In 1948 my grandparents bought a new Kaiser, and that's why, most unusually, I missed the beginning of my seventh-grade school year, when I was 10. We had gone on a long trip before, driving down to Clarence, Missouri, to see Grampa's father and mother and other family, but this time we were going to see Grampa's sister Ella and her family in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and Gramma's brother, Forrest, in Deer Lodge, Montana, and take in the Black Hills and Yellowstone and more along the way.
I have mentioned in other entries that Conoco had the Touraide service then, so that I had duly sent in for and received a booklet with marked road maps and accompanying tourist information for the most direct routes to our destinations. Gram had also insisted I read up on the two national parks, considering me what people in the Hall of Justice considered me, a kind of Information Central, since I was such an avid reader.
The driving was divided between Mom and Grampa, while Gramma and I split the back seat. The joke was that I saw most of the trip out the back window. Taking the necessities from Dad's Army-surplus camping gear (for his hunting and fishing) in those post World War II days--cots, cookware, cooler--we set out first for Mitchell and the Corn Palace. Gramma was always a thrifty traveler, wanting to see the most in the short time allotted, a principle I always used for my later vacations, the cram-it-all-in-and-come-home-exhausted route. I barely remember it, though Grampa marveled at the novel use of corn, naturally, in all those autumn-colored designs. I don't recall the Badlands--surely, we must have detoured off to circle through them--but I know we had to stop at Wall for Wall Drug, the most advertised pharmacy/tourist site in the nation then. Tourist traps always have the same clutter of souvenirs and postcards, and all I remember is very cold water.
I've been to the Black Hills so many times since that I cannot swear to the route, just the major sights we thrilled over. It seems we stayed in Hot Springs and saw bison on our way through the Wind Cave area to Mount Rushmore. We usually ate breakfast on the roadside, eggs and bacon and toast, coffee for the adults, over the little cylindrical gas stove. While it was being prepared, Gramma would send me off to pick wildflowers or other natural souvenirs, which she then stuck in a magazine. We rarely ate in cafes, to save money, buying lunch meat, bread, milk, the Ritz Crackers that Gramma favored as a snack, filling our thermoses with coffee, milk, water at gas stations. Likewise, sometimes we stayed in motels; sometimes we stayed at a farm place, with permission, Grampa and Mom sleeping on the army cots, Gramma and me on the car seats with the doors open. Obviously, we had pillows and blankets too, though it was August.
Mom went right on by Wind Cave, but Gramma and I wanted to see a real cave, so, after much cajoling, we finally stopped at a very second-rate one, Sitting Bull Caverns, Claustrophobic or otherwise, Mom refused to go, but we other three did, climbing down a rickety ladder stairs with the guided group into the chilly, clammy cave, with bare light bulbs hanging along the passages, very drippy, muddy, and narrow. The crystal formations were worth seeing. We were told repeatedly, of course, not to take anything; but outside near the entrance, figuring no harm to the site, I did get a cloudy, encrusted crystal. Actually, I think Gram picked it up for me. I wasn't that daring. One cave was enough as far as everyone thought but me. They also dismissed the many Reptile Gardens--Mom hated snakes--and roadside zoos that filled in unforested areas.
Somewhere in that area we went through a bentonite mill, because I had an ice-cream-pint container full of that surprisingly light (in weight and color) grey powder as proof, bentonite a volcanic clay mined and processed to use for waterproofing oil drilling, now even used for health reasons.
I have only the photos from one roll of film for the whole trip, black and white, the box camera apparently leaking some light in the lower left-hand corner. I'm guessing that I was delegated to take certain pictures, since the first one is from a distance in deep grass looking past some pines back across a ravine toward the road (surely during our breakfast stop). If I can figure out how to incorporate these old, faded photos, I will. I just bought a new digital camera but haven't got it all worked out yet. (NOTE: I did, obviously.)
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