Saturday, June 25, 2011

Road Trip, c. 1961




I've no memory of this early road trip. It was probably blocked out from the trauma of perching on the edge Niagara Falls. It is absolutely the last time I was voluntarily perched on the edge of anything. My sister (on left) has no such fears. Whenever we traveled she and Daddy would scale whatever there was to scale. I still remember her legs dangling beneath the fence (literally queasy as I write this) on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. I stared up at them on the Eiffel Tower, saw them waving atop the Tower of Pisa, and every other monument over two stories tall we visited while we were growing up. 

I've made some progress in adulthood. With enough time I've been able to creep close to the edge of the Grand Canyon and peer down into Bryce Canyon. I've walked on rope bridges in the jungle and even climbed the Statue of Liberty. None of it has been fun, but I've managed. Still, there's no way this picture will EVER be recreated. 

Mother's caption on the back reads "Terror at Niagara Falls" so perhaps my fear of heights was inherited.