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Road Trip By Jennifer Henry One thing that every person has in this life, is time, how you choose to use that time is up to each individual. My extra time is used to enjoy one my favorite things in this world, my family. The time that has been spent with them has made something in me that stays with me no matter where I go, or what I become; memories. This one takes place not too long ago in a time when I still possessed so many innocent, child-like qualities, especially the endearing trait of always being right. There we were, driving through the rolling hills of Southern Alberta with my Mom, her best friend Rosie, and me. I was riding in the back doing what I did best - eavesdropping on front-seat grown-up conversations and staring out the window. We were around the Strathmore area when a storm began to blow in. I have always had a thing for summertime storms. I will tell anyone who will listen that Alberta gets some of the most incredible storms ever - right here, above our golden wheat fields. Maybe it is because of our endless skies that they seem so spectacular? Sometimes it's almost like night swoops down upon you in one cool, moist breath - that moment when our thunderstorms roll in. One minute you can be basking in the glorious sun and then poof - you'll find yourself in a downpour! Your nose will always tweak in interest as that all familiar smell precedes those spectacular black blanket. Of all the amazing seasons we have in our backyard, it is the thunderstorm that intrigues me the most. But you should know something about my mom. She was a fanatical lapel pin collector and had one from every single town (sometimes hamlet) in Alberta, and we can all testify that she drove to each town to get every one! She made it her personal mission to obtain one pin from every hamlet, village, town or city in Alberta that made one. That's exactly what we were doing on this particular day, collecting a pin from Strathmore. The storm began moving in fast and violently as I watched from the backseat while my heart raced whenever the sky split apart. That's when I looked down beside me and saw my Mom's camera. Now this is not a slick little point and shoot, this is a very sophisticated, expensive camera that I was rarely aloud to touch ... well, until now! I picked it up and looked up into the rearview mirror at my Mom and said: 'Do you want to make a bet?' She looked back at me with a little grin: 'On what?' 'I bet that I can photograph the lightening...' I waited patiently for a response . . . All I heard was a chuckle from her and her friend: 'Jennifer, that is 200 speed film, it is dark out and you will not be able to take a picture of the lightning from a moving car.' I processed in my head all the reasons she laid out, and convinced myself that these were mere hiccups for a determined girl with a photographic eye. I accompanied my Mom frequently on hikes down to the Red Deer river and watched her in action as she made simple pictures flowers and trees look spectacular. How hard could it really be to take a great picture from a car doing 100 kilometers per hour in a colossal downpour under a looming black sky? 'Let's see . . . please,' I begged with a smile. I really wanted to show her that I was a chip off the ol block and could take that picture. I sat in the back and snapped feverously until my Mom finally convinced me that I was wasting her film. Through the viewfinder it looked like she was right but I knew deep inside that one of them would turn out. We rode the rest of the way home to our farm talking about the great day that we'd had poking through some quirky, southern Alberta towns. Two days later my Mom brought home the developed roll of film and said, a little quietly: 'I don't believe it . . . ' In her hand was exactly what I saw through the view finder that night . . . lightning, snapping and popping right across the inky sky. The thunder that rumbled the nerves made it hard to snap the button to capture the next bolt. It doesn't really matter that the rest of those pictures were black - for there in her hand was the one spectacular picture of a prairie sky splintered with shafts of lightning! Now with a few more years under my belt with a camera, I can say that there are better quality pictures of lightening, but none come with such a memory as mine. That picture now hangs in my parents' home, blown up into an 8X10 of course, and every person who comments on it, hears the story behind my shot of fame. It's really just a simple tale of one of the many great road trips I've had with my Mom. She truly loved the rolling beauty around her and never understood why I needed to travel to faraway places when I have such staggering beauty in my own backyard. This is one of the last pin collecting road trips I ever took with my Mom before she passed away and it is one that fills my heart with smiles and joy. I learnt a lot from my Mom about enjoying simple things in life and to always appreciate the wonders of nature. Some of our most memorable talks were in that car on some sort of road trip. Most of the time she would not even plan where we would end up, we would just get in and go! You learn a lot from family and the time spent with them. When you put the two together, it makes memories. |
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