Our College
Reunion – Day 6 (4/11/15)
Road Trip to Our Resort – Hilton Head Island, S. Carolina
We left around
8:00 a.m. A beautiful weeping willow tree in my neighborhood. It all bursted into pink colors beore we knew it. Thanks to you all for bringing the nice weather to celebrate our reunion.
It will be a long
road trip, 9 hours exact, to leave from my house to the resort – Grand Ocean
Villa, Royal Tern Building. My
family made the trip three times in 1994, 1995 and 1996 when the children were
growing up. Computer games, cell
phones were not that popular back then.
They would always made the picture journals passing each state to kill
the time. I mentioned about “South
of the Border” in the previous itinerary for you all. It was the memory of my son’s journal book with the big
Mexican Hat - Sombrero. Eric, the
naughty one, amid the pages of colorful car pictures he drew, even signaled the
big truck (18-wheelers) drivers to blow the air horn as one of his
entertainments. Luckily, all those
truckers we happened to pass by weren’t the serious folks. Thanks to them to allow my children
indulge the simple pleasure out of the boredom.
As I reminiscence
about the past, all of us did retell our life stories in a different revisions.
I know we are all huge fans of the movie “Gone with the Wind.” Those three books I read
- Gone with
the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Rhett Butler’s People by Donald McCaig and Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley are not real. All the major characters such as Rhett
Butler, Scarlet O’Hara, Ashley Wilkes, Melanie Hamilton, etc are just imaginary
in these historic novels. The
history about the Civil War is real which inspired the writers to make all
plots relatable.
The road we were
travelling through was the rutted path used by the Native settlers, the Union
and the Confederate soldiers before, during or after the Civil Wars.
In between stopping
by the roadside to picnic, dozing off in the different time lines and events,
and exchanging our life past and perspectives, quickly we realized, all of the
characters in the movie “Gone with the Wind”
practically intertwined into the people we have come across in our lives. They could be our own children fully
grown now, or our old college friends disconnected after 44 years, or coworkers
from different workforce. My
retelling of these three books helped us understand more about the characters
in the movie and the real people like them in our lives.
Picnic at Rocky Mount, N. Carolina - LJ took this picture |
Our stories we
shared really define us about who we are.
The experience shaped us and the turning points in our lives tested
us. I am lucky to enjoy the
precious now with all of you.
We arrived at the
Villa around 7:00 p.m. It was a sunny day in the south.
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