In 1982 Warren Least Heat Moon followed 13,000 miles of little roads around America after he lost his teaching job and separated from his wife. His was a voyage of leaving something behind and immersing himself in something new. His book from that voyage, Blue Highways, published in 1982, went with me on a different voyage. While Moon followed the blue lines on his trusty road map, that same year I followed the biggest blue highway of them all.
In the winter of 1963, my parents decided to leave their Nebraska farm and chart a new path. The family meeting that snowy Thanksgiving Day was a short one. My sister, in her 3rd year at the University of Nebraska, was home for the holiday visit. I was a junior in our small-town high school, one of 200 total students. College educated and interested in expanding their horizons - and mine - my father, looking directly at me plainly stated that we were moving to California "while we still had enough money to do so and before you get interested in farming." This decision followed three disappointing crop years on an otherwise successful and beautiful Nebraska farm. Hail, grasshoppers and drought were the main culprits, wiping out potentially profitable yields. Born and raised on a homestead farm, college educated with a degree in Agricultural Economics Dad often said if you are going to be successful at farming you have to start with lots of money and hope to have some left at the end. Apparently, we were at the end.
I didn’t really have time to think about the changes all of us were about to experience. They had visited relatives in Santa Barbara, California, and unknown to me at the time, had made plans to live and work there when Dad returned from New Guinea at the end of WWII. Those plans changed and they ended back on the generational family farm in Nebraska. We shipped a load of furniture and personal things via train to California. My sister returned to the University and I found myself sitting in the back of our car heading to California. The temperature was significantly below zero, middle of a harsh winter with blizzard warnings posted all the way through Wyoming!
Two days later I’m standing on a beach in Santa Barbara. People were enjoying themselves and not wearing many clothes. Girls in swimsuits were everywhere. Ocean waves were curling up and gently crashing on the sand. Standing in the middle of a scene I had never, ever contemplated, a moment still vivid in my mind, completely awestruck. Sure, I’d seen the ocean on maps and globes but never really grasped the beauty and immensity of it all.
I was transported all the way back to 4th grade, standing in front of a roll-down map of the world.
Our country school was on a one-acre plot in the corner of a cornfield. One teacher, 7 students, different ages and grades. We all either walked or rode a horse to school. My trek was shorter than most, less than a mile. The horse grazed on our playfield or patiently waited tied to a fence rail while our teacher tried to prepare us for a bigger world. That roll-down map played a key part in it all. It was the first time I could see how much of the planet was covered by water. Quite a surprise to a farm boy living very close to what is called the "pole of inaccessibility," i.e. the furthest geographic location to any ocean. Western Nebraska holds that honor with South Dakota.
Little did I know I was looking at my future blue highway. Our teacher did a good job of preparing me for a bigger world. My road took unexpected turns as life unfolded but curiosity, mentors, inspirational encouragement from family and friends and a roll down world map helped guide me on my journey.
When Moon embarked on his blue highway I embarked on mine, different reasons and different circumstances. Distances don't matter. HIs was 13,000 land miles. Mine was 25,000 sea miles.
It seems we were both just wanting to be present for each one of those miles. I came away from the experience truly in awe of how the oceans connect everybody and everything on the planet. Lesson learned, thanks to courageous parents, a great teacher, a roll-down map and a California beach!
Thanks to a gift from understanding friends, I have a beautiful roll down map hanging from my shop wall. It is appreciated and well used with stories to tell.
