I was recently on an extremely lengthy plane ride, so I decided to watch a movie. They had over 100 different choices, and nothing really grabbed me. However, as I was glancing at the list a second time, I decided to see what I thought of Into the Wild, which I vaguely remembered was about a young man who trekked to Alaska and perished there.
One of my older brothers, just after high school, decided to hitchhike his way to Alaska. This is from Louisiana, remember, and it was during the mid 1970s. In other words, this was insane. At the time, I didn’t really give it a second thought, but as a parent myself now, I can hardly believe he got out of the house with such plans. My kids are just about fully grown, and I still wait outside the bathroom door for them at restaurants, so I can’t imagine just sending a kid off for the entire summer and hoping maybe he’d return in a couple of months.
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