Vacation Hassles? Take a Picture!Written by Pauline Wallin, Ph.D.
Looking for some fiction to read this summer? Try a travel brochure. Those beautiful glossy pamphlets promise you time of your life, with nonstop fun. To illustrate their promises, they show pictures of perfect people with perfect bodies and perfect teeth, frolicking and smiling. No one has sunburn, sore feet or indigestion. The children always look squeaky clean, and they never have tantrums. There are no mosquitoes, no flat tires, no thunderstorms . . . and no inner brats!Meanwhile, back on earth, your actual vacation may look something like this: 1. You've been driving for several hours, when you notice that "check engine" light on your dashboard is illuminated. You get off highway at next exit and find a garage that can fix car, but it won't be finished till next day. And it's going to cost a small fortune. 2. You're on a camping trip. It's been raining for 2 days straight. The campground is one big mud puddle. And your matches are wet. 3. You splurge for a resort hotel, but when you get there they can't find your reservation, and hotel is fully booked. You produce your travel agent's confirmation, but reservations clerk merely says, "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do." 4. Everything is crowded. You have to wait in line for food, for transportation, even for bathroom. Other people are loud, pushy and rude. You'll never see situations like these in a travel brochure. But I'll bet you've experienced at least one of them on your own trips. I know I have. And in retrospect I realize that my inner brat made things seem a lot worse than they were. It blamed and complained, making not only me miserable, but my family as well.
| | Old Sturbridge Village – Links to Our Past Guide, Part 2Written by Cliff Calderwood
Once described in a 1950 article as "The Town That Wants to Be Out of Date," Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts is a lovingly recreated village of early 19th century New England. You’ll be whisked back to dawn of modern commerce and experience what life was like in a typical New England Village of that time.This is second part in series of popular attractions for New England vacations with a historical theme. Others in series are Plymouth Plantation, Mayflower II, and Mystic Seaport. Old Sturbridge Village opened to public in 1946 and received 5,000 visitors in its first year of operation. Today nearly half a million visitors a year experience authentic buildings and wonderful collections of artifacts on display. Sturbridge Village is set among 200 acres of rural Central Massachusetts, and located 60 miles west of Boston off exit 9 on Route 90. Since opening nearly 60 years ago village has survived a destructive hurricane, flooding, and occasional fire - look for high water mark notched on Gristmill on millpond from Hurricane Diane. Where Plymouth Plantation focuses on early years of settlement in region, Old Sturbridge Village covers beginning of prosperity, and a more sophisticated existence built around emerging commerce of 1830s America. A word about buildings… Many of structures are original and moved here from villages in Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Reconstructed and restored with painstaking care they tingle your senses with their rustic charm, and simple designs. Unpaved country roads lead you around common and to outlying areas of inviting barns and craftsmen establishments, such as shoe and tin shops. Here you’ll see and talk to role-playing 19th century craftsmen. Marvel as they skillfully produce goods using only tools and resources available in 1830s.
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