Are we there yet?

Does anyone remember Fizzies? They were a cross between a Necco wafer and an Alka-Seltzer tablet. They came in several flavors and the idea was that you dropped them into cold water and voila, instant soft drink.

I was reminded of them the one night last week when a big Ford Excavation or something like that passed me on the interstate. Glancing at the side windows,  I could see the glow of not one but two DVD screens strapped to the back of the front seat head rests, presumably the travel entertainment for a couple of head setted back seat munchkins while Mom and Dad rode in isolated silence up front, maybe even plugged in to their own individual Ipods.

Seeing that glow took me back to the mid 50's when my family moved from Virginia to Texas. As with most family moves it was summertime. We had an almost new 1955 Desoto that must have been nearly the same weight as a small naval vessel. The car was a two tone green behemoth with bench seats front and back that were large enough to seat all 5 of us comfortably. Other than where our little delinquent butts were planted, every nook and cranny was filled with the stuff a family of 5 needs to endure a 4 day car trip.

What it did not have though was air conditioning. Driving south as we were, the daytime temps were pretty miserable and as with any family of three kids stuck in the back of a car for the day, behavior was a daily issue. Since even back then cattle prods and spiked paddles were not acceptable tools for behavior modification my mother used a carrot instead of a stick. We were rewarded for being good with a treat of a Fizzie every couple of hours.  She kept a fat thermos jug of ice water on the floor of the front seat. It too was two tone in color, cream and hospital green if memory serves. This was before the days of spouts on jugs like that so she had to lift the jug into her lap and pour each cup of water out of the top.

The cups of water were handed back to us and we got to open the little envelope and drop the Fizzies in ourselves. That part of the evolution was good for about 15 seconds worth of amusement. My brother and I would hold the cups very close to our faces so we could feel the spray as they dissolved. Whichever one of us had the cup that finished first would shout out, "I won!" whereupon the loser would immediately look into the winner's cup to verify the results. 

I would tell you about the taste but memory has mercifully blotted that from my mind. I do recall though that if we were lucky enough to get one of the regular flavors it did seem like a reward. The root beer Fizzie was a different matter; we were both convinced that Mom was actually punishing us for something we had done or might soon do.

So,  I wonder as think about the kids in the back seat of that Ford Excavation. Will they share memories of a long vacation trip and yet another rerun of a Disney movie they have seen so many times they don't even need the soundtrack because they can read the lips of the animated characters? I think I prefer reminiscing about Fizzies, even the root beer.

Comments

[Uncle Jack]

Proustian, Jim. Enjoyed it. U.J.

[Nikki]

What a great post Jim.

I don't remember Fizzies, but they sound like just the thing for kids.

Great post.

[Jane]

Wow! This takes me back. I hadn't thought about Fizzies in YEARS. Guess it shows my age, but I do indeed remember them! My mother and two of my brothers took a car trip from Washington state to Eastern Canada to join my father at his new job. Must have been 1957 or so. Your post makes me recall other back-seat travel games like "I Spy", "20 Questions" and "collecting" different state license plates or makes of cars to pass the time. Sometimes my mother would make a list of roadside things to collect, kind of like a scavenger hunt, to keep us occupied. Great post, Jim! Thanks for the memories.

[Ruth Barrow]

Aaahhh, I do love it when you write about when we were growing up. Do you remember that you father called soft drinks "belly wash"? Not only did your mother tell me many of these stories years ago when we were for a time related by marriage, but I lived some of them myself.

In the mid 1950's my grandparents had moved to Florida and each summer we would make the long trip from Atlanta down the newly constructed I-75 interstate to visit them. I-75 was mostly made up of red clay and large earth moving Caterpillars so it was hot and dusty. We had a huge black Ford station wagon with red interior. Daddy would put a broom stick across the open tailgate window so we could not lean out the back. We called that prized rear section of the car the "way back" and fought over whose turn it was to get to ride back there since the seat was folded down and you could stretch out to read. The middle seat had a strip of masking tape dividing it into equal halves in an attempt to keep us from whining that "she touched me", "she's looking at me", or "she's on my side".

We did not have Fizzies - we had Life Savers. Daddy always carried a tube of the Pep-O-Mint flavor and he doled them out in much the same fashion as your mother and her Fizzies. Daddy was always good on these long trips to let us stop at the local Dairy Queen and get a chocolate dipped cone as a special treat and maybe even a pack of cherry flavored Life Savers. What should be done with that circle of candy - suck on it or crunch it up?

We played the same license plate and alphabet games you all did and we sung row, row, row your boat in rounds hundreds of times. As we tired of the games and songs we would naturally begin to ask how much longer til we get there... after several warnings from dear old dad he fined us a quarter each time we asked.

I much prefer these kinds of memories to the silence from the back seat of those head setted younguns. I may not allow my grandchildren to have a DVD player when they ride in the car with me on trips.

Thanks again for the great memories of long hot summers,

Ruth