PERFECT FIRST: VACATIONS AND TRAVEL

My grandfather Edwards is quoted as saying, "I'd go a thousand miles to see a friend, but I wouldn't go across the street to see scenery". Myself, I would go a thousand miles to see either, and the travels I had growing up were certainly more memorable than any house we lived in or car we drove (a comment on live in the OC before the current recession).

My earliest travel memory would be from Columbus to the Circleville Pumpkin Show. What I remember most is the orange pennant that I had in my collection (along with the scarlet and gray one that I had at the Rose Bowl later) which may still be in some box somewhere. Anyway, it made a real impression on me. Google says the show has been around October of 1903 and is always on the third Wednesday through Saturday of October.

The show is complete with a queen and her court, a parade and a competition for the largest pumpkin. The latest winner must have been on steroids weighing in at 1375.5 pounds. Even the water tower in Circleville, Ohio is shaped and painted like a pumpkin.

While we were in Columbus, my grandmother Edwards came to visit and we took a trip to Washington, D.C. On the way we stopped off at Abraham Lincoln's boyhood cabin and I suppose that's where brothe r Mark began his boyhood fascination with Mr. Lincoln.

In D.C. I remember two things mos t prominently: the sight of all the cherry trees in blossom and seeing Harry Truman out for his walk early one morning.

After moving to Oklahoma, we gradually visited many of the state parks including Beaver's Bend, Roman Nose and Lake Texoma. Because of my Dad's career in education we went to visit the Fort Sill Indian School, which was the first place my brother and I had ever come into contact with "Native Americans." We were fascinated by the costumes they wore when doing native dances. A little history reveals that the schools were an idea of the government as an attempt to "civilize" the Indian children. "The U.S. government, backed up by eastern humanitarians and church groups, instituted a policy of "civilizing" the Indians in which they felt they must "kill the Indian to save the man." Education was the cornerstone of this policy. Indian children were forced to attend reservation day schools or far-away boarding schools...children were torn from their families and sent to these schools. Officials and humanitarians did not believe that Indian children were capable of becoming doctors, lawyers, or academics so instead they taught them industrial and domestic arts, American history, and English.

The Comanche School was located near Fort Sill and known as the Fort Sill Indian School. This school was founded about 1892. It started with only forty boys the first year. The buildings were all ready but because of the inability to secure ready-made clothing for girls, there were only boys in the school. The next year there were forty girls." (Life Among the Texas Indians: The WPA Narratives By David La Vere) As my brother and I learned, Oklahoma had many Indians, including members of the "Five Civilized Tribes" and much about Oklahoma was about the history of Indians, including the names of many of the towns and counties.

Our longest trip while living in Norman came in 1954. Even though we were by then strong OU football fans, we still all had a strong tie to Buckeye football as well. My Dad promised Mark and me that if Ohio State went to the Rose Bowl we would go. We pestered him so much about it that he even decided to go to California that Christmas even if OSU didn't make it. Grandmother Edwards went with us, partly to finance the trip.

We joined Route 66 in Oklahoma City and rode it all the way to Hollywood through Amarillo, Albuquerque, Gallup, the Painted Desert, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino and on to Hollywood. In Albuquerque we stayed at the De Anza motel which is now a historical landmark and being revitalized.

In Hollywood we stayed at the first motel we had ever seen with a swimming pool in the courtyard. Two stories stand out in memories of this trip. While driving in Westwood sightseeing, my Dad somehow got to an intersection where there were multiple lanes and made a left turn from the middle lane, only to be pulled over by a motor cycle policeman who wasn't very friendly to tourists.

The second memory involves the Rose Bowl parade and game. The weather was typical beautiful southern California until January 1. We sat through the Rose Bowl parade in misty cold rain and then moved on to the stadium for the game. At the last minute a Kansas friend of my folks had gotten us two extra tickets, so Mark and Dad sat on the USC side and Mom and I on the OSU side. At half time TBDBITL (Buckeye Band) came onto muddy field and did "Script Ohio", and of course when they left the field you could still see Ohio in the mud, much to the dismay of the USC fans.

My red OSU pennant got soaked and dripped red on some USC fan in front of me, also causing dismay.

The score of the game also caused USC dismay as the unbeaten "great Ohio State football machine sputtered from time to time in the muck and mire of a field wetted down by a day-long rain."

(written for the UP by the first female sports writer to ever cover a Rose Bowl game, Miss Faye Loyd)

Ironically, many of the places on this trip would be prominent in my later life, as my folks wound up just south of Amarillo in my Dad's last years at West Texas A&M,