Tracing the Changes in This Country
For my birthday, my wife gave me a 1962 State Farm Insurance Road Atlas as a gift. She found it on eBay. Glancing at it this morning, I noticed how little of the Interstate Highway system had been completed at that time.
I plan to retrace several trips around the country I made in the early to mid-60s on that map. That should stir up some memories and refresh them in my mind.
For example, in 1962, my parents took their three children on a summer trip from our small town in southern California, all the way up to Seattle to see the World's Fair. No Interstate 5 to travel on. We camped in a couple of places during the trip and spent a couple of days with my father's brother in Oregon. I remember many details of that vacation.
Then, again, I also remember a cross-country drive I took in 1965, along the southern border of the US. I was on my way to Selma, Alabama, where historic events were occurring. As a 19 year old kid from a rural California town, I wanted to see history being made. I didn't arrive in time to walk across the Edmund Pettis bridge with the rest, but I did arrive in time to hear Dr. King give his "How Long?" speech in Montgomery.
No Interstate highways, and my drive took me through parts of the rural South that passed by decrepit, falling down houses along the road in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. I had no idea that such poverty existed in my youthful world. I'll be retracing that journey, too, in my new old Road Atlas.
This is what I saw on that day from the back of the crowd in late March of 1965. I will never forget it.
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I'm surprised I didn't run into you.
Our trip was much like yours except we started in Illinois. 
with mild acne. You'd have recognized me right away! 