That’s an astute observation
I recall being with my mom in early summer on I 40 coming from Memphis where I took her to view antiques and heading back to Murfreesboro for her and Music City for me....I lived in town...in an old hunting cabin that had been part of Woodlawn plantation long ago....in the woods on stilts surrounded by Belle Meade basically.....two of my spawn were conceived either there or damn close to there lol
Anyhow we stop at an exit about an hour east of Congo on the Mississippi and we see this little toddler holding a sign board begging for money for food
My mom about shat right then...oh my god that poor baby....till the saw the Rainbow Nation crowd behind the child
Dreadlocks on whites and all the deadhead in the parking lot at the Meadowlands attire....dirty of course
Then it dawned on me...Bonnaroo
And they were....caravan to Manchester TN panhandling with the cherub
Mother offered to buy them all food at the Wendy’s attached...
She bought a good bit
We get a lot of that around here...it ain’t Santa Cruz but they still come
We got Gaskins Farm too don’t forget .....a place I know somewhat
“That’s an astute observation”
It was an easy one because I was driving around up there that summer. Had picked up some hitchhikers down in Pennsylvania who were headed to Woodstock, so I remember what kind of people were out on the road. One of our hitchers was an older Deadhead kinda dude who never said a word. Weird. Zero entertainment value out of him.
This was the summer after high school, some friends and I were just driving around the US in my VW bus. Mooching off of friends and family or just sleeping in the bus. You can do that at 18.
Stopped in Phoenix. El Paso. Houston. We were in Houston the night before the Moon landing. Stopped to sleep on some nice residential street and the cops chased us away. Probably had picked some NASA honcho’s house to park in front of, is my guess.
Watched the Moon Landing on a gas station tv out in the boondocks of Cajun country. Celebrated turning 18 in New Orleans.
At some point we picked up a kid who was hitchhiking to his uncle’s place in Florida. When we dropped him off he invited us to go alligator hunting, so we clambered out on the ricketiest dock ever built and went zooming around in a flat bottomed skiff hunting ‘gators. The gators eluded us.
Anyway after spending some time in Flor-da we wandered up the east coast eventuating our presence in New York state.
You’ve mentioned the fierce Hurricane Camille hitting the Gulf Coast that August. I guess that must have been about the time that we were in New York. Good timing, I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the road down there when that thing hit.