I love America!

In August 1965, Allen and I were going to summer school at Idaho State University. There were about two weeks left in the term. One morning, my mom called to say that they were leaving for New York City in one hour. It was rather sudden, which totally describes my father and his spur of the moment great ideas. My mother described how she had to hurry as dad had just let her know of these plans, and she had much to do to get her and my 2 younger brothers ready for the grand adventure. Then, as an afterthought, she asked, "Would you and Allen like to come along?" She was, I'm sure, just being her usual nice self and knew that we couldn't go as we were both in summer school, so she was safe in asking. I told her no because I still had two papers to write, etc., etc, etc. When I hung up the phone, Allen asked me what mom had invited us to do. When I told him about the offer of going to New York, he said, "Call her back and tell her we'll go."

And, so, that is how in the hottest part of the summer, my dad, my mom, my 2 brothers - age 11 and 15- Allen and I and my trusty little portable typewriter, drove in a sedan (no air conditioning) across the country to New York. There were six of us jammed in that car and this was long before the days of hand-held games, books on tape, music CDs, or anything other than ourselves to amuse us.

On Thursday of this week, Allen and I returned to visit the Statue of Liberty, and there we reflected on that long-ago trip. We talked about how my parents probably hadn't really planned on us tagging along; what an added expense and added bodies in the car! But, so like them, they never said a word and just lovingly took us with them. It was that trip 43 years ago when I first remember seeing the Statue of Liberty. It struck me then, as it does now....how grateful I am to live in America. And, as Allen and I talked about my parents, we both felt a debt of enormous gratitude for their goodness, their generosity, their love. Thank you, dear dad and mom, for that trip of a lifetime and for teaching me of the blessing of living in AMERICA!