roadtrippin w mama

DAY 1


haven't been on a road trip with my ma in about 7 or 8 years. when i was younger we used to do at least one road trip a year--always once to ohio and back, sometimes also to florida, a handful of times out west, or to maine or vermont for skiing in the winter and log cabin-building in the summer. our road trip staples? a good audio book, the radio seek button, a disposable camera, a road atlas, and lots of banter. this go-around the times have changed. her car being 21 years old now with an out of commission stereo, instead, i read aloud from ken follet's the fall of giants, played music through my ipod and portable speakers, took pictures and followed our route with my iphone... the banter between us, however, has not changed a bit :) this, i believe, is the most important aspect of a roadtrip. it would be impossible to share the confined space within a car if you can't share some good, hearty laughs. good thing my ma has a sense of humor, and a raunchy one at that--or else i'd share her jokes here, ha. (just teasing ma!) (or am i?) she is quite the independent lady firecracker. a little 5'3 ball of energy. anyone who has met her knows this much is true. she's the kind of lady who will tidy up in an hour a mess that would take an average person 5 to tackle, and she'll do it all with a burning cig dangling from her lips and a bad knee. and so, to ohio we venture, the place of origin for suzie-whippersnapper.


this place has not changed since the last time i was here in 2004. the neighborhood in which i spent so many summers and thanksgivings for the first 16 years of my life is, remarkably, just as i remembered it. coming from new york, where, if you're gone for even ten minutes restaurants close and new buildings go up and whole neighborhoods are gentrified, the stagnance of bellbrook is a striking truth. the few changes that do exist are slight--a new white picket fence around what used to be my nana's backyard, new landscaping in the yard across the street, a different business in place of an old one on the main strip of town. even the people, my family, have barely changed. case in point: cousin jimmy still wears his hair in the frizzy pyramidal style he's rocked since the eighties.


new york moves on at the pace of a runaway freight train, and then here is bellbrook, ohio. upon arrival i felt my blood pressure drop and my intensity diminish. when in the city there is always something to do, and so, i am almost always doing something. here, i know no one but family, and certainly no one my own age. i have no mode of transportation except for my own two feet or (pathetically) a ride from my mom--i have not even a bicycle. (oh, woe is me without my wheels!) there are no young and happening night spots, only the trusty old milton club--an exclusive athletic and drinking club established here in 1914, where the male-only members and their guests spend their time smoking, drinking, playing cards, and pitching horse shoes like it's their job...though fun, these are not exactly my pastimes of choice. so what shall i do here? a pleasant and welcome nothing. and i will enjoy it to the utmost. i will explore the main street on foot. i will take in the flat and stretching view from the car window, knowing this was once all farmland. i will daydream about the two months that still lie ahead of me after ohio. i will read a 1000 page book. i will be content having time pass me by for a week, takin it slow and easy.