On the Road with RLR Jr

Of course, I didn't get the scholarship for Michigan State's political science department.

I did get a memorable trip with Dad. He was his usual irascible self, but most often his anger was directed at himself. Seldom was it directed at me, and never that I can recall without good reason. He was the mean parent, but he was also the parent who went the extra mile for us. He was the one who put in a lot of work on schools research. He was the one who, in the dead of Winter, drove eight and a half hours for a one day test for a possible scholarship. We creaked along in that 15 year old Chevy Nova, a car that had not held up nearly as well as my now 15 year old Honda Accord.

Someday I'll be passing along the tradition of the used car to the kids. That Nova that was his car then became the shared car for me and my brother when the '72 Ford Gran Torino we had died. Amazingly, the Nova was an upgrade from the Torino. In a few years from now, my daughter will be the driver of the Accord, which is older than she is. It'll be a lot more reliable than the old cars Dad would get used but will keep her from thinking she's entitled to some sort of shiny new car without having done anything to earn it.

I have no regrets in not getting the scholarship. I still cheer for Michigan State, though I didn't attend. Besides, I got a scholarship to Franklin and Marshall College, where I met my wife. Wouldn't want to have passed up that.

On the Road with RLR Jr

For whatever reason, the return to Richfield seemed to go faster than the trip out. It was just as cold and bleak as the way out. Maybe it was the relief that the goal of the trip had been completed.

Indiana was barely touched on the trip and I have no memory of it at all.

Unlike when Dad's sister-in-law was bringing my grandmother to Richfield from Pittsburgh, we didn't head west for a few hours before realizing we were going the wrong way. In fact, in this age of GPS reliance, more than a few people might be surprised that Dad knew to head east to get home, or to head west to get to Michigan in the first place.

Something of a notorious incident in the family occurred in the early '80s. My grandmother, who lived not in the present but the past of her childhood (and who had no teeth), had been living in the Pittsburgh area with one of Dad's brothers. This brother is mentally retarded (a word that is a technical description, not a pejorative), but was married and had a few kids. His wife was to bring my grandmother from Pittsburgh to Richfield so Dad could oversee her care. Unfortunately, the wife had her own cognitive issues and drove a couple hours into Ohio before realizing she was heading in the wrong direction.

No wrong way home for us. Plenty of opportunity for expletives, though.

On the Road with RLR Jr

Aside from a few trips to Penn State for track meets with Dad, I had little experience with large universities. My high school soccer team played against State College HS, but that was not at Penn State. 'Course, they always beat us. State College had a lot more students to draw on than my little school where there were a 130 of us in my graduating class.

Michigan State was huge. Only spending a day there, I don't recall much about the town of East Lansing, but the campus was, to put it mildly, large. Most of my time was spent in a voluminous lecture hall taking the test of the scholarship. It was in two parts with a couple hours to each part. Strangely, I remember nothing about what was on the test. I remember sitting toward the left side of the hall. There was a see of high school seniors, all taking this same test.

I don't think the test was hard. I moved through it steadily and surely. There wasn't much down time to talk to any of the other students. Not that I was inclined for such chatting.

Dad and I grabbed lunch on the break.

Cold as it was when we left Richfield, it was colder still in Michigan. Not much snow. Just cold.

The scholarship test over and done, we stayed over in a hotel so we could troop right back to Richfield the next day.

On the Road with RLR Jr

We set out from Richfield, PA to East Lansing, MI in the 1970 Chevrolet Nova. I don't remember exactly when it was. It was definitely Winter. It was cold. It was bleak. On the plus side, it didn't involve the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Still, Ohio in Winter is nothing to anticipate with any sense of hope. A large portion of the trip was crossing northern Ohio, so you know. I had that to look forward to.

In truth, I don't recall a lot of the trip. I was 18, more or less. Dad drove the whole way. I had headphones, and I excelled at napping in moving cars. Probably the best way to traverse Ohio.

It was bound to be a trip with expletives and lost opportunities for quips. Like Calvin, Dad always had something clever to say about an affront, about 10 minutes later. At the time of an affront, of which there were bound to be plenty on the highways, "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on" was likely to be the most immediate response.

Dad had a way with words. He had some of his father's pugilistic inclinations but was far better at restraining them. At least he was more restrained after high school age. At some point in his education in the Pittsburgh environs he was upbraided by a teacher for going down an stairwell designated for up. Being late for class and not wanting to be harrassed by this small rule, he punched the teacher. Sure was obvious he'd become a teacher later.

On the Road with RLR Jr

College admission wasn't the problem. Getting in I could do. Affording it, now that was another thing.

Sure, having separated parents helped, what with the costs of two households being taken into the accounting for aid, but it only helped so much. Besides, who wants loans if gift money is out there?

Michigan State I got into. Michigan State had a full scholarship program for political science. To get the scholarship, a test had to be taken. A test administered in East Lansing, Michigan. That's an eight and a half hour drive. Longer if you stop for such minor annoyances as bathroom and food.

Robert L Remaley Jr, my dad, was the primary advocate for colleges for both me and my brother. Whatever our interests, he was the one doing research on schools that would be good for those interests. For me, that was government and history. For Michael, that was theater. His research led to me applying to 13 schools. In 1985, that was a lot. It's not like it could be done on line.

Scholarship potential means road trip. Just me and Dad. Dad, the elementary education professor at Bloomsburg State College. Dad, the guy who had a job tailor made for him. He traveled from elementary school to elementary school supervising student teachers. He spent almost no time at Bloomsburg. Given his disdain for adults, that was a perfect job for him. Time around kids was much to his preference.

Considering his family history, the disdain was well earned. His mother suffered from a form of dimentia. His father was pugilistic, constantly losing jobs. Dad was the eldest of 6 kids. When he was 10, they were living in the foundation of a house, also known as a hole in the ground. There was no house, just the foundation. Social services stepped in when one of his younger siblings died of illness of some sort. They were all separated. Dad was raised in orphanages and foster homes after that. Orphanages meant running away from the terrible conditions there, but that never lasted long. The 1950s were far from the black and white idyllic remembered in popular TV of the day, so far as he was concerned. But he ended up with a good foster family on a farm, eventually transfering from his Pittsburgh environs to Stevens Trade School in Lancaster, PA. He boarded there and took an extra year of high school but went to Millersville State College and became and elementary school teacher. Aside from his foster parents, adults didn't earn much esteem in his eyes.

The other player in our trip was the car. Dad had a 1970 Chevrolet Nova. It was light blue like the one in the picture but didn't look nearly as nice. Beat would be more apt. No fancy wheels. No SS. Oh, and his was 4 door. He paid $400 for it, used of course. It had little in the way of sound system or amenities. The heat worked, most of the time. He had an aftemarket cruise control installed, though. Good thing for this trip.