Where I’ve been…

Prior to September 1965

Have you seen those colorful USA maps showing the states someone has visited? I always find them interesting, so I thought I’d do one of them. But what about parameters? Especially since I believe I’ve at least traveled through every  U.S. state now, plus many Canadian provinces too. So I thought I’d try to give it at least a little more definition. So, to begin, I’m depicting the U.S. states that I know I’ve visited before graduating high school and beginning college in East Lansing, Michigan in September 1965. This is based on what I “know” from my admittedly poor memory.

Some are where I lived while growing up: born(1947) in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Mobile, Alabama; Staten Island, New York; Ft. Defiance, Arizona; Pikeville, Kentucky; and Morehead, Kentucky. The others are where I have a memory: visits to our grandparents farm in West Virginia; driving the Pennsylvania Turnpike on the way to the World’s Fair in New York when I was eighteen; traveling by train and bus to Keene, NH then hitchhiking to Rindge, NH. Before moving from New York to Ft Defiance, I went with my father to Brooklyn where he purchased a new Ford station wagon. Soon after, we traveled across the country with it. I remember visiting Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon and Rocky Mtn. NP during that trip. While living in Arizona we visited Los Angeles (Disneyland) once and Gallup, NM often. Once we were in Albuquerque for a week or two.

Traveling during that time was usually by car, but sometimes by train. We obviously traveled through many other states too, but I haven’t included them unless I have a specific memory of it. For example, our move from New York to Arizona was by car and I have a vague memory of lunches prepared on the tailgate of the car and stopping at motels at night. I can only speculate about which states we traveled through even though it’s pretty obvious. Before beginning school in East Lansing, I spent most of the summer with my Uncle Willis and Aunt Evelyn Fogg in Rindge, New Hampshire. Willis had a truck he used to bring gasoline and other goods to his business and he helped me get a chauffeurs license to drive it occasionally. Mostly I rode along, but I recall one experience driving it through a Boston suburb(?). And he and I once were picking up cases of motor oil at a truck terminal in Providence, RI. I was confused by someone there asking me about something to do with “the hall”. Years later I finally figured out he was referring to a “union hall” where jobs would be doled out by seniority to union members, not to 18 yr. old kids.