Family Trip – Keeping Up Even Contingent Appearances
Leaving on Family Trip – The Keeping Up of Even Contingent Appearances
We waited long after morning’s blue departed
the backseat we fought over,
for a mother who approached a trip
as an honored guest–scrubbing, vacuuming–
the left house like clean underwear to be worn
in case hit by a car–
like the one where we sat sweating, my brother and I,
out of her way.
*******************************************
Setting off on a car trip was a very long process in my family, my brother and I sometimes waiting a few hours in the backseat of ourcar before my father cajoled my mom into the front. This rather odd portrait, however, is probably a bit unfair to my mother who, rather naturally, liked the idea of having a clean house to come home to, even though, as the poem suggests, there was also probably an element of wanting to have the house look good in case we somehow didn’t make it home.
My unfairness allowed me to whittle this down to 55 words(minus – okay, lengthy title)–so go tell the G-Man. I am also linking it to With Real Toads, “words count” with Mama Zen, and is there atmosphere? I’m not sure you can feel how hot the car or how big my brother’s feet as he claimed backseat territory – still I am linking to dVerse Poets Meeting the Bar prompt hosted by Anna Graham.
Tags: clean underwear in case you get run down poem, Cleaning house poem, Family Car Trip, Leaving on Family Trip - Keeping Up Even Contingent Appearances, manicddaily, the backseat of chevy waiting to go
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ManicDDaily 
July 5, 2013 at 9:18 am
Now that’s a mulit-tasking 55! What a funny memory of childhood trips. I’m surprised your mom didn’t make you guys get out of the car and help clean! I like you comparison of the house to clean undearware, lol. Happy 4th weekend!
July 5, 2013 at 9:44 am
I think that she may have if we had gotten out of the car. It was part of the reason that we hung out there, I’m afraid. k.
July 5, 2013 at 9:24 am
Yikes! That sounds like me! And, that has to be the best title ever.
July 5, 2013 at 9:44 am
Ha. Thanks, MZ. k.
July 5, 2013 at 9:33 am
I get flashbacks.. at least sitting in a hot car in the backseat.. But in our case it was more my father wanting to make sure we had everything.. unpacking and checking.. I liked what you wrote about the underwear and traffic accident.
July 5, 2013 at 9:45 am
My father did that too once we got my mom in the car. I was trying to keep it short, but there was a lot, for sure, that went on before. k.
July 5, 2013 at 9:58 am
LOL! I think I know your mother. . .
July 5, 2013 at 11:00 am
always wear clear underwear, because you never know….family car trips are not always the best….we wear on each other pretty quick sometimes in confines quarters….ha…but its all part of getting there…and i def have fond memories of it…
July 5, 2013 at 11:11 am
smiles…car trips meant for my brother and me to sit in the backseat of a car full of smoke without being allowed to open the window and a dog, walking back and forth over our legs all the times… oh…and bavarian music… does it sound like a horror movie…? it was…ha…smiles… can’t remember if we left a clean house…smiles
July 5, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Yeowch! That does sound terrible. I have to confess that our trips were quite nice once we got started. Thanks, Claudia. k.
July 5, 2013 at 11:19 am
Karin….
Me and the kids did EXACTLY that same thing for years with Mrs. G
But with her it was OCD!!
Gosh it’s GREAT to have you back, you have been such a loyal contributor it’s very obvious when you are absent.
Loved your travelling 55
Thanks for playing, thanks for returning to the fold, and please have a Kick Ass Week-End
July 5, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Thanks so much, Galen. I always enjoy your posts and your wonderful spirit. k.
July 5, 2013 at 12:21 pm
that feeling of perspiration beginning to prickle underneath bangs, and in the corner of your armpits, as the heat rose and the seat begins to stick to the skin of your thighs…
July 5, 2013 at 12:32 pm
This is wonderfully reminiscent.. shows how priorities change from one generation to the next.
July 5, 2013 at 8:07 pm
What IS that era phobia! LOl! Enjoy all the underwears you have !
July 5, 2013 at 8:48 pm
Laughing at the things we take so seriously–for the kids, it’s getting the heck out of dodge, and for mom, her identity as competent housewife…anyway, loved the snapshot of family frenzy.
July 5, 2013 at 9:10 pm
Ha. Hope you are feeling better. k.
July 6, 2013 at 5:03 am
Well, that’s one way to learn to develop patience!
July 6, 2013 at 8:50 pm
Love the tie-in with clean underwear. What is that obsession? Love the economy, the humor and memories. Well done, K.