Highway 61 Revisited

My friend, John Freeman and I have been friends for sixty-one years. He recently visited Chapel Hill and stayed with Carol and me for a few days. John travels in a large, solar-equipped, self-contained van in which he can drive, sleep, eat, camp, stay warm, and entertain himself as he travels across the country. I don’t know how many cross-country trips John has taken in his van but I think he has stopped by Chapel Hill in the van three times over the years.

John and I met in Cub Scouts when we were eight years old. We lived on the same street and our houses were only a few doors away from each other.  We were close friends in those days and spent a lot of time just hanging out at his house. John’s mother was a single parent. I called her Aunt Mildred. She was a profoundly good person but being a single parent in the fifties was no easier than it is today - just more unusual. Perhaps out of necessity, Mildred was a good deal more flexible in her supervision than my parents.

When I was about fourteen I started going on long road trips with John and Aunt Mildred. We traveled to the Wisconsin Dells, to Colorado, to San Francisco and many other interesting places in between. I remember stopping once in Springfield, Missouri to visit the gravesite of John’s father. Each trip left me with warm, positive memories of people and places I would not have otherwise known.

John was (and still is) one year older than me. When we were kids that one year made a difference. I looked up to him. His quirky interests and behaviors were far different than those of other kids I knew. John was aware that he was different and I admired the confidence with which he embraced his own unique world view. Without being aware of it, John broadened my perspective about life as a kid. He continued to do that as we became teenagers and young adults.

There is something about John’s consistency after all these years that I respect. He still has quirky interests and an unusual lifestyle. He still enjoys taking long cross country road trips. I suspect it is getting harder but John continues to embrace his own unique world view.

If you are curious about John’s most recent trip you can read about it at http://whufu.com/?page=log&type=id&key=56.