When I was a little girl I loved riding home at night, lying in the back seat of the car, looking up through the window. Mom and Dad murmured in the front seat as the radio played. Telephone poles and tall pines moved past in a steady rhythm. But the moon traveled with us, glinting between the trees, glowing bright across the potato fields. It seemed more distant than the stars, and yet more knowing, as if it could see me, too.
I like to drive, but I miss riding along looking at the world instead of the road. I miss watching the drive-in movie framed in the window.
Posted in: Adventures outdoors, Up North in Michigan
Torch Lake Views 
dmarks
October 22, 2010
And I heard “Werewolves of London” on the radio today.
Gerry
October 22, 2010
What, no mystery, no allure, no splendor? Werewolves? Ah well.
uphilldowndale
October 23, 2010
When the boys were much smaller I drove along one moonlit night with the sun roof open so that they could ‘follow it’: they still talk about the experience (and on occasion open the sun roof) it tends to be chilly but enchanting.
Also when Tom was about 4 we went to visit it ‘BiL’ his uncle who lived down in Somerset; it was a particularly fine moon that greeted us when we arrived, late at night. Tom was convinced it was a different moon than the moon we had at home. He insisted on calling it ‘BiL’s moon’.
Gerry
October 23, 2010
How wonderful to have an uncle with his very own moon! Years and years ago we had a little VW Cabriolet. The first year we had it, we went for a fall color tour with the top down. Flaming trees in the daytime, glittering stars at night. Enchanting indeed, although the trip across the Mackinac Bridge was very chilly. People thought we were nuts, but admitted it looked like fun. They were right on both counts.
Fee
October 23, 2010
I fondly remember late-night trips back from family gatherings, huddled on the cold vinyl seats waiting for the meagre heat to penetrate far enough back to warm us up, but watching the moon ‘follow’ us all the way home. I would inevitably fall asleep against a warm brother and wake up the next morning in my own bed with no memory of how I got there … can’t do that nowadays.
Gerry
October 23, 2010
That’s a cozy image. I think I would have liked a brother or two–not instead of my sisters, who are all dear, but in addition to them. A warm one would have been particularly handy!
kanniduba
October 23, 2010
Oh my gosh Gerry…I could have written this post. I was that girl too. You brought me back in time for a moment….
kanniduba
October 23, 2010
And those photos are beautiful by the way!
Gerry
October 23, 2010
I’m glad to have taken you on that journey. It was a good thing about childhood, wasn’t it! Glad you liked the moon portraits, too.
P.j. grath
October 23, 2010
Those are magical images and magical memories, Gerry. Just the good medicine I needed to start my day in the bookstore.
Gerry
October 23, 2010
Here’s wishing you many shoppers and at least one funny story. That’s the best thing about retail – the stories.
isathreadsoflife
October 23, 2010
Beautiful new header and drive with the moon playing hide and seek. A little girl´s wonder about the moon travelling with her and most certainly, knowing ! I love this. Thank you, Gerry.
katherine
October 23, 2010
Thumbs up on the moon photos!
Molly
October 23, 2010
I echo everyone else. And it reminds me of the Bean’s first time of ever seeing the moon (on the way to Torch, by the way, right about Mackinaw City). The poor child had never been outside the house in the dark before. He was 2. He called out in much alarm: “What’s happening!? What’s happening!? There’s no more light!” He did not enjoy it. But luckily life is long and he (& the other two) have enjoyed watching the moon follow them home many evenenings, too.
Gerry
October 23, 2010
Thank you Isa, Katherine, Molly. It makes me happy when people like a post.
Molly that’s a great story! We forget how much we learned about the world when we were very young. So many mysteries we had to solve!
Cindy Lou
October 23, 2010
The journey through your words and photos was magical today….my memories are just like that of family trips home at night. And the lovely coziness of my dad carrying me into bed – I would sometimes be awake but pretend to be asleep just for that.
The gnarled old tree in moonlight is wondermous…:)
Gerry
October 24, 2010
Thank you Cindy Lou. I liked that tree a lot too.
giiid
October 24, 2010
These moon photos are so nice to see, Gerry, like it also is nice to read and recognize the feeling you describe, of being a sleepy child safe and secure at the backseat of mom and daddy´s car. It is interesting to read in the comments, and learn that most others remember how they also were studying the moon. Perhaps that is what children do, in an attempt to make a map of what kind of place they have landed, so to say. Now you mention it, I too remember how the moon kept following the car, no matter how far we drove, and how I was wondering about it. Thank you for this little cosy flash back.
Gerry
October 24, 2010
I guess the simplest things are the most universal. Probably some other child, riding home in the back of an oxcart, or wrapped in fur on a dogsled, or voyaging the Pacific in an outrigger canoe, watched the same moon.
Karma
October 24, 2010
Beautiful slide show Gerry. The moon is something I still haven’t figured out how to nicely capture with the new camera. You’ve brought back a memory for me too. Christmas Eve when I was a child was spent visiting each of our grandmothers’ houses with our parents. Between houses, our father would take a little bit longer route through the Christmas lights of the city for the enjoyment of my sister and me. While we stared up at the lights, I’d always look for the moon, and for it to follow us back home to the suburbs as we got away from the lights of downtown.
Gerry
October 24, 2010
Thank you Karma. I’m still trying to figure out how to fumble around in the dark to change settings on the little camera. I think I need one with Great Big Knobs on it instead!
We used to ride around looking at Christmas lights in Rhinelander, too. I loved it.
flandrumhill
October 25, 2010
This reminded me of one of my favorite Peanuts comic strips. It has Charlie Brown saying that security in life never gets any better than when you are sitting in the backseat of the car when your parents are driving home at night.
Those are some pretty lovely moon photos. I noticed that moon again on my walk this morning. It sure is the stuff of dreams.
Gerry
October 25, 2010
I believe we have identified a Universal Truth, although Universal only within the scope of our own experiences. I suppose for some children at some times, a ride home at night has become a terror-filled flight. In many respects we had fortunate childhoods.
I’m glad you liked the moon photos. I truly enjoyed trying to capture the sneaky dickens.
Nye
October 25, 2010
Gerry, such lovely story. I used to gaze at the moon when I was little living in Thailand and my mom used to tell us about the big Bodhi tree up in the moon, and as I looked up I could see that tree.
Gerry
October 26, 2010
That’s the one – the selfsame moon. I like to think about it–that little children all over the world look at it and understand mystery. They reach for it with their chubby little hands. Who knows? Perhaps they reach for the wisdom to be found under the Bodhi tree.