Grandma's "Now You're Married, Now You're Not" Ride

Recent events in New England regarding equal treatment under the law in Connecticut and Vermont got me thinking about my childhood. Although I've lived in Texas for more than 30 years, I'm not a native Texan. I come from the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts. The picture at the left was taken at Pontoosuc Lake in the Pittsfield area where we had many picnics when I was a child.

When I get together with my siblings, it seems that one of our favorite conversation topics is our grandmother's four-state rides. She loved to gather one of two of us into her gigantic Oldsmobile, always the biggest Oldsmobile made, and fly through the mountains to show us how we could go a mile a minute through parts of Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont. And then she'd load us up with maple sugar candy and Vermont cheese before heading back home.

Now, instead of being Grandma's Four-State Ride, we can call it Grandma's Now You're Married, Now You're Not Ride. (But hopefully not for much longer)