March 28, 2024

Spring breaks were never easy

After reading more about the amazing rescue recently performed by three Iowa State University football players while on spring break, I reflected on some of my own spring break trips.

Allen Lazard, three other players and two former players assisted in the March 16 rescue while on spring break in South Padre Island, Texas. I salute the quick thinking of the young men who moved quickly to save the life of the woman whose car quickly sank after they pulled her from the wreck. She was arrested for operating while intoxicated, and the event might turn out to be a turning point in her life.

Not only did these young men do something noble on their spring break, they were probably having a more adventurous time than I had on spring break when I was that age. Aside from a few short jaunts to Palm Springs, I never really did the cliché road trip during a college break, so my memories of that time of year is primarily associated with family vacations.

It’s an ordeal to get the family out of town in March or April. Not only might there be winter-like weather and awkward time-off schedules, but my family is not usually in routine of loading up the car at that time of year. It was like Christmas break travels were too distant a memory, and summer vacations (Maryland schools went to third week of June in those days) were too far away to even seem real.

One year, we decided, we were going to Florida, “no matter what,” as Mom said. That phrase morphed into more of a threat than a promise, as the grind of life and other circumstances made for lots of arguing and other obstacles in the days leading up to the trip.

Yet when the day came to leave, we were surprisingly awake, alert and getting along better than usual, so Mom took that as a sign it was full speed ahead — that we really wanted to go to Florida — and so the recently purchased burgundy 1984 Dodge Caravan with the fake wood trim rolled out of the driveway, with the tent trailer behind it.

Of course, our early morning get-along time wouldn’t last. Once we napped, awoke and had lunch, we were in North Carolina and getting cranky. Before long, we were picking at each other in the usual ways, and Mom, knowing there were still a few hours ahead before we camped, pulled out some heavy cards early to keep things calm.

She even turned the minivan around, and we headed north for about a mile or so on Interstate 95, heading back toward home. The caravan was never so quiet, before or any point thereafter; we really, really wanted to go to Florida.

We calmed down and held it together enough to get to the Sunshine State, where we visited Disney World and the Epcot Center, other central Florida attractions and saw the space shuttle Discovery launch from Cape Canaveral. The shuttle launch was especially meaningful to our family, as we moved to Edwards Air Force Base later that year, where we lived near the plant where all the shuttle orbiters were manufactured, and personally watched the last successful landing of Challenger before its tragic accident.

The vacation was nothing like college student-athletes frolicking at South Padre Island. However, our mid-semester trip to Florida is something we’ll never forget, and I’m sure the Iowa State players’ excursion — albeit one with a serious element — is one they’ll always remember as well.

Contact Jason W. Brooks

at jbrooks@newtondailynews.com