Problem
"We sold what household things we had . . ."
Lillian Howell
My father worked at Kroger's in central downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. He got laid off, and we didn't know what we were going to do. We came up with this idea to come back to Virginia to live with some family. And we sold what household things we had, which was very few, but we took the one prized possession that my mother had, an ivory dresser set.
And it was a three-day trip in that Model T Ford that Dad purchased with all the money he could get together. There were no filling stations; there were no motels; many of the roads weren't even paved. Sometimes the curves were so bad, Dad was afraid he'd run off the road, and he'd have us get out of the car and walk.
Somewhere along the way, we were out of money. We found this grocery store, and they had gas. It was only 10 cents a gallon. So, Dad remembered that dresser set, and he said, "There's nothing to do but to pawn it. We've got to have the money. We got to have food. We got to have gas." And my mother, she reluctantly gave up her prize.
Our last night, we slept on the road, and it was cold and the wildcats were just howling. And I was so frightened, and Dad built a fire, and he said, "As long as I keep this fire going, they're going to stay on that side of the river, and we're going to stay on this side of the river." And the next day, we arrived there at my mother's sister's.
The thing that I remember most when was we got to Aunt Mamie's we were so welcome. It felt so good to have somebody that cared about you, that seemed to want you, who loved you - but most of all that people shared what they had. They gave us a bed. And after being in that car and sleeping out on the road, that bed felt so good that I - I just felt wonderfully warm and secure.
And it was just the way that people gave to each other that helped us through the toughest times.1
Task
What was Lillian's most treasured memory of her trip from Ohio to Virginia?