One summer when I was about 10, my 13 year-old sister, Sandi, and I spent a week at Ocean Beach Park in New London, CT, vacationing with our father. Earlier that year, we had moved from CT to Schenectady, NY with our mother, who had been promoted to store manager of a ladies' clothing store in Schenectady. Daddy had temporarily remained living and working in CT, and although he spent weekends with us, our parents decided it would be nice for Sandi and me to get to spend an entire week with him at the beach. Mother drove us to CT and enjoyed the beach with us for a couple of days but then had to go back to work. I remember after she left, Sandi, Daddy and I had a great time playing miniature golf every day, swimming in the ocean and in the salt-water pool and just having a lot of fun. All too soon, our vacation was over and it was time to head back to Schenectady. Arrangements were made for Sandi and me to travel by Greyhound Bus, and I can still almost hear my father's words as he dropped us off at the bus station and gave us our instructions: "The bus will make a stop for lunch at a little soda shop in Great Barrington. The bus driver will let you know when the bus will be leaving and when it's time to get back on the bus. Don't worry; the bus will not leave without you."  Famous last words!

Sandi and I had some money left after we paid for our lunch, so we decided to buy some candy for the rest of our bus ride. As we stood agonizing over which of the many delicious candy bars to buy, I noticed a bus pulling away that sure looked just like our bus. As Sandi paid for our candy, I nudged her to say I thought our bus had just left, but she reminded me of what Daddy had told us: the bus would not leave without us. It was certainly true that the bus driver had not even come into the shop, let alone announce that the bus would be leaving. We took our stash of candy and headed out to the street where we discovered ... you guessed it ... the bus was gone! We panicked for a couple of minutes when we realized we were stranded. Then we moved into problem-solving mode. We gave back all of our newly-purchased candy and got a refund so that we could use the pay phone at the back of the soda shop. I remember it was a challenge, but Sandi finally was able to reach our mother to let her know of our dilemma. Boy, was Mother furious! I am certain she was mostly angry with the bus driver, but she definitely wasn't particularly pleased with us, either. "Candy? You missed the bus because you were buying candy?" Sandi and I spent the next couple of hours pacing up and down the main street in Great Barrington waiting for Mother to come rescue us. What relief I felt when I finally spotted our car coming around the corner!

I think we learned some valuable lessons from this experience about problem-solving and decison-making and how to work together to achieve a successful outcome.  It was a lesson we would re-learn many times over the coming years.