Washington

Luke Chapter 12, Verse 51:"Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division." Back in 1986 Daddy had scored a huge find. He loved flea markets, auction sales and "junk shops" with a passion. When I was a kid he and Mama would drag the three of us boys all over Marlboro County on missions we gleefully referred to as "junking"......we would spend Sunday afternoons riding between John Davis' antiques, Finethy's auction house in Society Hill or the antique store/junk shop in Tatum that was yet another Walter Finethy operation. Stevenson's Antiques on Broad Street was another prime "picking" location. We boys grumbled about it then, but at least we were out doing something and the folks would bribe us with the promise of stopping at Miller's Milk Bar for ice cream at the conclusion of the excursion. Back to 1986. Daddy had a friend...Howard Hyatt...that ran an auction business/junk shop on Redbud Street in Bennettsville. Howard got his merchandise from a Goodwill distribution center in Alexandria, VA just south of Washington, DC. He would drive his box truck up every Sunday night and be at the distribution center first thing Monday morning and sort through the contributions that had been collected over the weekend, buy a truckload of stuff for a paltry sum and drive the load back to Bennettsville, and unload at 5pm Monday afternoons. You could count on JB being there whenever Howard returned to unload. As Howard would unload, Daddy would pick through the "junk" and have Howard set things aside. Daddy loved photography and imagine his surprise when a large wooden case emerged from the truck with the "Linhof" logo printed on it. Daddy, trying to contain his excitement, had Howard add it to his pile of stuff. A few other items were added and Daddy decided to square up with Howard, and ended up paying $30 for the whole pile. When Daddy returned home he was fit to be tied! He excitedly opened the case for a closer examination of the contents (he had briefly glanced in the case at Howards to confirm it's contents) and the look in his eyes told the story. The case contained a pristine Linhof Master Technika 4x5 portrait camera with all sorts of accessories. Remote shutter actuators, film plate cartridges, two wooden tripods and a variety of other items were carefully stowed in the beautiful walnut case. Daddy was as wild as a kid on Christmas day!

Now Daddy was a salesman. He loved to make a deal, and oh boy! This was a big deal for him. After scouring the classified section of a weekly photography trade paper he subscribed to, a photography shop in Washington, DC was found that was very interested in the Linhof. The plans were made for a weekend trip to our nations capital and we set out in the family car, a Buick LeSabre "land yacht" on a Saturday morning. Mama, Daddy and I loaded up and headed north on Highway 38 to Rockingham to pick up US 220 to Greensboro and take US 29 on to Washington. Wallace was married and living in Easley by this time and Matt wasn't interested in a roadtrip. I had three days off from Oak River and jumped at the opportunity for an adventure! We meandered north, having a grand old time talking, laughing and dreaming of the incredible time we were going to experience in our nations capital. It was to be our first visit to Washington and we laughingly called ourselves the "Kettles".....Ma, Pa, and I was playing the part of Tom Kettle. We giggled at the thought of the three of us receiving an invite to the White House; of dining at an exclusive restaurant in the metro DC area and of the possibility of being interviewed by a news crew once the story broke of a poor family that, through the stroke of good fortune and wits, struck the "big time"! Our happiness lasted about three hours for upon arrival in Greensboro the air conditioning on the LeSabre "Land Yacht" decided to bite the dust. It was the first of June, and it happened to be an unusually hot June at that. We elected to resort to the old "455" method of climate control and pressed on, undaunted. It was an omen of bad things and strife that lay ahead!

We arrived at Capitol Camera around 2pm and Daddy hauled his prized find into the store to begin the process of bargaining while Mama and I milled about the store, trying our best to appear "metropolitan" and avoid sales pitches that would reveal our ignorance. We wandered out onto the street, did some window shopping and walked down the steps at a Metro station to marvel at the trains running through and to enjoy a Busker performing on the platform. She was a violinist and her performance reverberated off the vaulted ceiling and filled us with joy. I proffered a dollar bill as she nodded in gratitude, and launched into "Turkey in the Straw" as if she recognized our rural background. It was incredible! We returned to Capitol as JB was wrapping up, and we piled back into the Buick just a little after 3 pm. Daddy had walked out with a new 35mm SLR , a few lenses, a small autofocus Vivitar 35mm camera and $1100 cash. He was whistling his "happy" tune and excitedly fiddled with his newfound toys as I chauffeured them right into the heart of DC. We spent the next three hours just riding around, seeing the White House, the Mall, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, the Smithsonian and paid a visit to the Botanical Gardens. I wanted to go into the National Air and Space Museum but time was running out so we decided to point the nose of the Buick south and start our journey home. If you have ever been in Washington, DC at 6pm then you will understand the nightmare that we experienced next! Rush hour in DC is no joke, and driving two tons of Buick with all 4 windows down while a nervous mother fretted over traffic and a father reading a map and getting ill-tempered with each passing moment is not a task to be taken lightly! Tempers flared, harsh words flew and a few moments of testy silence were broken by the cacophony of impatient horn-blowing commuters anxious to get home to a cocktail and dinner. I had read about "Road Rage" and was getting a firsthand lesson on the subject. We eventually found US 15 and got out of the metro area. whew, what a relief! We stopped in Culpepper, VA for dinner at a Bob Evans and decided we would drive to Charlottesville, find a motel for the night and continue the journey Sunday morning. Primed with grilled chicken and coffee, we once again continued our southward trek. We made it to Charlottesville by 9 pm and started our hunt for lodging. The hours passed and our search was met with "No Vacancy" signs at each attempt. Mama inquired at the desk of a Best Western on a frontage road of I-64 and we heard the admonition of woe from the desk clerk......the University of Virginia held commencement that day, and every hotel, motel and Holiday Inn was booked solid for a two hundred mile radius! Hour after hour, we were met with the same response. No rooms were to be found, anywhere! It was hilarious at first but after the second refueling stop at two am it got a bit.....testy! We were now a family divided. Mama wanted me to pull over and let us nap in the Buick, I was optimistic that a room would be available at the next exit and JB blew his top and declared "We are going home, we will drive straight through! Scott takes the first shift driving, then I will drive til I cannot go anymore and Sharon will drive the rest!" It was indeed ugly as the tension mounted. We explored at least three hundred miles of I-64 and finally, at nearly 5 am in Staunton, VA Mama decided one last time to try and get a room. Daddy was full of venom by this time and I witnessed the eruption of the worst argument ever between my parents. I was afraid that homicide by camera lens was a possibility and tried to moderate, but I got my head bitten off as Mamma cried. We pulled into a motel for one last try. Mama gathered her composure and went in. Daddy and I sat in stewing silence, neither daring to utter a peep. Mamma reappeared at the lobby door and excitedly motioned to us......they had a room available! An early checkout guest left the only vacancy for two hundred miles and it was ours as soon as the housekeeping staff finished it up. Thirty minutes later we were sprawled on the beds, unaware of each other's snoring due to the extreme fatigue. We slept until 11am which was unheard of with Mama and Daddy. I come from a long line of early birds and Daddy was usually up by 5am, so to have he and Mama sleeping in was unusual. We took turns with the shower, got dressed and stumbled out into the sunshine to put an end to this escapade. We were met with a view that could only be described as indescribable! Staunton, VA is in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley and the incredible view of two mountain ridges was breathtaking! We found a small cafe for our morning repast in downtown Staunton and recounted our adventure from the previous night with much laughter. Coffee with grits, eggs, sausage and toast with jelly seem to be the ingredients of a healing elixir and we scoffed the vittles and scoffed at our ordeal. What was a looming dark cloud just a few hours ago had been lifted and was now a distant memory. The "warm and fuzzy" feeling of family love once again emanated from a place deep within my chest....the same feeling I would get whenever I would eat a "Three Musketeers" bar. It's hard to describe but it is like a warm tickle from deep within, a sense of love, admiration and awe wrapped in chocolate and sweet goodness. Staunton was a beautiful town! We spent a half hour cruising it, enjoying the quaintness of downtown, the mill villages that peppered the slopes of the twin ridges that arose in the distance and the coolness of the air. Staunton was home to the manufacturer of PAL brand razor blades and we passed the factory, and the image of it was burned into my head. I thought it was pretty neat that I was seeing the origin of a product many men started their day with while we were starting our day, and it was indeed the start of a beautiful day. We continues south on Highway 11 which, at the time was known as "Skyline Drive". It was atop one of the ridges that overlooked the Shenandoah and you had a commanding view for miles and miles, and it was a beautiful view. The temperature was in the 70s, humidity was low and it seemed that the sky was as blue as those "sky blue" mints that the candy store in the old Florence Mall sold. Every bend in the road brought yet another incredible vista, another creation of God to behold. We couldn't believe that, out of the strife and ugliness of the night before something so beautiful and awe-inspiring could appear. We continued south on 11 to Roanoke where we picked up US 220 which would take us all the way to Rockingham, NC and subsequently the last leg of our voyage. Stopping at a roadside stand, we bought apples and cider along with summer sausage, cheese and bread and partook of a family tradition.....everybody got a portion of cheese and sausage cut with Daddy's pocketknife which was consumed with the bread; and the jug of cider passed between us to wash it down with. We called it "road communion" and once again the laughter erupted between us. We had been made whole again! Daddy navigated me to detour through the small town of Oak Ridge, the home of his beloved Oak Ridge Military Academy. He had been a student there for 2 years prior to high school and he excitedly narrated the campus and regaled us with tales as we slowly slid through in the "Land Yacht". We eventually wound up back in Rockingham and made the last leg down SC 38 back into Bennettsville. I was relieved to see good old 105 S Cook Street still standing, the two mighty oak trees in the front welcoming us home. We were the Johnsons again, and we were home!