Hi Friends,
I have the book selection for April, and unfortunately won't be there on
Saturday, so thought I'd send it out early. I won't be there in May either
to discuss it, so I hope you all enjoy it and have a good chat about it.
I haven't read this book, but thought I'd give it a try:
The Ride of Her LIfe: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their
Last-Change Journey Across America
By Elizabeth Letts
There are copies in the Fairfax County library system. Here is a summary:
In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an
impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her
farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted
to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice
to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown
gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in
mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect
beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have
her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that
Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.
Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world
transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and
1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed
mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at
terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through
America’s big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary
people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art
Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers—a permanent home at a
riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even
a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership
nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when
homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions
inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
