Finding
Aunt Lo
Oh,
Those West Virginia Hills
Sara
Flowers (Spooner)
We had left Cousin Hank’s house in
Kentucky, driven through the northwestern parts of West Virginia and now Mom
and I were driving south to Aunt Lo’s house. She had told us to cross the
railroad tracks, take the left side of the Y intersection, cross the bridge and
then turn left just past the little store. Then we were to turn left on the
first street and her house would be the third on the left.
The first problem was that every
five miles we found a railroad track, a Y intersection, a bridge to cross and a
little store. That combination, in that order, is everywhere in West Virginia.
We got directions at one of the little stores to go try the next little store.
So we turned on first street. There
were no houses on the left and nothing else fit the rest of the description. We
tried five more combinations and nothing worked.
Finally we stopped at the store Mom and I agreed seemed likeliest. As we asked the young man who was lounging against a display of soda pop, he looked up and asked, “Which Casey, Lo or her daughter
He told us to cross the highway onto the first road, go about 50 feet from
the store and turn, not onto.a road, but into the first dirt driveway. As we
drove up to the house, Aunt Lo got up from her porch rocking chair and came to
meet us saying, “I thought that was you. I watched you drive past my house five
times.”