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LESLIE'S JOURNAL |
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| Date: 3rd May
| Time: middle of the night | Place: across Oklahoma | |||
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Originally we thought about doing the trip from east to west by day and from west to east by night. But 66 is like a retired grandparent - it goes to bed early and wakes up early - so we found that there really wasn't a whole lot of point to driving 66 in the middle of the night. Still, we thought it would be exciting to do a night drive at some point and as the sun was setting in Adrian, Texas, we decided to drive all night, across the Texas panhandle and across the state of Oklahoma to my father's house in Catoosa, near Tulsa. The decision to keep driving felt exciting and momentous, even though we knew it meant sacrificing potential meetings, as well as our day vision. It seemed almost desitined that this should be the portion of the drive we would make in the small hours of the night. As we headed out into the darkness memories of this same night drive came flooding back. When I was little we lived in Albuquerque and each year at Christmas time, we would get in the car after my parents got off work and head towards my grandparents house in Stigler, Oklahoma. My father, who is something of a genius at car and luggage organisation (and would be appauled at our sloppy, overflowing trunk and backseat) used to convert the backseat of our car into a tiny bedroom for me. I remember very clearly standing up in my backseat bed, age 3, my hands propped up against the back of the seat looking out the rear window at the night sky. At home I was always in bed too early to see the stars, but on these night drives I would stare up at them for as long as I could stay awake, absolutely transfixed. I loved those drives. The whole world felt different, as though anything could happen. Maybe it was a half-conscious nostalgia for those drives that directed my recent choice of car snacks. When we came through Catoosa on our way to LA, my Dad loaded us up with deli items, smoked cheeses, rye bread, dijon mustard, jalapeno stuffed olives and other treats which kept us picnics for days. These are the sorts of food I eat in London and perhaps that is why now that we have finally depleated my father's generous supplies and are doing our own shopping, I have found myself drawn to Ritz crackers with 'Easy Cheese' (cheese in a spray can), Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies, unnaturally white bread, neon yellow mustard in a squeeze bottle, Kraft American singles (small plastic squares of cheese in cellophane) and Tiny Size Chiclets gum. One car trip trick of my dad's which I particularly loved when I was little was the way he would put a tin of Beanee Weenees or a tin of Vienna Sausages under the hood of the car and let the engine heat our dinner for us as we drove. As a vegetarian I am unable to follow this recipe exactly, but I just bought a can of 'Chef Boyardee' cheese ravioli to try instead. |
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