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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMeanDaddy MITT wouldn't stop for potty breaks
I am still in shock after reading this article from Vanity Fair.... it was a 12 hour car ride!
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/02/mitt-romney-201202
"Mitt put Seamus, the familys hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagons roof rack. He had improvised a windshield for the carrier to make the ride more comfortable for the dog."
"Then Mitt put his sons on notice: there would be pre-determined stops for gas, and that was it."
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)But, for my mother and sister, the car would stop.
My mother's bladder and the car's gas consumption got similar mileage, so we didn't usually need the pickle jar.
bullwinkle428
(20,626 posts)goclark
(30,404 posts)When you read the entire article, what Mittwit did to the Dog and the kids still happens today. Today he is a sociopath IMO.
redqueen
(115,096 posts)It's all rooted in selfishness.
dballance
(5,756 posts)First, we'd board the dog at the vet so he'd be well cared for while we were on vacation for a week.
Second, my parents would fold down the back seat of the Ford station wagon and throw a mattress in the back. Then they'd have us leave home for the road at us kid's usual bedtime so we'd all fall asleep on the mattress in back and not be awake and be little shits for at least 8 hours or so.
Then in the morning when we awoke we always got a big treat. We got to stop at Waffle House for breakfast. Yep, it was the South. Due to my parent's good planning I generally have fond memories of over the road vacations.
You do remember station wagons right? The SUV before there were SUVs.
MineralMan
(146,189 posts)When I was a kid, way back in the 50s, we used to drive from near Los Angeles to near Phoenix three or four times a year to visit my maternal grandparents. At the time, in a 1952 Plymouth Suburban station wagon, it was a 10-hour drive. Bathroom breaks? Not on the schedule. We learned early to control our fluid intake.
I suspect a lot of people remember similar things from their childhood days.
Javaman
(62,439 posts)He was an "achievement junkie" before video games were even a thought.
best mileage and time were what he was all about. We were just extra ballast keeping him from breaking his all time record.
catbyte
(34,166 posts)Lots of yelling and banging doors at 4:00 a.m., cold, dew-laden yard & car. Frogs & crickets chirping. Our cats stayed home to be taken care of by cat sitting neighbors or my grandparents unless they were going with us. I remember falling asleep in the car and waking up violently ill with carsickness. Dad grumbling & pulling over while I heaved my guts out...Good times!
Diane
Anishinaabe in MI & mom to Taz, Nigel, and new baby brother Sammy, members of Dogs Against Romney, Cat Division
"Dogs Arent Luggage--HISS!
Javaman
(62,439 posts)ungodly hours?
It must be a generational thing, because my dad was the same way. Up at 3:30 on the road no later than 4:30.
but you have to know my dad was of the type that functioned perfectly well on 4 hours of sleep a night and not a wink more. He had this bizarre notion that we (my mom and us kids) were all the same way and he just couldn't understand why we weren't.
It's was as if he thought the 4 hours of sleep thing should have been passed down to us. I have no idea how he figured my mom into that genetic equation.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)in the driveway with coloring books and pillows while my mom and dad frantically tried to remember to shut off everything and double-check all the doors. Now my husband and I feel like champions if we get on the road by ten.
Javaman
(62,439 posts)my sisters would promptly scurry into the car and fall right back asleep. My dad was completely mystified by this. He thought that the whole-getting--up-at-3:30am was an ADVENTURE!!! And just couldn't fathom why my sisters would go back to sleep. 5 minutes into the trip, me, my brother and my mom would be as well.
My brother would get pissed at me if I slept too long in the car! He started showing signs of my dad's genetic predisposition to sleeping only 4 hours a night early on.
Before I could drive, I would virtually sleep the entire car ride. My brother, who is 7 years old than me, would start showing his bafflement at my ability to sleep such long stretches when he was around 16. Coincidentally, that was right around the time, he started driving a bit to give my dad a break.
They both would then give me verbal jabs over my ability to sleep through basically anything. I think they were secretly pissed that I could enjoy a beautiful uninterrupted 8 blissful hours of sleep and neither one of them could get more than 4 at a stretch.
It was an odd family dynamic.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)what is going on. Meanwhile, any disruption to my life or routine (like staying in a hotel) means I can't sleep. And forget sleeping in the car--can't abdicate my annoying "copilot" tendency!
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)semi-fond memories: "Just extra ballast"
Reminds me of a little joke I tell about colleges and universities that would run great if it weren't for those damned pesky students
MineralMan
(146,189 posts)drive, but stopped at all the roadside attractions, trading posts, and other places we never got to see when we were kids.
I understand why he was so destination oriented at the time. Those visits with my grandparents were always short, and my parents wanted as much time as possible for the actual visit, so the drive was just a means to an end. Still, we missed a lot of things during the drive. Children often have different goals than their parents, it seems.
Javaman
(62,439 posts)but ours were the typical "family" vacation.
My dad, to put it very very very very politely, was not an easy person to live with.
Needless to say, after the "family vacation" many of us siblings needed a vacation to get over the family vacation.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)Make the same drive in 3 days instead of 1, and stop at all the attractions. Thankfully my parents weren't that awful, but my eyes were really opened when I made the same trip to my grandparents' house with my aunt and uncle. We left at a normal time (9 am instead of 3:30 am) and we stopped in every town and went to every attraction, and found the out-of-the-way quaint restaurants. I had a BLAST. We even spent the night in a hotel and swam in the pool in the MORNING after SLEEPING IN. LOL, I remember telling my parents about how wonderful it was and they tsk tsk'ed at my 'weird' aunt and uncle and mumbled something about how they always had 'too much time on their hands'. My parents were always hell-bent on getting to my grandparent's BEFORE supper. Why it made a difference, I'll never know.
My parents generally stopped often for potty breaks (thanks to my mom's addiction to coffee), but it was in to the washroom quickly and get the hell out and back into the car. There was one time when my dad and brother and I were travelling through southern Saskatchewan and I REALLY had to go. We passed 1 gas station and my dad got picky and told me there were more up ahead. He was wrong. I had to hold it for another 3 hours. I thought I was going to die. My mom - who was on a business trip and met us at our destination - yelled at my dad for not stopping and letting me go on the side of the road. The truth was I wouldn't let him - I was a teenager and there wasn't anywhere to GO. No trees to hide behind (anyone who had been to southern Sask knows what I'm talking about, LOL), and I was with my dad and brother. At the time I'd have rather died holding it than squat on the side of the road. Dumb teenagers.
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)canEHdian
(62 posts)Ahnold might know why we cry, but Mittbot doesn't know why we piss.
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)that might make more sense to his software.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Vulture Capitalist
Tax Dodger
Pretend State Trooper
High School Bully
Those are the nice things.
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)gyrating before him as they hold it in, desperately awaiting the next officially sanctioned bathroom visit. I wonder if in the Romney family they have the policy of raising your hand when you simply have to go, like prisoners asking permission of prison guards.
RandiFan1290
(6,206 posts)We got to stop when we had to go and the dogs rode in the car with us.
Thanks Dad!
Warpy
(110,900 posts)in which case the dog rode with me in the back. My father was a traveling salesman when I was little, so he tended to put the blinders on and just go, stopping for gas and meals but that was it so I knew I had to go even if I didn't have to go whenever the car stopped.
The exception was Georgia. My dad never wanted to stop anywhere in Georgia, said it was just asking for trouble.
ecstatic
(32,566 posts)As someone who traveled a lot with my family, I know that the "predetermined stops" idea would never work in the real world, unless diapers were involved... or did they pee in cups? lol
LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)When I was little, we used to drive cross-country once a year to see family back east. We stopped for EVERYTHING- gas, potties, historical markers, parks, interesting-looking buildings, vista points, whatever. My dad joked about the van automatically pulling itself to the side at the sight of a brown historical-marker sign. What's the point of a road trip if you never leave the road?
Romney is an ass, all the way to the bone.
goclark
(30,404 posts)Last edited Tue Aug 7, 2012, 11:26 PM - Edit history (1)
in the 1950's. My precious Blue Eyed grandfather drove " Little Brown" me and my " light skinned" Mom from MD to PA to pick up my " Little Brown" grandmother. He drove us all the way to California.
We looked like a box of crayons.
My Little Brown grandmother had a heart condition and got sick in Missouri , it was so hot and no air condition .
Her heart medication would not work.
Because we were Negro, every place we pulled into, there was " "No Room at the Inn" for "Little Brown Me" and my Sweet "Little Brown grandmother." I was so afraid because I was in the back seat with grandma and trying to keep her cool with a wet towel.
Grand Dad was getting so upset and then he saw a tiny run down motel and he tried once again.
The owner came and looked in the car and spotted us in the back. With mean little eyes, he asked my grandfather " Who are those two ?"
My wonderful grandfather had to tell a lie.... "That is My Maid and that is her little girl."
The mean little man still seemed suspicious but said " OK, you and your daughter can have Room 4 and the two in the back can have that shack in the back."
My grandfather had tears in his eyes as we took grandma to the shack, she called me her " Little Nurse" as I tenderly gave her the medicine and wiped her face to keep her cool.
When we pulled off the next morning Grandfather drove as fast as he could and after many days we finally got to California!
I still have old photos of ny precious granddad stopping and taking pictures and pointing out the beauty of each state.
Unlike RMoney, he let us have potty breaks and rest breaks and the experience of a lifetime.
I still cry Happy Tears When I Recall That Trip.
LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)There's nothing quite as awesome as a cross-country road trip done right.
goclark
(30,404 posts)and always wanted to bring lovely experiences to his family.
Every Christmas eve, he would dress up as Santa and "deliver" our presents to us by the Tree the next day. It was years later when he told me that he put a little record player in the room next to mine on Christmas Eve and had it playing " Jingle Bells" while he said Ho, Ho, Ho!
When I was about 7 yrs., he took me downtown.
At that time, Colored people had to be all dressed up to go to downtown Baltimore.
I was all dressed up, tiny purse, hat and gloves.
A nice White Lady stopped us and said,
" What a beautiful little girl, is that your Maids child?"
My blue eyed grandfather looked right at her and politely said, " No, I am proud to say I am a Colored Man and this is my sweet granddaughter."
He tipped his hat and nicely said," Good Day."
LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)There was a group of developmentally disabled folks that worked there, with a supervisor.
I sat outside talking to one of them one day, for some reason, about how beautiful Colorado was. He started asking me about what other places around the country were like, and I racked my memory for awhile to tell him about them. Finally I asked him if he'd ever traveled and he said no. He had never been out of the county. He wasn't expecting to, either.
That conversation has stuck with me and I drag it out whenever I'm hosting a pity party. Nothing else in my life, ever, brought home to me just how lucky I have been as that one little talk.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)but lots of people who see this shit DO, so not so fortunate after all.
JohnnyLib2
(11,206 posts)Some skill was involved.
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)We would stop any any chance. However, we were in the UK and it wasn't that far.
RZM
(8,556 posts)I remember asking my mother to pull over on our way to an airport over an hour away once. She said:
'We can't, because there might not be an on-ramp to the highway.'
I said:
'I'm pretty sure there's a frigging on ramp, given that we're on a major interstate and there's a million signs telling us to pull over and buy stuff here.'
She didn't stop.
cali
(114,904 posts)She did the driving. We spent the month of August on vacation. My dad joined on weekends. Looking back, I don't think it was any kind of vacation for my mother. She put an end to it the summer I was 13. No more family vacs after that.
goclark
(30,404 posts)your experience with us ~