Letters Back Home--1

Millennials from near and far are settling back into college life. Parents either deliver their students to the destination or closely follow their travels via text messages, phone calls, social media, photos, videos.
I found a 1940 postcard from my mother to her parents. It was postmarked Sept. 24, Covington, KY.

Kathryn and an older brother, Dan, arrived there from Evans City, PA, early afternoon, half way to their destination—Bryan College in Dayton, TN. They planned to leave very early the next morning and complete the other leg of the journey. Mother felt constrained to let her parents know that they had traveled safely so far, despite rain and slippery roads.

I checked Google maps online to verify distances and learned that to drive 300 miles now, more than seventy years later, it would take a little under five hours. Our present day travelers would most likely attempt it all in one day and not split the distance.

I wonder what car they had, what the roads were like, how fast they traveled, where they spent the night, and how long they drove the second day. But is there anyone left to ask, or who would remember what it was like back then?