Becoming a Man in the Shadowlands: a Survivor's Story
Copyright© 2019 by Dennis Randall
Chapter 5: The Long Ride
Each year, within a few days of the end of classes at Ithaca College, we would pack up Nelly, the family’s 1952 Nash Rambler, and set out for my grandmother’s home in Kingston, Massachusetts.
In the days before the interstate, it was a grueling four hundred mile journey on narrow back roads and two lane highways. The trip took about fourteen hours depending on traffic and pit stops. We called it “The Long Ride.” Preceding each trip was a lively discussion about whether or not Nelly Nash would survive the trek.
The journey to Kingston was to drop me off to live with my grandmother for the entire ten weeks of summer.
I loved the long ride, and the Mohawk Trail was one the high points. For some reason I was convinced that if I watched carefully, I could spot actual Mohawk Indians in the forests along the highway. I never did but I never stopped looking.
My father would drive until fatigue finally overwhelmed him. He would pull off the road. He and Joyce would recline the front seats and fall asleep. My sister slept in the back seat.
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