Mother's Day and the CAR

Robin Agnew

This last week has been spent in the car, mostly.  Sunday (Mother's Day) I spent at the store with Maureen Jennings and Cordelia Frances Biddle, which was delightful.  We always host historical mystery authors on Mother's Day, and this year we were able to snag Maureen through a review I wrote on the store website, which her husband, Iden, somehow found and enjoyed.  He invited Maureen himself but I was delighted to agree, as I am a big fan of her books.

Cordelia Biddle is someone I've known since her first book came out, again for much the same reason. I wrote a review of her first novel, The Conjurer, and aside from making her cry it also helped to make us friends.  She came to the store for the first book, to the book festival in town I help to run for the second one, and with the third (she is now, unfortunately, self published) she came for Mother's Day.

I had both ladies over for dinner after the store event, which was a blast.  If ever you want a sparkling dinner conversation, invite a Sherlock Holmes buff (Maureen) and a history buff (Cordelia).  It makes for some interesting stories at the dinner table, enlivened greatly by Iden's contributions.  That was a wonderful day but after that my week of driving began.

Tuesday I drove to Wisconsin to pick up my daughter from college.  She said she had stored some things for next year but she still had a remarkable amount of stuff which had to be hauled down three flights of stairs and stuffed in the car.  I was glad I came alone, because when we were done loading up there was only room enough for two of us.

Driving to Wisconsin necessitates driving through Chicago which can either be hair raising, irritating, or a breeze, which was the experience I had on the way back.  I'm not sure why the stars aligned for a quick and painless drive through the city, I'm just appreciating that they did.

Driving through Gary, Indiana, in the rain is a whole other story.  I think it smells worse when it's wet. Gary is not a beautiful city by any stretch, but even so I was surprised driving through on the tollroad to see one exit - where there appeared to be the U.S. supply of porta potties lined up - marked "no toll this exit." I assumed because it was so ugly no one would want to get off the highway there, but that's one of the mysteries you ponder as you zip by at 70 miles an hour.

After a day at home (and where my daughter's things, courtesy of the unpacking skills of her and her brother are scattered all over the living room floor), she and I were off again, this time to Northern Michigan to celebrate my sister's 50th birthday.  We had a lovely day spent with family, celebrating my sister, who is a lovely and loving person I feel lucky to know, sister or no.

We're back to Ann Arbor today.  If I don't morph into a car before the end of the day I'll be back selling books before I know it.  I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Comments

[D 88]

Everybody loves to get off on Gary, IN. I suppose I can understand why, but having been born and raised there does not make it easy to bear.

To learn about the "real" Gary, IN I invite one and all to check out the "Steel City" offerings found on Dave's Den at http://GDYNets.WebNG.com/gary.htm. You might find items of interest and learn it is/was not all bad.

[Lartonmedia]

I always wondered whether Gary, Indiana really existed and what it was like! There was a gay writer in the 1980s who called himself Gary Indiana. Very bleak books as I recall. Wonder what happened to him . . .

[Robin Agnew]

Well, I confess my knowledge of Gary is limited to the highway. I grew up in the Chicago area so it was always a place we had to drive through to get to anywhere else. See above comment for another perspective. Famously, the Jackson 5 are from Gary.