wagon

Over the years we had several white station wagons. We used to take family vacations almost every year to Idaho Falls, Idaho to see our grandparents and cousins. I have lots of great memories of those road trips. We saw the great Salt Lake once and Mount Rushmore another year. Usually we would take three days to make the 1000 plus mile trip from Kansas to Idaho with overnight stops in Nebraska and Wyoming.
 

Our family Pontiac Catalina sometime in the 1970's on our way to Idaho. 

If you look closely you can see my little brothers sitting in the very back.

On one such trip my brothers and I were swimming in the motel swimming pool when my legs cramped up and I couldn’t move them. I started yelling “Help! Help!” when our mom dove into the swimming pool, clothes and all, to rescue me. Being a teen who considered herself "fearless" I got out, waited for 30 minutes then told myself to get back in there. It wasn't long after I mustered the courage to jump back in, when a Hispanic lady started to scream hysterically for “help”. At first we had no idea what she was saying because she was screaming in Spanish. Once again, my mom jumped into the pool to rescue the woman. It took a long time to calm the stranger down; I guess you could say she didn't handle a near death experience as well as I did. She made quite a scene. Once the drama had finally passed, my mom decided it was time for all of us to get out of the pool for the evening. And she could finally get some dry clothes.

It was definitely a family vacation that I will never forget.