Mom didn't like being on the downhill side of mountain roads. It was one of the few times she would move to the back seat. She would use the occasion to tell us how in 1926 she rode with her family in the back of a truck from Crawford County, Indiana to Great Falls, Montana to live with her bachelor Uncle who had gone West to teach school but ended up a wealthy landowner. He kept his wealth in sliver dollars which to this day are believed to be hidden somewhere around the old homestead.
"I was five years old when dad decided, almost overnight, that we were going to Great Falls, or rather to a ranch between Dutton and Power, Montana, to live with my Uncle Grover and work in the wheat harvest. Eight of us...in a Model A Ford truck. The roads weren't paved and I still have an embedded fear of winding mountain roads. They were so narrow with drop-offs that seemed to me to never end."
During the painting process I kept thinking parts of the painting looked familiar. A little searching found some historical influences.
Duccio, The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew, 1308-1311
Walt Disney, Mickey's Trailer, 1938
Grant Wood, Death on Ridge Road, 1935
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