'Tis the season of gratitude

I unexpectedly discovered gratitude and generational connection on a stretch of historic Route 66 this month during several days spent in Arizona with our daughter. My husband and I were enjoying a post-retirement adventure. Bert was wanting to see some Route 66 historical sites, so we rented a car and with Sarah as a chauffeur we traveled 1,100 miles in four days up to Winslow to stand on the corner and stay a night at the La Posada, a historic railroad hotel. Then off to Flagstaff for breakfast with the historic mining town of Oatman as the afternoon’s destination. I wanted to see Oatman after reading "The Blue Tattoo, The Life of Olive Oatman" a few years ago. The fact that wild burros visit the little town every day was also a draw.

We merrily headed out for Oatman, plenty of car snacks, vintage music sing-a-longs and laughter to pass the time. At Kingman, we turned off at Oatman Highway, a 50-mile stretch of narrow two-lane historic Route 66. While it’s a paved road, it’s still very rustic. We were blissfully unaware of what lie ahead between us and Oatman.

At one point, the flat desert landscape was replaced by an ascent into the Black Mountains. It’s there I realized that both my maternal and paternal grandparents had surely traveled this same stretch of road nearly a century before as they migrated from Oklahoma to California in the late 1920s, early 1930s. My father would have been a very young child and my mother would be born in southern California a few years later.

As we slowly navigated the mountain road with no guardrails or room for error I imagined my people, full of dreams and determination making that grueling 1,100 mile trek from Oklahoma to a new life. Everything they owned and everyone they loved in tow.

The final 8 miles into Oatman is known as Route 66 Arizona Sidewinder, with over 191 curves and switchbacks on two narrow lanes of highway. In the Black Mountains of Arizona on Route 66 I felt a connection like no other to the grandparents I loved. The fortitude and hope and a little fear and uncertainty, I felt it in each mile.

In 2025, generations removed, the Mother Road of their era still exists. They may be long gone but their spirit still lingers and their granddaughter is incredibly grateful to have traveled a bit of the journey alongside.

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Note to those who read last week’s Main Street column about my inability to skip, skip I did. My official skipping debut in Kingman, Ariz., may not have been pretty, but I’m a work in progress.

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Thanksgiving Eve and there are four categories of people today. Those who are traveling, those who are grocery shopping, those who are cooking and those who made restaurant reservations.

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An often repeated quote, “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind,” is so very true. This time of year can be exceptionally challenging for so many for hundreds of reasons.

The best gift you can give is a smile to a stranger and extending grace to those who might need a little bit of hope. Be kind. Always.

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Happy Birthday today to Tom Torgerson, Marilyn Fisher, Elijah Ott, Danelle Phelps and Sandy Osburn. Thanksgiving Day birthdays for Rocky Shaver and Sue Hutter. On Friday, Katie King, Cody and Tristan Webb, Breanna Joyner (30!) and Judy Dahl (80!) celebrate. Carol Ann Eachon and Jodine Spry are blowing out the candles Saturday. Kevin Ekness, Larry Quimby, Carol Kreighbaum, Raine Solberg, Carolyn Walker, Shirley Thagard, Kevin Krieg and Cindy Scinto take another trip around the sun on the last day of the month. The first day of December, Chris Pappas (80!), Marge Chadderdon, Jay Bremner, Emily Castle and Connie Price ring the birthday bell. On Tuesday, Brandi Hague-Little, Lois Holom and Wally Adams mark their special day.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email [email protected].