The Illinois Connection

Grandpa Joe Ridnour had a first cousin, Roy Gray in Plainville, IL. (I have yet to discover why Grandpa Joe's aunt Josie moved back to Adams Co., IL from Adams Co., IA.) Joe & Roy were good friends. Roy's wife, Nellie and Grandma Delphia became good friends. Over the years the two families made many Iowa-Illinois trips back and forth.
I believe my fear of crossing bridges came from the trip we took with them to IL the summer before I was five. There had been an accident on the Mississippi Bridge over to Quincy. We were stuck along with many more cars and trucks on the bridge. Grandpa was so afraid the bridge would collapse. I think I took in his fear and it has stayed with me. (Bud always made fun of my fear until the I-35 bridge collapse in MN.)
Nellie did not drive. After Roy's death, her son, Don, would bring her to Iowa to stay a week. Don was always fun to be around. He had been in the Navy and had tatoos of an anchor on one arm and 'Mom' on the other. He had a mustache, thick wavy hair and a gravelly voice, probably from smoking too many Pall Malls. And he always drove a Mercury convertible. When we were teenagers, he was in his late 30's, early 40's. We would beg him for a ride in the convertible so we could go to town and scoop the loop and show off. We even pooled our change so we could buy him a dollar's worth of gas.
Over Thanksgiving break the year I was a junior, Grandpa & Grandma took me and my cousin Janet with them to Illinois. Of course, being teenagers, we were soon bored. Nellie suggested Don take us to a movie in Quincy. So he and another Plainville cousin, Dale Richmond, took us to see 'A Summer Place'. Quincy had several grand old movie theaters. I think we went to the Orpheum, but it might have been the Italian Renaissance styled Washington.
At that time, 'A Summer Place' was considered a risque adult movie. Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire played former sweethearts who came together again many years later and had an affair. Their children, played by Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue, also became involved. Pretty steamy stuff for a naive sixteen year old like me. And the music! I still remember "....and the sweet secret of a summer place is that it's anywhere when two people share all their hopes, all their dreams, all their love..."
It was a magical night. Riding back to Plainville, looking at the snowy landscape under an almost full moon, it was easy to imagine I was on my first date - though of course it wasn't really a date.
Don was just a nice distant cousin who had never married and lived at home with his mother. I had overheard the adults talk about his "friend" in Quincy. They didn't say 'girlfriend', but I assumed that was what they meant.
During the rest of the weekend, Don introduced me to classical music. I remember 'The Grand Canyon Suite", "The Firebird Suite" and some Strauss waltzes, especially "The Blue Danube". He also asked if I'd ever read any Shakespeare. "Duh, who?" The first thing I did when I got back to school was go to the library and check out 'Macbeth'. I didn't actually 'get' Shakespeare, but I did make it through three of his plays that winter. I couldn't wait until the next time Don was back in Iowa so I could discuss with him what I'd read.
Don was also a painter. I began checking out books on art and familiarizing myself with the old masters and their works. Perhaps my natural love of learning would have eventually led me to discover the world of classics, but I credit Don Gray with introducing me to it .
When my mother and her sisters attended the funeral for Don in Illinois, his sister Gladys asked if they would like to choose one of his paintings. Mom picked one of tall pine trees against a cloudy blue sky. No one else wanted it when she died and I just couldn't let it go to a stranger at the auction. It reminds me every day of my Illinois connection.