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GUEST ARTICLE
POST-PEAK VACATIONS
I like to read first person accounts of life during the Depression. In all the books I've read, I can only remember two examples of vacations. From "Hanging On, or, How to Get Through A Depression And Enjoy Life" by Edmund G. Love, when times start to get tough he goes to the waterfront as a houseguest of rich folk. As times get more difficult, he spends his vacations shoveling coal for the family business; play is extremely limited. In another book I've read (but can't recall the title of), the mom and kids have a sort of busman's holiday, travel to stay with friends/family, and they pick berries. Several families get together and stay in one house, harvest blackberries by day, make jam in the afternoons. In the evenings, the kids run around, the adults play cards and drink. Good times. It is a lot easier to find Depression stories about not having shoes to walk to school in than it is find a vacation story. Maybe that's partly due to more people living on farms, having to tend to their animals and crops, or maybe fewer cars were available. Or perhaps, just plain fewer vacations were taken.

To find out what people are doing for their vacations in these getting-more-grim-all-the-time-times, I took a non-scientific poll of my friends. These are middle class people (if they are rich, they are hiding it well), lower to upper. Three are unemployed, nine are employed. I asked them what they were doing for vacations, and for most of them, they are finagling like crazy to make it happen. Investors, take note: the hospitality industry is doomed, according to this poll -- hardly anybody is buying a motel room. Strategies include shortening vacations, downgrading accommodations, staying with friends, camping, day trips, going as a guest, eating cheap, no souvenir purchases, combining tasks into one trip. Desstinations include Washington DC, Hawaii, San Francisco, distant family & friends, and the great outdoors. Also mentioned were staycations and doing home repair.

One thing that struck me was the meaning that was attached to the trips -- building memories with a new spouse, visiting an elderly relative, keeping in touch with loved ones, family vacations. I didn't hear one frivolous thing. Everybody has shoes, so according to our vacations and wardrobes we're not deep in the grips of a Depression. (But give it time.) In the classic post-apocalyptic novel "Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart, it is suggested that the group form an exploratory party. "Another curious feature was that nearly everyone wanted to go! It was the best evidence you could want as to the way in which people generally -- males, at least -- were born with itchy feet, always ready to go somewhere else and see new things." I have a spouse with itchy feet. What's he going to do when fuel prices skyrocket and a trip to the beach becomes an unthinkable extravagance, let alone the purchase of a plane ticket? Here's my vacation recommendation for you (and the spouse): Go. Go soon, while fuel is still cheap. Make your memories now. Don't load up your credit card, of course. But do find something that has meaning for you -- go to places you've always wanted see, visit people you love, do the things that are important, get a change of scenery, relax, enjoy. Keep it simple if that's what your budget allows. Help somebody peel apples or pick berries and make jam for winter. Play cards and drink wine by candlelight. Take in the sights. Make it happen. Get out there and have a GREAT time.