Life Is A Journey
49 years ago today I got in car and left my small town Iowa home. It was a 3 hour ride to Chicago O’Hara airport and to a small town girl who had never been more than 20 miles east, west or south of her home, the size of the buildings in Chicago was amazing, the size of the airport overwhelming and the airplane frightening. I tucked my sleeping 14 month old son in my lap for the flight and occupied my mind going over the advice my mom had given me… “don’t put your shoes on the floor or they will mildew, watch when you walk under trees for the snakes hanging in them and don’t forget us because we will never see each other again”.
I was picked up at Tampa airport by in-laws and made them wait for a long time as I took in the palm trees waving in the evening breeze. They did exist outside of the movies, who knew! I spent the next week with them at their apartment in Central Florida waiting for my then husband, brother in-law and his fiancé to arrive with the U-Haul. The week went well and I thought I might adjust quickly. They lived on a small lake and I passed the time on the beach with my son everyday. By mid week I was actually starting to get my first tan and some strange spots on my back that I insisted was the measles. Again, who knew Florida sun would give you freckles when Iowa sun did not.
The truck and family finally arrived and we pulled into the driveway of our new home. I unlocked the door and pulled it open to start unloading things. I was greeted by a giant flying bug that bounced off my face and landed on my chest. Ummm… someone should have warned me about Palmetto bugs AKA Florida roaches. I climbed in the cab of the truck and insisted I be taken back to Iowa immediately. We did not have have giant flying roaches in Iowa! Crisis eventually averted and we got settled in.
The next couple of weeks brought a trip to Perry in the northern part of the state and my first trip to a fish camp for oysters on the half shell. 45 minutes of driving on dirt roads through some god forsaken countryside to be greeted by a wild pig who decided the car looked like a fun time. Now my grandparents had over 100 pigs and I want to tell you, not one of them had 3 ft. tusks sticking out of their faces. I hid my head and prayed, but survived that Florida adventure.
A couple weeks later and a trip to a Barbershop Quartet Convention in Miami finally sounded like something I could handle. The Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach was incredible. The hotel had a ice skating rink, a mini mall and the Boom Boom Room with the Bang Bang Show (I never got to see what that was about). 😉 We didn’t even have a mall in Iowa. The trip taught me a whole new level of expectations. I asked the door man for directions and was met with a hand waiting for a tip. Hello… we give directions for free in Iowa. The first night there, I wandered around taking it all in. Near the back I encountered some of what I thought were some very “unusually” dressed and made-up people going into a ballroom. I looked down at my clothes and determined I was really out of style for Miami Beach. Of course I did find out the next day it was one of the first Star Trek conventions and it was their formal ball night. No wonder I felt so out of fashion!
The first 5 years in Florida, if someone had given me a bus ticket out, I would have gone. But you adapt and grow and after 16 years in that small town in central Florida I made another giant leap to South Florida. Again a whole new set of things to learn and adapt to. Traffic… traffic that sits still and goes no where, more people than I had ever seen in one place, and ladies older than my grandma who could string together a sentence that had more curse words than I know.
But 49 years later, I’m still in Florida, I survived, learned and thrived. Am I still that little country girl from Iowa? You bet your boots. Mixed with a good part Central Florida Sweet Tea drinkin’ southern girl and South Florida survivor. It’s been a journey but what would life be without the journey. 🙂