Friday, May 4, 2018

Tear on the road to Mohall.

Journal entry by Joanne Negstad — May 2, 2018
      "You're gong where?"  "You really want to do that?"  "Where did you say it is?"  The reactions were from her colleagues in the counseling office at St. Louis Park, High School, who reacted as if we were going to the end of the earth.  Mohall, North Dakota's locating is easily identified as near the geographical point where North Dakota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan meet.  But, the reaction of those friends of hers unsettled Joanne.
     Then came the day we were to make the drive to Mohall. It's about 600 miles from Minneapolis.  It was July, 1968, and the car we were driving was '66 Pontiac, so that was not a problem.  As we were driving west of  Carrington, N.D., with Lisa sleeping peacefully in the backseat, Joanne became increasingly quiet.  Glancing over at her I saw a tear roll down her cheek. "What's the matter" I asked. She replied "There's nobody here. We haven's met a car in 20 miles."  The dire predictions from her former colleagues, that were going to the end of the earth, appeared to her to be real.  
     The rest of our discussion I've long forgotten. However, we didn't travel very far before we came to a road construction sign that explained the lack of traffic.  Apparently we'd missed the 'ROAD CLOSED", sign which explained the dearth of cars. 
     We had a good laugh, Joanne relaxed and embraced life in Mohall, where we had over seven good years.  

Blessings,

al

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