One Writer's Beginnings

In this section, Welty recalls a family trip across the United States to visit her parents’ families. The chapter centers on the visual details that Welty recalls from this trip. In their Oakland touring car, Welty’s family traveled first to West Virginia to visit her mother’s family and then to Ohio to visit her father’s parents. Welty’s mother was the cheery navigator, occasionally breaking to admonish Welty’s father for not listening to her.

Each person in the car handled the trip in their own way. Her mother scrutinized her surroundings, while Welty’s father was meticulously focused on driving. Her brother, Edward, wanted only to play the harmonica and make jokes, while the baby slept most of the way. Eudora, however, was focused on taking in the landscape, on noticing: “I rode as a hypnotic, with my set gaze on the landscape that vibrated past at twenty-five miles per hour” (48).

The journey there took about a week. Welty noticed how the journey gave her a sense of boundaries, of beginnings and ends. She could distinguish between towns and rural areas. She felt keenly the difference as she crossed from the South to the North.

Welty’s mother’s family home was filled with laughter and noise.