Our College Reunion – Day 6, 4/11/15 - Road Trip to our Resort

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.