December 4-5, 1971: A Visit With Uncle Bud in Detroit
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I was lucky enough to get some leave right at Christmas, so I drove home to see my family. Of course, we all drove up to Judy's for Christmas Day.

I would actually end up driving from Fort Harrison down to Charlotte a few times, always taking the same route.

I would head southeast to Cincinnati, head south through Lexington and Knoxville, and then take I-40 east through Asheville and down out of the Appalachians and then southeast to Charlotte. All of this was a full day's drive.

But in future years, I would also make the same trip a number of times- but from Chicago, not Indianapolis. Eventually, when my finances improved, I would begin to eschew the drive in favor of flying.

But now, in December of 1971, I drove the route for the very first time.

Although I of course spent a day or two in Charlotte with Mom and Dad, the highlight of the holiday trip was our drive up to my sister's house in Burlington on Christmas Day. That is where I took all the pictures from this particular trip home. If you want to see more about where my sister is living at the moment, you can go back a few album pages; I won't repeat that information here. Let me just get to the pictures from Christmas, 1971:

Here are my mom, Judy, Ted and Jennifer at Judy's house in Burlington, opening gifts on Christmas Day.

Here are Jennifer and Ted playing with some of their gifts.

Ted and Jennifer are playing with a little plastic train set that Ted got for Christmas.

Jennifer got a toy phone for Christmas, and Ted is probably telling someone that their automobile warranty has expired.

Not to be outdone, my mother took her turn with the toy phone, imitating Ernestine the phone operator, one of Lily Tomlin's characters. I thought she did a pretty good job:

Here's the only picture I happened to take that included my brother-in-law Bob Barbour. He is working with the train set that Ted got for Christmas.

Actually, much of the train set actually belonged to my Dad and then to me, but we decided that Ted should have it to continue the Dougherty love affair with toy trains. My father uses the HO scale trains now anyway, and doesn't have much use for the old Lionel set.

And while I still get some pleasure out of putting the track together and running the trains around, I have neither the time nor the space for a train set.

(Picture at left) This, of course, is my nephew Ted.       (Picture at right) Here are Ted, me, and Jennifer leaving Judy's house on our way to Bob's mother's house for Christmas dinner. The dinner is a tradition with the Barbours, and we were happy to be included.

Mom, Dad, and I had an enjoyable time at Judy's. Dad quite likes Bob, and of course both my parents are happy to have some grandkids. God knows when (or if) they might get some from me. Mom and Dad got a room at the Best Western in Burlington, while I stayed with Judy and Bob. We headed back to Charlotte the next day, and I left the day after that to head back to Fort Harrison and bring the year to a close.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	December 4-5, 1971: A Visit With Uncle Bud in Detroit
	Return to the Index for 1971