Thursday evening at approximately 4:30pm, Spring Courtright and myself, Erinn J Hale rolled into the great big industrial parking lot that is home to the warehouse of BabyLegs. In preparation of our homecoming we safely secured our cowboy hats (mine, straw-like and from Orlando, Spring's red and from some random shop in New Mexico), inserted Billy Ocean's Greatest Hits (don't even ask me why I happen to have that silly CD), rolled down all of the windows, and began singing along "Hey! Hey! You! You! Get into my car! [Who Me?] Yes You! Get into my car! Whooooaaaaaa [Enter horn section]". Our adrenaline was pumping, our laughter was as plentiful as the day we left, everything was pretty much the same except for all of the finite details we noticed had changed with the sun and experience. We arrived a bit wiser of the road and the people who live along it. We felt older, noticing the more defined lines that have formed deeper grooves across our foreheads. Our nails were dirty from the countless digging in boxes for events and fueling up every four hours along the road. The whole experience seemed surreal and at that moment, greeted by our loving BabyLegs co-workers, we weren't even sure we had gone anywhere but in our minds.
It has been a day and a half now that we've been back. I miss my buddy Spring. I hope there are more adventures awaiting us. What an honor it was that BabyLegs afforded us this once in a lifetime opportunity. The trip was no vacation from anything except from our normal, daily lives, and boy did we work our behinds off! Every chance we had, however, we allowed our love of people, fascination in their stories, and pure, youthful curiousity to lead us into shops and restaurants along the way further exposing us to a new understanding of the very town in which we stood.
Waves of memories continue to flash across my mind. I've been trying to write everything down before those memories fade into the file cabinet of my mind. If I can offer any bit of advice to anyone, it would be to explore the country at some point in your life. The U.S. is HUGE and full of people waiting to fill you full of their life history. These are the people who make this country fascinating. We're so resilient. I keep thinking about the server in Buffalo, TX who works in a BBQ cafe where you can get the $4.99 buffet lunch of mustard greens, sweet potatoes, fried okra, a variety of prepared meats, and more! The cafe's walls are covered with painted saws; an artist's recollection of a snowy brook, handmade wood crafts and knitted delights. Near the entrance was a glass case full of children's plastic toys and "Tammie's Homemade Peanut Brittle", of which we bought two as gifts. We were encouraged to support a couple of young girls' fundraising attempt for "Jumprope for Life". Frames of young children lined the tops of the cases, and as we learned those photos will forever contain their youth as three of them passed away in two separate car accidents. Only one of the grand-children, who was 1 at the time, survived, but as the doctor declared, she'd never be able to walk or talk. As Betty's God is her witness, her "grand-baby" is now 3 years old and is walking with the grace of therapy and is also beginning to talk. This woman's pain was so deep-set in her eyes, but it was incredible to see how much this little child represented everything in which Betty continued to believe. All of her faith, all of her hope for the future rests with her grand child. The story makes me want to cry, but the fact that Betty was able to stand there and tell us about it without breaking up further illustrated her strength and resilience. I continued talking with her and Spring, looking back with a little head nod to me, went out to the truck to gather up BabyLegs and goodies for Betty to take back to her miracle baby and everyone else she thought might appreciate such a thing. She hugged us both and blessed us and we walked out the door feeling quite pleased with ourselves and equally so humbled.
The people we met let us in. It was as though they'd been waiting for a couple of strangers to show up one day just so that they could share their stories. It's just a shame there aren't more people to take the time and listen.
Utah Philips was our road philosopher. Bio Lyle from Seattle gave us a CD that's a collection of his live recordings of which Ani DiFranco took her favorite and included her world of sound and song. His stories and words stay with me as we played the CD mulitple times along the way. This was the excerpt that gave us goose bumps and helped to define our underlining mission on this journey:
"Time is an enormous, long river, and I'm standing in it, just as you're standing in it. My elders are the tributaries, and everything they thought and every struggle
they went through and everything they gave their lives to, and every song they
created, and every poem that they laid down flows down to me - and if I take
the time to ask, and if I take the time to see, and if I take the time to reach
out, I can build that bridge between my world and theirs. I can reach down
into that river and take out what I need to get through this world."
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