joke through the country during a time when war- weary people needed all the diversion they could get.

        Ten minutes later and we were back on the bus in our miniature seats. I couldn’t lean back and I couldn’t see out.   Leaning way over to catch a glimpse out one of the windows from time to time, all I could see were cactus and desert mountains in the distance.  I made a vow right then that soon I would get to ride in the front seat of the bus and have my chance to see the towns we were coming to first. 

        I would be the one to see the advertisements first. The billboards like the one we passed shaped like a giant steer announcing the Long Horn Steakhouse would be seen by me alone, and then the other passengers.   I thought the huge signs with Uncle Sam pointing his finger and captioned, “I want you” were in a funny place.  I didn’t think anyone ever passed by way out here on the desert.  Rosie the Riveter’s sign always followed Uncle Sam’s. Her red scarf held back her curls as she held her tool in one had and flashed the V for Victory sign at us in the other. I was used to seeing Uncle Sam posters around Phoenix saying “Loose Lips Sink Ships”.  I guessed they were warning the soldiers and sailors not to give away secrets.

        ‘Mom and I will be able to read the Burma Shave signs early in plenty of time to catch the whole verse, before everybody else even sees it.   I’ll see jackrabbits crossing the road in front of the bus, and thunderheads too, before the raindrops hit,’ I decided, as I dreamed of sitting in the front of the bus.

        We traveled into New Mexico and our driver was trying to make up time in the long stretches of road. The sandy hills were gleaming white in the sun and purple in the shadows. Somewhere between Lordsburg and Las Cruces, we hit a series of dips in the road and suddenly he braked hard. He got out and the rest of us followed. I saw it then… a car was turned over, laying on it’s top. A young woman with tears pouring from her eyes cradled a baby in her arms. She stumbled around in circles. Blood streamed down the side of her face.

        “I’ll never make it. I’ll never get there in time,” she repeated over and over. “I was just trying to make up a little time today and I wasn’t expecting those dips in the highway.

        Soon my mother had her arms around the distraught lady and child. She murmured “Now, now, you’re all right” and stroked her shoulders over and over.  After a while Mom called out to our driver,  “She says she’s a navy wife. She was driving from Norfolk, Virginia to San Diego.”

        “My husband has never seen the baby,” the young woman in my mom’s arms sobbed. “ I just have to get to San Diego before they sail again.” Mom led her to a shady spot under a mesquite tree. Someone brought a couple of jackets from the bus. Mom got her to lie down on them.

        My sister held the baby while Mary Ann and I talked to it and got it to stop crying.   We heard a siren in the distance.  The highway patrol and an ambulance arrived together.   Our bus driver called for everyone to get back on the bus. I looked back once more at the sobbing young woman as our bus roared away.  My mom sighed, “The poor