When I sit out here tonight, I’m reminded of the hitchhiking trip Dave Strobel and I took from Notre Dame to New Orleans for our spring break 1970. It was a long time ago, of course. And yet, as I sit on the dock and feel the air tonight, I feel the exact same sensation.
Strobe and I had tried so hard to get a ride south from South Bend, Indiana and we had a couple of short rides. However, it was tough going, since college students across the country in those “Across the Universe” days were heading to Washington D.C. and the word was out not to assist those draft-dodging anti-American perverts.
Nonetheless, after trying several times to get longer rides, with no great success, we finally captured the ride of our lives from Indianapolis straight through Nashville, TN. When we got the ride and climbed into the car, it was as cold as the proverbial witch’s kitchen. Hours later, after riding with some madman who had a gun in his glove box (and was proud to display it while he was driving), we got dropped off in Nashville.
It was a balmy spring night. It was about 10:30. It sported a little moisture in the air and this wonderful engulfing breeze. It was not hot and it wasn’t cold. Strobe and I felt the air, as well as the dew in the air, against us and we were so very proud of ourselves.
We were halfway to New Orleans, less than a day after leaving South Bend. It was no longer cold. And we had no idea how little awareness we had of how youth plays out.
These many years later, at a time so very distant, the feeling is no different.
As I sit out on the dock tonight, and feel the soft moisture in the air, uncut by either cold or heat, it brings back those sensations that these passing decades and countless life events have been unable to subdue on their own.
Youth and aspiration: a balmy night where all is right with the world. Thank God!