The Beginning

There is a place along the Hudson River in Manhattan where the drooping, leafy branches of a type of tree cover the wooden benches lining the promenade.   The sun was just starting to set and the clouds were in perfect lines above the tall cliffs of New Jersey that magnificent shades of red, orange and pink began to show.  I had just finished college and had moved back to the city.  I was lost, and needed to do something different.  I had never just picked up and done anything.  For me, planning was a prerequisite for everything. 

            I had planned to walk to Riverside Park and clear my head.  The trees were just starting to turn brown in the special way that New York trees can and still look beautiful.  A cool breeze blew in from the Hudson and I sat down on a bench next to an old man.   Something drew me to sit down and almost talk to him.  His face was weathered and his eyes almost exuded knowledge.   We both silently looked out over the dark water. 

            “You know, I’ve traveled over this huge bulge many times.”  I looked over at him, but he looked dead ahead.  “There is so much land, so many people. Dreaming.  In the Forties, I went back and forth.  Hitchhiking, bussing, just living and experiencing life.”

            I looked closer at him with amazement.  He didn’t look older than 60, but then he couldn't have been alive in the 1940s.  He was both old and young at the same time.  I coughed and responded to him, “Well you can’t hitch hike now.”  As soon as it came out of my mouth, I wish I hadn’t said it.  I sounded like a stupid kid, which I was. 

            “Times have changed, sure, but you don’t know yourself until you’re standing on top of the country and screaming at the top of your lungs.  You don’t know yourself until you have the open road ahead of you.”  I thought about that for a while.   In high school I had always dreamed of driving across the country, yet something always got in the way: college, summer internships, family. 

            “Ya, ya.  I’ve always meant to do it, I just never… I’m Josh by the way.”

            “I’m Sal, Sal Paradise.” 

            He looked at me and we shook hands.   It was the only time he looked at me in the eyes.  I felt as if he knew me, and I knew him in that one moment and then it passed.  He got up suddenly and left. For once in my life, I knew I needed to do something.  I needed to go West.