A memory that came back to me as David and I rode from southern Virginia to Northern Georgia on this book tour. I am eight-years old .It is June,1966. We are in a blue station wagon, filled with plants and cats and little brothers. The infant is in a basket in the front seat, and my three and six-year-old brothers are beside me in the back seat, equipped with bucket to pee in. None of us have seat belts. The brothers have been sleeping on my lap, but now they are awake, and we are all squirming and making a ruckus.
My mother, in the passenger seat, is terrified of this move from Boston to North Carolina. She has reason. In a few days we will intersect with participants in a Klan Rally in Raleigh. But now we are driving into new territory and the flora and fauna are exciting to her naturalist and scientist heart. She grew up in Brooklyn and has never been out of the northeast.
“Look kids,” she says, “how big the trees are! I have never seen trees that tall!” I stick my head out the window and try to see if I can see the tops of the pines. I cannot
And now it is, 2022, and as we drive south, I exult over and over, “Look at the trees!”
Anne Winkler-Morey is the author of Allegiance to Winds and Waters: Bicycling the Political Divides of the United States. annewinklermorey.com She writes the Minneapolis Interview Project, turtleroad.org For a book reading/signing event or any questions/comments contact her at awmpedalstory@gmail.com