"I Guess I Get The Hump?" Recalling The Road Trips Of Our Youth

  A few months ago, our flight from Burlington, VT to Newark got cancelled due to weather.  As a family who likes to consider all of our options, we headed to the car rental counter. The idea was to get the Suburban we'd just returned, reload it and head out.Unfortunately, we were told that the only car we could take and then leave at Newark airport was an Explorer with no roof rack.  So, I did the calculation; five adults, eight pieces of luggage and one snowboard.  Could it be done?  How quickly we forget..."I guess I get the hump?" my daughter asked, already accepting her fate.  (What was an actual hump in my day, is now defined as that narrow middle seat, usually featuring a crack down the middle and built for someone three inches wide) "It's all yours," I responded, enjoying her distress just the teeniest bit. For you see, when I was a kid, the hump was often my designated spot on family road trips.When I was lucky enough to miss out on the hump, I got to sit on my mom's sweaty lap or stand with my head out of the sunroof, propped on the emergency break handle in the front seat of my parents' Volkswagen Beetle.  In the late 70's, our vehicle was bigger for our nightmarish ten- hour trips to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and so I was promoted to sitting atop the cooler, wedged between boxes of other groceries, my feet resting on suitcases.While our family vehicles did get bigger, they still lacked those features we all take for granted today.  Ours had no air-conditioning, DVD entertainment systems, seat belts or, in my case, real seats!  My parents' idea of a family vehicle for 5 passengers was a Mustang.  When we arrived at a destination, we emerged from our car with the skin from the backs of our legs still stuck to the vinyl, and our hair plastered to our sweaty, sticky heads.  We were nauseous, smelly and had marks all over us from pinching and punching our siblings, who were so conveniently within reach in those days.  My brother even earned a few from mom who had reached over the front to smack him at least once.As our modern day and spoiled family of five crammed ourselves into our Explorer; a snowboard precariously aimed at the back of my son's head, my daughter securely on the hump with a seat belt anchor pressed uncomfortably into her right butt cheek, and my knees tucked ever so closely under my chin, I regaled them with stories of my own childhood road trips.  They rolled their eyes and asked to hear about the one where I walked to school every day in two feet of snow and no shoes.  Such ingrates...Although we had phones for texting and for playing Candy Crush instead of the license plate game, and we had iPods instead of singing along to the radio together, at least we did it.  I think everyone should have to cram in for a road trip every now and again; it's good for the soul.  And everyone needs to spend some time on the hump...What are your family road trip stories?  My brother-in-law tells the most hilarious ones of single day drives from NJ to Cape Cod to watch Little League games all while riding on the ledge of the back window of his family's car.  That poor guy didn't even get the hump! Any of you get the hump or worse in your day?