Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tag Tuesday: Travel

I grew up in the Tennessee valley of the Appalachian mountains. We are descended from Scots-Irish immigrants, and it is said that we are “mountain, stay-at-home folk.” So traveling was not very common, unless it was to visit my grandparents 90 miles away in Kentucky.  It seemed like such a long trip in the early 70s, with no freeway or interstates, so on this tag I tried to capture what I saw and did as a child on that very long trip.

We played the “state” game, where you try to be the first one to find a license plate from each state, and the ABC game where we vied to be first to find all the letters of the alphabet on billboards and highway signs).  Holiday Inn and Stuckey’s were iconic in the South and the Midwest, as were Shell gas stations, so these signs were very familiar to us. I used Google Images to find the graphics, and I was lucky enough to find this postcard for the base, with words that I probably would have written in my diary:

I copied a variety of images into Libre Office Draw (free, open source software that is like Microsoft Office),  resized, printed, cut, aged, distressed, trimmed, and glazed for the final result.  I made the match book by cutting and folding and popping out the pieces with foam tape. The pin on the tag is just like the pins they would give you at the city pool, the number of which matched the basket where you had put your towel and flipflops. I loved those little pins.

Glad you could take a trip down memory lane with me!
                                                                                                                      Laura

8 comments:

Carmen said...

Ha! I used to play those same games on road trips when I was little... :-)

Anonymous said...

Very pretty! We used to play an alphabet game like this: (A) My name is Annie, I'm going to Alabama on an Airplane. (B) My name is Betty, going to Bermuda on a Boat... My kids still play this one. Gets tough when you get stuck with Q and X :)

Lynne Moncrieff said...

What strikes me as being the most wonderful aspect of this tag, other than being of such a fabulous composition and so well thought out, is the memories it obviously conjured up for you.
Wishes
Lynne
P.S. Do you happen to know from which part of Scotland your heritage is from?

Aimee at Refresh-Renew... said...

Love the way this looks so vintage!-aimee

Ivy and Elephants said...

I love it, a great way to mark a vacation!
Hugs,
Patti

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson said...

So cute Laura! I played both of those games as a child and then played them with my children. I still like playing traveling games. As we were driving from Spain to Portugal my hubby, daughter, son in law, and I named all of the states and their capitols.
hugs,
Jann

Tea in the Library said...

This tag is one of my all time favorites. A funny thing about the pins. A day badge at the beach when I was a kid was a little square of fabric with pinking sheared edges hanging from a tiny pin. My friend and I used to hoard those pins and fabric scraps. Amazing the things you treasure as a child. Finding treasure in small things as an adult - that's a gift. A pleasure to visit as always!

E said...

This is a great piece reminds me of my family travels when I was a kid in the 60s. How fun to piece together tiny fragments of your memory and hold them in your hand. Merry Christmas, E