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Spring break is coming up

It's a terribly dreary day -- a good time, perhaps, to conjure up some warm memories.

Back in college, February meant starting to make plans for spring break.

Nowadays, some kids go skiing in Colorado, take Caribbean cruises or even fly to London or Paris.

Those weren't options back in the day.

We piled into the biggest car available and headed to Fort Lauderdale. There, we found the cheapest motel that had a room available, ate meals at places that offered all-you-can-eat pancakes for a couple of bucks, hung out on the beach all day and partied late into the night until our money ran out. We were so broke one year that my buddies and I ended up sleeping on picnic tables in a park on the drive home.

One year, a friend and I went to New Orleans for spring break. We never were sure exactly how, but almost all our money disappeared real quick. We drove on to Galveston and camped on the beach. I recall we ate nothing but grilled baloney sandwiches for a couple of days, washing them down with Lone Star beer. And the transmission went out on my Ford Pinto on the way home. Man, that was a fun trip!

What are your spring break memories?

And, to any college students reading, what are your spring break plans?

Comments (8)

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Stormy said:

Doug,

Any fond memories of the Elbo Room in Lauderdale?

Kenny said:

Dad, I don't think your readership includes alot of college kids. Was this just a lame way for you to fish for details of my plans?

Doug said:

I've had some students from UNCG and Guilford check in lately, although they think I'm a reactionary and heterosexist.

Stormy, I don't remember where I was down there. But it was great.

Stormy said:

Doug,

I guess your trip to Lauderdale is much like the story about living in the 60's. If you remember it, you weren't really there.

Fried Baloney sandwiches chased with Lone Star? Man, that's living high on the hog! It could only been improved if you had drunk Pearl Beer.

mrproduce [TypeKey Profile Page] said:

OH NO NEVER PEARL BEER!!! I mean YUCK to the enth degree. No one, but no one drinks Pearl unless they are desparte, broke or otherwise totally impaired. Drinking Pearl is like drinking "Spirial wine", cheap and terrible. Been there done em both!

mrproduce [TypeKey Profile Page] said:

Oh, I left out the fried boloney slamwiches.Grew up on them and still eat them. By the way is the little place in G'boro that sold boloney slamwiches still around? I think it was somewhere near College St. Can't actually remember the location or the name of it. All I remember is the thick sliced boloney slamwiches.YUMMMMM.
As a kid when we couldn't get it fried at the local store so we got it sliced with a handful of crackers and a slab of cheese. Cost us a whole 10 cents. For a nickel we could get us a R-o-C coke e cola. If we were lucky and had another nickel we got a Moon pie to go with it. (now you know how old I am)

Thanks for the Memories said:

Don't the simplest times when you had "less" seem like more. Summer vacation at Fort Lauderdale with a friend - one of my best ever. And I think I do remember the Elbo Room. I do remember some great heated pools for pool hopping.

How about the Polynesian Restaurant with the fancy tiki drinks? And the bar at the top of a round tower building that rotated so you could see the entire city at night?

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