Day 51 – Something passed down from your parents/grandparents

Itchy feet (I thought about photos of actual itchy feet but that seemed gross, and off-putting so this little globe will have to do).   

My well-established wanderlust goes back generation upon generation - but I can only really speak to my parents and grandparents.  And what a wonderfully itchy feet they all had.

An Australian convertible

My parents met, were married, and started a family in - of all places - Alice Springs, Northern
Territory, Australia.  Both Americans who were traveling and working in the Outback; totally normal, right?  I bet most of your parents met & started a life together in a similar way/place.  Both had traveled quite a bit before bumping into each other in Australia.  Mom and Auntie BAH did some serious gallivanting - two California girls setting up camp in faraway lands, re-frying their own beans and generally soaking up as many new places and experiences as they could find.  Dad saw the world first via the Air Force and then through his own wanderings. Between the two of them - hitchhiking and wandering across most of Europe, Central & Southern America before making a home in the very definition of the middle of nowhere.

Can you see my tiny noggin over all that snow?

After Alice Springs we lived in Anchorage and Arizona - and then started a back & forth bounce between AZ & OZ that lasted for the rest of their lives.  The grass always being greener, I suppose.  But maybe it was something more basic, more genetic than that.

G-ma Hynes on her cross-country drive

My mom's folks were both travelers as well - both having made their way out to California from smaller, slower places somewhere in the middle.  My grandmother drove all the way across country by herself - mind you this was when cars were first taking off and before highways truly existed in this country.  They both made the trek to Australia for to see their youngest daughter (my mom) marry a hay-seed fly-boy from Virginia.  No small journey since one of them didn't like to fly and the other was afraid of the ocean - flying over and boating back, ever the loving compromises.

G-pa Wheat in the Merchant Marines

My dad's dad was a world-class wanderer.  Some of that was fueled by his raging alcoholism, but it's more romantic to remember his Merchant Marine days as that of a wild-eyed seeker - always looking ahead to his next adventure.  I don't know all the details, but I do know that the traveling-genes aren't all Hynes-family related, the Wheats had some itchy feet as well.