The Raisin Story

Once upon a time, back in the early seventies, my family piled into the old four door Ford something or another (it was kind of a gold color, very box shaped, and small) and headed off down the road to Oregon WI to visit Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Joe. The season was summer. We only visited the Madison area at Easter, or in the summer. These trips always began at about 6am. Sleepy kids were piled into the car and off we headed down the road. We usually didn't fall back to sleep, but immediately began to play the ABC game. What? You haven't heard of the ABC game? Ugh, I'm already remembering too much and am about to get side tracked into a nine part blog!

ABC game= While driving down the road you start with the letter "A". Each person playing tries to be the first to find it. It can be on a sign, license plate, or anything outside of the car. It goes well until you get to "Q". It also slows way down once you get out of Solon Springs. I honestly don't think we ever made it to "Z" even though we played that game every other weekend on the same road on the way to Solon to Aunt Mary and Uncle Clate's cabin. :)

Since this trip was early seventies it was a B.D. trip, meaning before David. We had been traveling for a good part of the day and were somewhere near Black River Falls. We always stopped there for lunch. I will set the scene. Mom is driving, Kate is in the middle snoozing on Dad, who is also snoring away. Yes youngsters, back in the day we had seats that went across the whole front, and car seats and seat belts were not required, or ever used. Plus, the seats are a plastic type material that leave you very sweaty in the heat. Grandma and Jerry are snoozing in the backseat with me, but I am wide awake. I cant sleep in the car, never have, probably never will. It is HOT. The temps outside are probably around 90 degrees. We do not have air conditioning, so the windows are all rolled down, but hot air is all that's blowing in. We are sweaty and slippery on the seats, and absolutely squished. There is no way to not be touching, and on my and Jerry's side of the car there is a suitcase on the floor, so our feet are setting on that. My mother had brought along those fancy little packs of raisins for a snack, which we had to have enjoyed at some point because there were empty, open little boxes waiting to be dumped in the garbage at lunch. A lot of them.

So there we are, driving down the road, sweating, sleeping, or just plain miserable (that's me) and it starts to rain. Very quickly it is raining hard enough that Mom wakes Grandma and Dad and the windows have to be rolled up. Shortly after that it is so awful that my Mom has to pull off to the side and stop because she can't see anything at all for the sheets of rain coming down. I must have been about five years old, and I'm thinking that I remember the sights, sounds, and smells from this particular day so vividly because subconsciously I was picking up on my parents concerns. I can recall pressing my nose to the window trying to see through the sheets of rain, but to no avail. I wasn't old enough to know how scary of a situation that was. Anyone coming by could have smashed into us, and when the rain finally did let up there were semi trucks tipped over near by. It must have been a tornado. The only thing I knew, and that I really took from that day, was my hate on for raisins. Think about it. The 90+ degree car is now sealed up tight. Sweat is pouring off of everyone, and all you can smell is sweat, and...... raisins.

I know that over the years I have eaten them in cereal, although not often. I have never gone near them in a "bunch". Even to this day, when they are served at work for snack I sit away from the table. *gag* Then I tell the kids "The Raisin Story".

The End