Can't Keep Her Down on the Farm

For a farm girl, I've been a lotsa places my dad would have loved to see, I think. Perhaps, Mother, too. She loved to go for a car ride now and then. Daddy was tied to the farm, his crops and twice-a-day milking. Mother's asthma and the expense of it may have been prohibitive factors. Daddy did manage to leave the farm once to drive us to Nyssa, Oregon to see my sister, MerLyn and her family. During my years of knowing him, he mostly enjoyed 'travel' in simple ways closer to home, checking out farms and crops as he drove, making time to enjoy the view and the journey.

It may have been Mother's first time on a train when she and I rode the rails to visit MerLyn in Seattle. I remember a very long ride, no food, and nothing to drink along the way. I suspect that Mother either didn't know how to use the dining car or she didn't have money for nice-to-haves.

My brother, Marion, was running the farm in Weston. He had been named my legal guardian when Daddy died. I'm guessing that the purpose for me and Mother spending summertime with family away from the farm might have been to give Marion and Evelyn a rest. Some travel took us through parts of Wyoming, Montana, Northern Idaho and to Oregon's beautiful Rogue River and Crater Lake. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time and took my first step outside the U.S. across Canada's Northwestern border. Although I couldn't understand a word of Shakespeare's play performed at Ashland's famous outdoor theater, I loved the costumes, the staging, the whole event. Return trips home to Weston sometimes took us through the famous Redwoods of California and the bright lights of Reno, Nevada. Seems a crazy, random, happenstance that I ended up living in Reno, as an adult--Sparks, Nevada actually, right next door to Reno and just a short drive to the Nevada/California jewel, Lake Tahoe.

On one such trip to fetch us, Keith brought his oldest daughter along for the ride. We stopped for breakfast on our trek to Eugene, Oregon. Anna Kare wanted a tuna sandwich. "Sorry, we don't have any." There was no talking her out of it. Keith suggested Mother have an egg. She refused to let him spend "good money" paying such a price for one egg! We were back in the car in no time at all!

Our first air flight took me and Mother from Medford to Seattle. As we waited to board a small, puddle jumper, Keith began rehearsing with Mother what she was to do if the wings fell off the plane. "Listen to those engines, too", he said, "You want to be sure they're still going!" "And hold your feet up off the floor when the plane's trying to take off!" Mother surely knew Keith was pullin' her leg but as soon as we boarded, she had an asthma attack.

Mother and I tried flying again some years later. I surprised her with tickets to visit my sister. Mother often voiced a yearning to see her more often. Our tickets did not put us in 1st class but the stewardess did when the smoker fumes got to Mother. We had that section all to ourselves, right up front, just behind the cockpit. During the flight, the cabin door opened. The captain asked if we'd like to see the view. It was breathtaking, a bit of heaven right before our very eyes! The captain pointed to things in the night sky and shared with us why he loved piloting. Mother's wheezing calmed, each breath came a little easier. Barbara Streisand sang it true, "On a clear night, you can see forever".

Seattle to Salem, Oregon by Greyhound bus, an organ recital on State Capitol grounds synchronized with dancing water fountains. Never seen that before! Next stop, Pocatello, Idaho to visit my baby brother. Sylvan's almost 10 years older than me but he's the youngest of five brothers.

The disclaimer included in notes made in previous writings describing some of my high school road trips, says, "I'm writing these details for my kids so they will know that I was not always an old woman." There were trips to attend the Idaho FHA Conventions in Burley and Boise, Farm Bureau for Youth Power Congress, also in Boise, the latter won by me writing an essay! The 'Mr. MacDreamy' of high school music at West Side High that year, sent me and a classmate to Walla Walla, Washington to compete for a music scholarship, then sent me to sing with an 'All-State' choir in Blackfoot. The fourth year Seminary class took a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. For some, this was their first time out of Cache Valley. We took the city tour, then met with Alexander Schriener, Tabernacle organist at the time, for our own private recital. He called me from our group, to sit on this famous organ's bench amidst the multiple keyboards and foot pedals, and the many stops. Big thrill! Some of the most fun I had while on the road traveling in high school was to away team sport's games with Ruth Ann. She and I were in the Pep Club, rode the bus to wherever, cheered ourselves hoarse, and ate junk food going and coming.

Lorraine had a car. She, Ruth Ann and I shared an apartment in Salt Lake. We drove to Vernal, Utah one weekend. "Where?" Planning the trip and the act of driving out of town, reading a map, staying in a motel and taking pictures felt like high excitement to us, at the time. We had to admit that once we'd seen a few old dinosaur bones and replicas of dinos, shared a pizza, and bowled a game, there wasn't much more to do in Vernal. The trip home got a little more exciting detouring around road construction. We ended up in the middle of nowhere, across the Montana state line.

Lorraine and I took in all the tourist sights we could pack into the week days before Ruth Ann and my cousin, Leone, joined us for a long weekend. San Francisco, Carmel, and Monterey. Lorraine and I made stops at the Mission Delores, Candlestick Park, Telegraph Hill, Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge and Park, Cliff House, Seal Rock, The Japanese Tea Gardens and the Aquarium. We couldn't read the menu at Omar Kahian's. Our cute waiter ordered the meal for us. Delicious! There was nothing I could afford in Gumps but found a store selling 17 kinds of licorice, imported even! We got lost on city buses, took cable cars to the Warf, played barefoot on white, sandy beaches. The four of us were on board for the Bay cruise and the picturesque 17-mile drive. Leone signed us up for a night club tour, something she said was necessary for our maturity and sophistication. The tour included a lovely dinner in one of San Fran's famous, old hotels (the name escapes me), a set at the Purple Onion where some then-famous entertainers got their start and a performance at Phenochios. I was getting so sophisticated, what with all that 7-Up and maraschino cherries, I fell asleep during the show!

A honeymoon, the draft notice final hurrah involving Grand Canyon, a summer in Europe, sight seeing business trips--Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, New York plus a day South of the border, travel through the eyes of kids and grandkids--kaleidoscopic for all senses. What's nice about traveling? Coming home! That's a part of who I am.