Bill could tell you which car we have had each year - not me. When we first got married, Bill drove a 1940 Dodge. It seemed to me we did some mighty fast driving on those unpaved country roads. When I was teaching that first year, the men at the car shop would laugh teasingly when they saw me coming.

Then in 1978, when I went back to work as an aid in school, Bill had bought an old, black 1959 Cadillac. Whenever the little boys in my class saw me driving past they would shout, “Bat-Man!”. Those were the days.

It’s only fair to say that the teen-age years with the children had plenty of difficulties. It seems to me those teen-age years often come when the mother is having her own physical trouble. Anyway, I never really liked tent camping; I spent many times trying to be a good sport. Always wanting organization, I had a hard time when things were thrown together. It was almost like we dumped everything on the ground and everyone wanted to swim, hike, etc. I knew I had to find a meal in all that stuff.

Jeanie married David A. McDaniel in 1978. David married Ruth Ann Holster in 1998. Jeff married Sheila Howell in 1986. Nancy married S. T. (Tommy) Wall in 1984.

In 1988, after the children had left home, Bill decided to buy a small camper so we could do some traveling. Now, that kind of “camping” was fine.

In 1991 Bill and I struck out in the camper for a month trip to Yellowstone in Wyoming. It’s hard to remember details as I write this in 2005. It was all pleasant - now in a camper. I could cook, etc. and stay organized. I do remember, as we were approaching a small town on the Mississippi River, we said we would go to church. When we reached the Mississippi and saw a tour boat loading up, we joined the tour down the river.

Just before we began the entrance into Yellowstone, we stopped to have the car or camper serviced in a little town with a wild western name. The road into Yellowstone had no guard rail, a high mountain on one side and steep drop-off on the other side. Not a road I would choose! Once in the park, it was fine. Not many years before our arrival, a huge forest fire had been in the park. When they showed an air-view video, they didn’t hesitate to say that God had put out the fire. We were told that it takes a thousand years for a mountain to recover after a volcanic eruption! There was also a weird landscape. Besides “Old Faithful”, there were many bubbling pools - some spouting off at times. One called “The Morning Glory Pool”, Bill wanted to see; we walked about a mile to see it. There were bear in the area so I was hesitant. Sure enough the bubbling water was blue.

We did see a lot of buffalo even walking in front of us across the road. We were taking pictures and taking notes to tell our church Keenagers when we reached home.

I forgot one of the most impressive places. Traveling to Yellowstone, in SD we saw Mt. Rushmore where some models of former presidents faces are carved into a mountain. Each state’s flag and date was entered into the union was on a pole along the walkway.

One small town, Wall, SD, had a huge drug store as big as Wal-Mart. In 1929, when they were carving the heads in the mountain, the drug store’s business was so bad they were ready to close. The wife of the owner prayed and it came to her to offer free ice water to the travelers to Rushmore - success for the store.

Rushmore gave me more of a patriotic feeling than any place I’ve been. In the camper on the side of the mountain that night, we did have an unusual amount of wind.

It was Sunday when we were driving through desolate Montana. We had to drive over a very long muddy stretch of road.

Bill wanted to go to Glacier National Park in Montana. We parked the camper on a hill - it was very foggy. The thing to do was ride a narrow-built red bus on a narrow road between two high mountains; I could just not stand the thought of doing such and it was so foggy I didn’t want to budge from the camper. I tell you, at the end of a long day, the camper was a welcoming place to be. Bill gave up the bus tour and convinced me to leave the camping spot and begin our trip. Unbelievable, down the mountain it was completely clear.

Now through North Dakota, Minnesota and into Canada traveling around Lake Superior, we stopped at very “mosquito-filled’ camp site where we were the only campers. I especially remember all the signs, “Beware of Moose”.

I had told my sister, Jane in MD, we would stop on the way home. Jane had vases all around filled with Daffodils - beautiful. After a nice dinner and visit with the family, they gave us their bed. Of all things, there was a very minimal earth-quake during our visit. All this time trying to avoid disaster on our trip! (Once we had stopped and waited because there had been a tornado warning) Jane and I saw each other so seldom perhaps that was worthy of an earth-quake.

It was not until our children were grown, that Mildred, Jane, Tommy and I really began to see each other again. With children we were always involved with their activities, friends and coming and going. We just didn’t take time to visit family - we were so scattered. Once, though, when Jeff was a baby, maybe Bill was on a trip, I went to Salisbury, MD - the Eastern Shore (the Delmarva Penn.) to stay with Mildred. Woody had already transferred to another site.

My sister, Mildred, married H. S. (Woody) Hix. Brother, Tommy, married Minnie Green. Sister, Jane, married W. B. (Ben) Ayers.

Although my sibs and I didn’t see each other much during the years, we did some. Tommy and Minnie stopped by on the way back from visiting mama and daddy in Columbia on Sunday afternoons; it seems to me that was after all our children were not at home.

When David played ball on the little league team in Hanover, VA, Jane and Ben came during that time. A referee didn’t show up so Ben volunteered to referee the game. Of course, he split his pants! They came to Elm City, I think, twice for short visits. Then, when daddy was in a nursing home in Kinston, NC, they came by.

All of these visits seemed to be without children - the children always had so many activities it was hard to leave home. Mildred and Woody came to Elm City and we stopped in the camper to see them in Columbia, SC. Once, when I complained of not being able to find sandals I liked, Mildred invited me down to Atlanta to shop.

In 1973, all the Proffitt family rented apartments at Myrtle Beach, SC in order to finally see each other. In 1975, another trip was planned but we were in Phoenix by then.

Then sometime in the 1990s, Jane and Ben invited all of us up to MD for a get-together. After that, Mildred and Woody rented a cottage for us all in Hilton Head, SC. Next, Tom and Minnie invited us to a beach house at Emerald Isle, NC.

Minnie died in May 2004 near her birthday - she was such a sweet, special Christian. Perhaps because of that and sickness or very busy schedules, those trips are on hold for a while.