The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963

The family stops at a rest stop near Toledo, Ohio, where only outhouse-style bathrooms are available. Kenny and Byron opt to take toilet paper into the woods instead. They eat sandwiches and try to make grape Kool-Aid with water from a pump, but it tastes metallic and they dump most of it. Momma and Dad warn Byron that Grandma Sands’s house has an outhouse, too: “The way she looks at it a house is a whole lot nicer place if the facilities are outside” (140). Momma checks the notebook for notes on food and other details for their trip, and the kids soon fall asleep in the backseat. Kenny hears Momma asking Dad how he’s doing as they approach Cincinnati, their first planned overnight stop. Dad indicates he wants to keep going. Kenny can tell Momma thinks this will throw off her plans in the notebook. Kenny knows the truth because he overheard Dad talking to Mr. Johnson before the trip: Dad wants to avoid stopping altogether and drive straight through. He asked Mr. Johnson if the car was capable of that many hours of driving. Mr. Johnson told him, “The question isn’t the car, the question is could you do it straight?” (143).