One Writer's Beginnings

Welty begins this section with the story of traveling with her father by train from Jackson to Virginia. As they rode, each saw the trip through their own viewpoint; the journey was not the same for the two of them:

Side by side and separately, we each lost ourselves in the experience of not missing anything, of seeing everything, of knowing each time what the blows of the whistle meant. But of course it was not the same experience: what was new to me, not older than ten, was a landmark to him (97).

Welty’s father was excellent at keeping track of where they were and the timing of arrivals. Welty learned later that his attention to detail evidenced the significance of the trip to him: Virginia was where he had met his wife. Welty’s mother had preserved the letters they wrote to one another during their courtship, and as Welty read them, her mother’s voice felt familiar to her, but the tenderness of her father’s letters allowed Welty to see him in a new way.

When she grew older, Welty left Jackson for the Mississippi State College for Women, which she described as poverty-stricken and overcrowded.