Bold Moves Are the Best Moves

Life was simpler for parents in the eighties: kids weren’t overbooked with activities, they played with friends outdoors, and no one planned expensive Spring Break trips 6 months in advance.

Nowadays families navigate mandatory sporting practices, book expensive Air B&Bs with private pools and ocean views, and travel for hours to make memories during one week in March. They also now have social media to record and share the memories.

During this recent Spring Break, our teenage son monitored friends’ locations as they went dark after being tracked at MCI airport, then reappeared hours later at popular vacation spots across the country. You could hear the jealousy in his voice as he updated us on each destination.

“Well, they’ll soon see you’re in ‘Doodah,’” we reassured him. (My brother informed me I’m showing my age referring to Wichita, KS, as “Doodah,” because the kids now call it “The ICT.”) While we’ve participated in the extravagant Spring Break hoopla before, this year we kept it simple. We bought tickets to the NCAA Men’s Regional Tournament less than 3 hours away.

This was much like the Spring Break trips we took when I was his age. They usually coincided with the NAIA tournament in Kansas City, and the Fort Hays State Tigers were guaranteed to make it (unlike our Jayhawks in Doodah.) We usually stayed at the HOJO (not sure what the kids call the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge these days.) Our days were spent at the no-frills indoor pool or in the motel arcade and nights at Kemper Arena watching basketball. We sometimes  shopped at Bannister Mall or played miniature golf at Cool Crest depending on the tournament results. Those trips are some of my fondest memories.

I’ll admit much of the fun came from having family friends at the same hotel, and I also had siblings. The difference for our son is he only had us, and we never went to the pool. It was 72 hours of togetherness with only an occasional glance at his phone to check basketball scores.

We explored Wichita’s Old Town, and I witnessed how much the city has changed over the last 30 years, since my family lived there. We even drove by our old neighborhood. We had ice cream and visited a candy store. One of the highlights was discovering an arcade filled with old school games from the eighties like Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, and Burger Time. While he mocked the simplicity of the graphics, he loved following us from game to game as we called out our favorites or ones we played well, or at least my husband played well. He even got to post his initials in the top 5 of Galaga.

I don’t know how much our son shared with friends about his trip, but he already researched March Madness locations for 2026. He also created the top 5 funniest moments of the weekend on the road trip home, so I’m hopeful someday he’ll look back at Doodah as one of his most memorable Spring Breaks, just like I remember 1985.