Summer Movie: National Lampoon's Vacation

No summer movie list would be complete without the 1983 classic, "National Lampoon's Vacation" starring Chevy Chase as the inimitable Clark Griswold, Beverly D'Angelo as his long-suffering wife Ellen and Randy Quaid as the equally one-of-a-kind Cousin Eddie.

Oh, come on, so it's not Shakespeare. I defy you to say you didn't laugh.

And you repeated lines from that movie, too, didn't you! Just like you have lines from "Christmas Vacation" memorized, right? To be honest, while most families read Clement Moore's "Night Before Christmas," our family's tradition included the Griswold family.

What we'd really prefer is to know what films say "summer" to you. Share your favorite film list with jennifer.marangos@patch.com and we'll try to feature some of them in the weeks to come!

But I digress.

The original "Vacation," about a fun family trip is full of memorable one-liners:

* "I don't know why they call this stuff hamburger helper. It does just fine by itself, huh? I like it better than tuna helper myself, don't you, Clark?"

* "You'll be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of you're ____!" (Sorry, can't even finish that one. But be honest. I really don't have to, do I?"

* "Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that."

Ah yes, always the master of understatement, Clark loads up the Ellen, and kids Rusty and Audrey in the "family truckster" and heads across country to Wally World.

Along the way they have disturbingly hilarious episodes with their dog, Aunt Edna and the very creepy children who belong to Cousin Eddy and his seemingly normal wife, Catherine.

But it wouldn't be funny if everything turned out okay once the Griswold's arrived at Wally World's gates, would it?

Put your hands on this classic and enjoy.