Edge of the World

I grew up in a world very different from the world today. So much has changed, but here and there are reminders of those days of the 1950s and early 1960s. One of those places is where US 40, the old National Road, has a junction with Indiana 103 at Lewisville, Indiana. This is what I saw there looking west on the afternoon of December 20, 2023.

By Barbi on 2023 12 29

Quite interesting how a child conceives of the boundaries in his world. Where I grew up there was a main road just a few homes past ours. It was heavily trafficked during the morning commute and we had to walk along it to get to our school. We often crossed that street (carefully) when walking or biking to our friends' homes in the neighborhood just beyond. Any old day we wanted to, after school and weekends. Never thought anything about it. But on the mornings with heavy fog, you could almost walk into that busy street without even seeing the cars. You could hear them, but you didn't see them until you were right up against that street. You could not see the large house across that main street. You could not see up the side street to those homes you went to so often. I remember standing at the edge of that main road and thinking the earth dropped off just across that second lane. The world just ended there as far as I was concerned.

The words you use to describe the countryside and the stores in town allowed me to see it the way you saw it. The farmland and imagining the scent of the apple cider, this is how the elementary school books with their pictures transported me to the Midwest and the East Coast. I loved reading, but especially if it came with a picture to help my imagination along. Thank you for that beautiful trip.

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