Memphis, TN: Living the story

Heading our of Tulsa

Sometimes you hear the stories and sometimes you get to just live them.

Not wanting to brave a 17 hour Greyhound ride, I decided to rent a car for this leg of the journey.  It was a bit overcast as I left the hotel and I shared my ride and story with ‘William’ the shuttle bus driver.  A imposing, but gentle man, I am guessing he was in his late 40′s.  He works,

  • As a shuttle driver for the hotel, early mornings
  • For the City of Tulsa, maintenance, rest of day
  • Landscaping five homes, weekends
  • And providing in-home elder care in the evenings
Four jobs to support his wife and 2 sons, one of which is disabled.  He would, by his request, remain nameless, photo-less and off mic for fear of losing his job with the City if they found out was employed elsewhere.  When prompted, his only concern was “making it though another day”.  
He is not a fan of Mitt Romney.  Succinctly he said that Romney “makes that kind of money, doesn’t work as hard as I do…  and pays less in taxes”.  Still, his response when asked if he sees brighter days…. “Oh yeah” wide smile, “absolutely”.
I got in my rental car, a Mazda 2 (did you know they went down to 2?) that weighs only marginally more than my washing machine, but with a lot less pick up. The sky got darker and about 30 minutes later, opened up with a deluge that reduced my Mazda 2 windshield wipers to a toy-like appendages,
I made my way slowly, nervously until about an hour later, me and my Mazda emerged on the other side.  A truth from the road – If you are traveling East on I-40 and manage to get ahead of a storm, you keep moving.

Hungry?  Buck up.  Need a hairbrush?  Get over it.  Keep moving.  It only takes a glance in the rear view mirror to see the dark clouds and lightning.  Keep moving.

Our country has been through a relentless storm.  Two wars economically compounded by two huge tax cuts and a financial collapse brought on by a banking free-for-all.  So when I hear a party platform that touts decreased regulation, decreased taxes, increased military spending, served up a with jingoistic middle east  topping, all I can think is, keep moving.

Please America, keep moving.

Unrelated but somehow important.  Just as I was crossing the Memphis-Arkansas Memorial bridge over the Mississippi River, this came on the radio (seriously),

[rtmp3 url="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/108166614/Audio2012/Heartbreak%20Hotel.mp3" title="Elvis Presley"]

 

Comments

Memphis, TN: Living the story — 7 Comments

  1. Tommorow marks one week.I am proud of your ability to adapt and find interesting people.put the hairbrush on the checklist.keep dry.

  2. Keep the stories coming and stay dry. So glad you are not on a scooter. Hope you get a hairbrush soon!!! The stories Americans have been telling you so far have reminded me of how blessed I am.

  3. Aren’t you glad you didn’t choose a motor scooter again? Keep on movin’
    Rich

  4. Guys like “William” actually encourage me more than make me sad. He’s making it. It’s not easy, but he’s making it!

    Are you handing out cards with the hwireroad url on them? I haven’t seen many visitors here except people that you already knew. :wink:

    Hey, even if you don’t put it on the site, could you take a picture of yourself, now? So you remember the no-hairbrush days. I saw in the movie Cherish that the girl used a regular clothes iron on an ironing board to straighten her hair. Think that might work?

  5. I am so glad you made it through safely. No make up, no hairbrush and your beauty cones through easily on every story….Stay safe and keep moving. I mis you tons!

  7. Wonderful post, Julie.

    Did you see that Jon Stewart quoted FDR last week: “Let me warn you, and let me warn the nation, against the smooth evasion that says ‘Of course we believe these things. We believe in social security. We believe in work for the unemployed. We believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die. We believe in all these things. But we do not like the way that the present administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them, we will do more of them, we will do them better and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.” Yep, keep moving, America!

    Love you, my dear.