Beech Tree News Network

Last week, Garey and I were reminiscing about the years we spent in a moving vehicle with our kids.  We’re getting ready to take a road trip with our granddaughter in tow.  Things are so different now.  For one, we have a TV we can hook up to a power outlet in the car.  I really wish we had had a TV back in the day when we were on the road every couple of months back and forth to Corner, Alabama, not to mention long trips to the beach.  

Some kids travel well, that was Nikki, after her initial bout with colic.  As she got older, she would put plug her earphones into a Walkman and remain in her own little world for most of the trip.  Natalie was one who sat in the back seat asking questions the entire time, to which Garey made sure to give snarky answers.  To the “what state are we in?” question, Garey would answer, “confusion.”  When she asked “are we there yet?” he would answer, “yeah, I’ll pull over and you can get out.”  Garey’s flippancy didn’t help much, trust me, although his snappy comebacks have proven to be more entertaining as the years pass.

On our trips to Alabama, we usually left after work on Friday evenings, Garey and I both dog-tired, driving the five-hour trip into the late hours of the night.  Arriving with just enough strength to pull out the hide-a-bed in the living room sofa for the girls then collapsing ourselves into the guest room bed.  Sometime in the early AM hours, our sleep would be interrupted by a disturbance in the bird dog pen behind the house—I think there were eight dogs at the time—and Garey’s dad, J.D., yelling out the back door to “shut up that racket down there!”

On Saturday morning, we would be rewarded with the smell of fresh coffee, bacon frying on the stove, and home-made biscuits baking in the oven.  Saturday was recovery day before the arduous trip back on Sunday.  We would usually leave after lunch, driving through the various states of confusion until we arrived back home, just in time to feed and bathe the girls and to make sure they were rested up in time for the next school day.

Those were some of the hardest times of my life, but through those times, we grew as a family.  We joked with one another, we argued with one another, and we helped one another.  We learned patience, and we came to the understanding that each of us had traits that made us unique, yet also helped us contribute to the whole of our family.

Recently, I talked to Nikki about a trip we were planning to take to visit her and her husband, Thomas.  She told me she had a temporary house guest, a co-worker who was moving to the west coast.  “I can’t wait for you to meet her, Mom,” she said.  “She’s so different.  You’re going to love her!”

It was one of those statements that make you say, “Maybe we did something right.”  Our children learned to not simply accept others differences, but to embrace those differences.  They learned that lesson in part from a moving car on the road to Alabama.  

Sometimes, the most important lessons you learn in life, you learn when you are forced into situations in which there is no escape.