Out of the Past
by: Ressie Watts
Kelliher Independent 1965
Thirty-six years ago I made the trip from Arkansas to Minnesota.
The month was June, a beautiful panorama of much of the country over gravel roads. It was terrible!
The people with whom I made the trip had bought a new Dodge touring car. Open? You bet! They had three children and I was sort of a nurse-maid. The word baby-sitter hadn't been added to Websters then.
The roads were narrow, rough and very dusty, except for a short distance of a mile or so out of each large city. There was very little paved highway. We held our breath each time a faster car or truck passed us, which was all the time since we made the entire trip at 25 miles an hour. The dust enveloped us each time for 2 or 3 minutes and settled on us in layer after layer.
We were one week making the trip. Our luggage was tied on the small "luggage trunk" on the back and each night when we stopped at a "tourist cabin" - not motel, we coughed and sneezed unpacking the tent and camping equipment for the night.
Filling stations were fewer and farther between and not many were open after 6 P.M. or on Sundays.
The farther north we got the more uncomfortable we were. We had no heater in the car and finally ended up putting up the side curtains and wrapping blankets round us. Sometimes June in Minnesota can be very cool indeed and that year it snowed at Waskish on the 4th of July.
We arrived in Kelliher, a tired and weary group. Facing the possibility of remaining in Kelliher for the rest of my life or returning by open car - I chose to remain!
The month was June, a beautiful panorama of much of the country over gravel roads. It was terrible!
The people with whom I made the trip had bought a new Dodge touring car. Open? You bet! They had three children and I was sort of a nurse-maid. The word baby-sitter hadn't been added to Websters then.
The roads were narrow, rough and very dusty, except for a short distance of a mile or so out of each large city. There was very little paved highway. We held our breath each time a faster car or truck passed us, which was all the time since we made the entire trip at 25 miles an hour. The dust enveloped us each time for 2 or 3 minutes and settled on us in layer after layer.
We were one week making the trip. Our luggage was tied on the small "luggage trunk" on the back and each night when we stopped at a "tourist cabin" - not motel, we coughed and sneezed unpacking the tent and camping equipment for the night.
Filling stations were fewer and farther between and not many were open after 6 P.M. or on Sundays.
The farther north we got the more uncomfortable we were. We had no heater in the car and finally ended up putting up the side curtains and wrapping blankets round us. Sometimes June in Minnesota can be very cool indeed and that year it snowed at Waskish on the 4th of July.
We arrived in Kelliher, a tired and weary group. Facing the possibility of remaining in Kelliher for the rest of my life or returning by open car - I chose to remain!
