I've been sharing life stories with my children and grandchildren. Thought you might like this one.
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August 1964
My hubby had been in the Far East on a tour of duty with the Navy while I was back in my home town in Alabama, with the four children. His ship was due to return to Concord, California in Sept. so I decided to take us five out to greet him when he returned.
I'd had major abdominal surgery the first week of July so I was still not 'back to normal' when I took off in our station wagon with luggage, four kids, me and my aunt (who insisted I needed help with my 15 month old) How could I possibly drive with a baby that small needing my attention? She never had kids, she just didn't know how we moms multi-task all the time.
I'd driven out of Alabama, then crossed Mississippi, Louisanna, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. After I had entered California I stopped to gas-up in Needles.
A guy ambles up to the gas pump, takes one quizzical look at my 'female' brood and asks where I am headed. "West on 40", I answer.
"M'am, bad time of day to be driving across the desert."
We continued to chat, him giving me warnings about the dangers of being in the desert in the daytime. 'The heat gets up to 100 , 120 sometimes,' he says.
Then he says, 'M'am, if I was you, I'd just check into a motel during the heat and head across the desert tonight."
I look at my four lively children. They've been cooped up in the car for days. You think they are going to be quiet while I try to sleep in a dadgone motel. I would need to stay awake during the night and I knew that was not going to happen.
I grinned at him. Thanked him for his advice, cranked my car and drove out onto the highway. We were about to cross the Mojave desert... in the middle of the day...
Oh, I forgot to tell you. My dashboard instrument panel had taken out on me sometime back. I could not listen to the radio, could not tell if the car was running hot or needed gas, the windshield wipers didn't work (not that we'd need them out here in the desert) but I said a little prayer and drove on. I was either a raving lunatic or a daredevil. You figure out which one. 😏
It is about 150 miles between Needles and our next town, Barstow, on the other side of the desert. That doesn't seem like much but those were the days without cellphone, my car did not have air-conditioning, and there were no service stations, no farms, houses, nothing if I ran into a problem. We saw but little traffic. I was traveling on a wing and a prayer!!
The road seemed endless, straight, flat, desolate. Nothing much to see except scrubgrass, some scrawny cactus, a dry 'wash' here and there and mountains in the distance which we never got to. The movement of the car kept a nice breeze (warm but not too hot) coming in the open windows.
I finally pulled into Barstow. We had done it. The Man Upstairs kept his eye on us, that's for sure.
