I didn’t want to leave the orphanage, but if I had to go I thought I would go in style. I packed my suitcase. I also packed my trunk and I had a duffle bag full of clothes. Father Martin a tall, thin man with an Adam’s apple bigger than his neck drove me to the Highway 59 intersection with Timber, the busiest street in Ruskin. I stuck out my thumb and turned the suitcase with the sign
SEATTLE OR BUST
I was nervous and somewhat embarrassed as cars whisked by. After about 10 minutes, I was about to think I would never get picked up. I laugh when I write this because later I would wait 10 hours and remain determined to stand out on the highway until I got a ride.
A car pulled up. I remember President John F. Kennedy’s words: “We stand today on the edge of a new frontier—the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.” During the election of 1960, my friend Joe Clarke whose father was Chief Operating Officer of the Ample Paper Mill was for Nixon. I later learned the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans favored business. They were for low taxes and small government. The Democrats were for the little man; high taxes on the rich, and making hard workers pay the way for ner-do-wells. I supported Kennedy for President because he was handsome and vigorous appearing. Joe Clarke talked about ideology. I didn’t know what to say except I liked Kennedy. I didn’t want to say that I liked him because he looked more Presidential and didn’t sweat on television so I just said, “I like Kennedy the best.”
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