The Morning Drive 5/1/2022

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

I feel like my commute is not your average one.  I admit that it has changed over the years as to what I see.  While interestingly, for the most part the area that I cover has been the same for decades, I tend to pay attention to new and different things as of late.  I suppose as we grow up all facets of our life do the same and morph a bit.  I have a feeling that there are aspects of my morning drive that might be a tad on the unique side, so I thought I might tell you of my adventures that I get to participate in on most days.  It’s quite the varied tale of rural life and childhood eccentricities. It should be quite the entertaining gathering of exploits.

My travels begin every weekday morning with taking my daughter to school.  There are so many details that must be tended to as we make this trek each day.  First off, the radio must be on the Disney satellite radio channel, and we always must hope for a very nice medley of songs to start us upon our journey. Ideally this would include anything from either of the Frozen movies, something from Pocahontas, Mary Poppins, Encanto or possibly a sprinkling of Aladdin and/or The Little Mermaid. Really the absolute perfect scenario would be if we could be hearing about a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down from the angelic voice of Julie Andrews right as we pulled up for my daughter to exit the car at school.  I am sure you can see the apt metaphor there. That has happened once, and it was a very good day.  But the music that we hear each morning is pivotal to the tone of the day. If the song selection is less than thrilling, then there is a certain amount of weight on my shoulders to try to remedy the situation.  I attempt to do so with the next major aspect of our drive.

As I have stated in many past blogs, I live in a very rural area. As of late I have noticed more and become downright flabbergasted of the sheer amount of livestock that I pass by on any given day.  This number seems to be forever growing upon each trip.  This is actually a rather fortunate thing when it comes to our morning journeys. When the music is uninspiring it is the interaction with the animals we come across that helps to raise the spirits.  This interaction begins with, unless there are the occasional deer in the yard as we are leaving, by daughter having a discussion with the neighbors two dogs. Now, I am not entirely sure how this practice began.  The two dogs, who look to be some type of labs, one with the greying of age around his snout, are usually on their front porch as we go by and at some point, I began to voice them and they discuss the day with my daughter. They talk with her about what she will be doing in school, if she has her jacket if it’s chilly and if she can see the next house’s chickens and if she thinks they would get in trouble if they chased said chickens.  It has become one of the things that can salvage a highly questionable attitude in the morning; the dogs in their deep yet slightly silly voices conversing on all the day might hold. I have learned some interesting tidbits in her chats with those two canine fellows. She has told them about many topics from her friends, to field trips and even given advice that if they tunneled under the fence they feasibly could chase the chickens but might get in trouble so she wasn’t sure if they should. The dogs always seem to enjoy the conversation and howl excitedly once we’ve gone far enough past them that the logistics of continuing the talk no longer work.  I am sure you all visualizing me doing this voice and that’s fine.  I’m sure it’s, well, something to behold.

Once the dog conversation is complete there are plenty of opportunities to chat with cows. I can count right now at least 5 herds we go past. We tell them “Good Moo-ning” and talk with high pitched voices to the calves.  We say hello to the “Big Bull Boys” when they are out in their separate pasture. We also give the several horses we pass the classic equine salutation of “Hey! Hay! Neigh! Neigh!” I write that and I am not sure if that is appropriately spelled but it reads the same.  Very recently a small pin of pigs has been added to the mix.  We simply oink at them just to keep things simple I suppose.  Right before school we used to see one specific herd of cattle that were often being fed that time of morning. They had the nasty habit of often standing in their food trough. We always liked to lecture them on their silliness and assure them that they were getting their food dirty. They have since been moved from that part of the pasture but toward the end of our seeing them they did seem to heed our advice because they began to keep hooves on the ground and out of breakfast.

Of course one very pivotal part of the morning is that we must drive by my parents’ house for me to honk and my daughter to wave at her grandparents. It does not matter the weather they are out on the porch all set for our passing.  They are an absolute treasure in every sense of the word but this is such a big part of the trip to school. Their well-wishes make a huge difference in the demeanor.  Those two waving has more bearing than any opportunity for my daughter to belt out “Into the Unknown” or “Just Around the Riverbend”. Yes, it does require a detour a bit but I’m happy to do it for the sheer value. It is just a little tangible sign of all the people supporting her as she goes off into the independent world. This is her first year after all.  She needs all the support she can get.

Well, if you didn’t know before you certainly know now just how rural my area is. But now you also know what my morning is like even beyond evaluating the local herds.  It sounds like memorable childhood moments and affectionate creatures sending their regards. It looks like an advertisement for tractors and small-town southern tourism.  It smells faintly of chocolate toaster pastry.  And, most importantly, to me anyway, it is a drive that feels like love, family and home.