Kids, parents, long car trips(ah, nostalgia)

[Eral]

Kismet made me think of this.
When you were a kid (I know it was only 10 minutes ago for some of you) what was your folks' phrase designed to instill fear and quiet in the back seat on those long trips?
My mum and dad ran a team effort.
Stage 1. Dad would say, "If I stop this car, ye'll be walking."
Stage 2. Dad would say,"If I stop this car,ye'll be getting a hiding and then ye'll be walking."
Stage 3. He would stop. And then just sit in ominous silence. We would all immediately shut up.
Stage 4.The silence would build. Then mum would turn around and say "So, d'ye want to get out and walk?" We would all shake our heads. Then, if it was day-time mum would say, "I think it's time for a song." (We can all sing in harmony to this day.)
At night she would say, "The baby's just going off to sleep now. Ye'll have to be quiet." Then she would sing an Irish lullaby(no, I have no idea how to spell it), and half of us would also go to sleep.

[melora]

never took any long car trips with my parents.  but when we went with my kids, i always had to be the threatener, while my husband drove.  my daughter never lets me forget the time her brothers were fighting and i threw my shoe and hit her by accident.  and it was one of those wooden Dr Scholl's clogs .  good thing she has a hard head !

[Meira]

My father just turned the Rolling Stones louder.

[Eral]

Yes, rub salt into an open wound. As someone who has never travelled for hours listening to Val Doonican, the Clancy Brothers and Frank Patterson you don't know what suffering is. 

[fallen demon]

Nowadays my parents just tell me to shut up.

Despite the fact that I'm still in highschool, I can't remember what they did when I was younger, and you guys can.  Kind of scary.

[Cybersquirt]

Nostalgia?  Long car rides were hell. 

I don't remember any warning from my father - he had a rather explosive temper - he'd just pop and we'd be quiet.. for about 2 hours.

 

We drove to Florida several times.  That was a three day trip.  That's a long trip when you're 8 - 14. The only cool thing was that he had a CB and we'd talk to the truckers.  That should sufficiently date mayself. 

[jester]

Hey Rubber Duck! How about a convoy?

[Kismet]

We drove to Florida several times.  That was a three day trip.  That's a long trip when you're 8 - 14. The only cool thing was that he had a CB and we'd talk to the truckers.  That should sufficiently date mayself. 

Hah!  I had forgotten about those.  We had a CB too.  Our yearly trips were to Pittsburgh to visit relatives and that was about a 12-14 hour drive.  The biggest thrill for us on that drive was that we would go through about 3 different long tunnels.

[Xiao]

I'm of the appropriate age for CBs but my family didn't have one.  We did a lot of car trips but mostly just around the state, on more or less "back" roads.

[Cybersquirt]

(    Kismet)

Actually, it was more like 'breaker 1-9.  Any smokies up and about that we need to [er] know of?'  Or something like that. 

That and pumping your arm, when we caught up to the one we were talking to, to get him to beep his horn.

The short trips around the state actually were fun.  Anybody else have a father who insisted on taking (longer) short-cuts? 

[Evaine Dian]

When I went on car trips, it usually was with my grandparents. Their smell was enough to keep me quiet.

[Meira]

Yes, rub salt into an open wound.

Maybe your constitution will rise? 

[Silk]

I honestly don't remember that well.  I know my mum was really, really good at projecting complete annoyance without words, though.  (For that matter, she still is.)

Most of my long car trips now involve cats as passengers, I don't have children.  Yelling at them helps me but it doesn't shut them up, so I just turn up the stereo.

[glain]

I kinda liked the car trips because every 100 miles we got a different present to open up.  (Note the trips were about 1000 miles one way as well)   It was nothing big, small stuff you would find at a discount store, but the best part was because there was no seatbelt law we could jump over and over the seats and not get in trouble. 

[discharger12]

My mother used to tell me to shutup as loud as she could muster. Usually afterwards, the trip was quite silent. For the past few years, I have managed to occupy myself with reading or some kind of hand-held, so things have gone rather smoothly.

(Edit: Damn grammatical errors)

[CORVIS TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN GOD]

We used to make a 6-8 hour car trip once a month every month, like clockwork, from the time I was six years old til I was nearly eighteen. The route and destination changed a couple times, but it was always three or four hours there, three or four hours back. I used to look forward to these trips, as they always gave me a good excuse to get a couple of new books, and after a while I just started to like the road for its own sake. Still miss those trips.

[Stoplight Red]

My parents never really had to tell us to shut up.

They bought us Ed Emberly's Big Drawing Books, and that was enough to keep my brother and I silent for weeks. They just had to make sure and supply us with enough drawing paper to facilitate the mass production of little drawings.

[Dark Raven]

The old man would pull over and smack us around if we got out of line. He had a temper.

[jester]

Ah nostalgia:

My sister made me throw up on licorice every time. Still can't stand that smell. We sang Italian songs off key and I asked my dad a gazillion questions which were widely debated throughout the car. I also developed the ability of InstaSleep. I can sleep everywhere, anytime, any surface. I get on a plane, train, car, ship and can sleep right away. We were never told to be quiet, but my sister squealed everytime she wanted something after which I was always told to be mature about it being the older brother and all and basically to do whatever she wanted. *Hrmpf* All these memories.

[Eral]

If you vomited you got to sit in the front.
Considering the other options were sitting squashed up between 3 other siblings who would punch you if you moved or squealed when they punched you, or sliding around in the back of the stationwagon trying to keep the baby's bassinet from crushing you, it was not the worst thing that could happen to you.

[ED]

I just got a bunch of books and read.  Granted, I only went on about 3 of these trips, so I was lucky that way.