CONTEST The winner of family trip tales – ‘Pull my finger’

By Ed Fussell of Lawrenceville

One family vacation stands head and shoulders above the rest. I’m pretty sure I was 14 when my parents decided to take the family to Washington, DC for what I now refer to as “The Finger Vacation”. (The name will come into focus momentarily.)

My sister and brother, who would turn nine and seven respectively that Fall were cool with it, but I was actually excited about seeing our nation’s capital. I had been to two states – Georgia and Florida and was looking to broaden my experiences and this was my chance.

My excitement first began to dim when I realized, like all trips, we would be driving. The drive from south Georgia to Washington D.C. is a good, LONG day. When experienced from the backseat of a Ford Tempo jammed together with your younger brother and sister, the trip gets even longer. Fortunately for us, Dad chose to only drive halfway the first day and we disembarked for the night at South of the Border motel at the NC/SC border. I don’t know really what to say about this place. It’s a Mexican themed motel complex. Everything is decorated and built in faux Spanish architecture. When you check in, you are escorted to your room by “Pedro” – whose name, I have a sneaking suspicion, is not actually Pedro. While this place was interesting, it’s not what made this vacation stand out.

In fact, DC was great, but the real “highlight” from this vacation occurred on the long drive home and involves a little game my brother and I played. While most families on a long drive might play license plate bingo or color cars or even 20 questions, we were a little different. You might say we had a nose for adventure. My brother and I really enjoyed playing “pull my finger.”

I am sure most of you are familiar with this game. From the beginning of time, Dads have been playing this game with their kids. Apparently the week-long trip and the steady diet of fast food had begun to wreak havoc on my digestive system. This was building to a crescendo by the time we set off on our day-long drive back home. This, combined with the fact that I would be jammed into the aforementioned backseat for 12 hours next to my little brother, was the creation of the perfect storm and made for ideal conditions for our game.

As the drive got rolling, I knew it would get worse before it got better and about an hour into our trip, it was time to play the game. My brother, being 6, was the perfect foil for my game. I extended the offer to pull my finger the first time and he readily obliged. It was funny to us, but not so much to Mom, but I think she assumed it would be a 1 time occurrence. Little did she know.

As the trip continued, so did our game. In fact, my brother was such a willing accomplice, I didn’t even have to say anything, the extended finger was sufficient. All the while, Mom was getting less and less patient with our game. In fact, it finally ended abruptly when she told him, “If you pull his finger one more time you are in trouble!” (WHAT?!?!)

Seriously, my mom is pretty intelligent, but I think someone convinced her that this game really works. I thought she would know that I was the one to blame, not my finger pulling little brother but she still swears her threat worked, although I remember it differently. In the end, however the events unfolded, this is one vacation memory that lingers to this day.

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