The Daytona Beach Incident

Last night, I was awake for a long time in the middle of the night. These days, I wake up a lot, but I can usually go back to sleep. Not last night. There was a big loud storm, and I was up for two or three hours. I tried to hypnotize myself back to sleep, but it didn't work, so I finally gave up and decided to let stream of consiousness take over and see what would happen. Stream of consiousness can take you to strange and unexpected places, and last night, for no reason I can think of, it took me to a trip to Florida I took when I was 5 or 6 years old. My grandparents frequented Florida, and this particular time, my aunt, uncle, and two cousins joined them and I was invited along. My family didn't go because my brother was too little, and I guess my parents had to work. I don't remember a whole lot about the trip, but here is what I DO remember:

We rented a house a couple of blocks from the beach. The house was very weird to me because instead of grass, the whole yard was rocks. The house also had a waterbed, which I thought was SO cool, but I didn't get to sleep on it. I am pretty sure I slept on the couch in the living room. One day, we went to the beach, which I don't really remember. Now, I need to tell you that when I was a little kid, I had really good hair. It was long and sort of wavy and thick and soft. This was, of course, many years before I was struck by lightning, turning my hair to frizzfrocks, which has only been out-done by my current pregnancy-induced hay-head. But that's another story. Upon returning from the beach, my good kid hair was full of tangles because of the wind and salt-water. My Aunt Sarah decided to comb the tangles out. This part, I remember well. The conversation went something like this:

OW!
Hold still, Tara.
OW!
Hold still, Tara.
You're hurting me!
Hold still!
OW!
Patty's (my mom) gonna kill me if we have to cut your hair.
I want my mom!
Hold still!
OW!

This went on for at least half an hour, as those were some pretty stubborn tangles, and my aunt didn't have the good tangle-getting-out skills that my mom had. She was pulling and yanking and cussing and it really really hurt. I was not happy.

The next day, it was time to go to the beach again. It was then that I was informed I would be wearing my grandma's shower cap, so that any subsequent tangles could be avoided. Even at my young age, I knew this was a serious fashion no-no, but I was just a kid and did what I was told. Somewhere there are photos of me on the beach in a shower cap. It was SO humiliating. After that, I decided I wanted to go home, and I made a lot of noise about it, demanding that we must cut the trip short and return to Indiana, where people didn't force other people to wear ridiculous headgear in public places. I didn't get my way, and I am pretty sure that may behavior caused my grandpa to stop speaking to me for several hours. Later that night, we made up and watched the Major League Baseball All-Star game together, rooting for the National League because we were Reds fans. That is my best memory from the trip.

We also went to Disney, but to be honest, it didn't make much of an impression on me. All I can remember is my cousin Curt whining to go on Space Mountain over and over again. I think he got his way, too.