We did not plan to go to Window Rock. We wanted to go to Norman, Oklahoma, to a Vista (Volunteers in Service to America) training site. Well, this is the tale of a desire to be Vista volunteers on a Choctaw reservation and ending up on the Navajo reservation at a fundamentalist Christian mission.
On a hot September day in 1967 Alice and I got married at a Mennonite Church in Iowa. After the wedding and reception we took off in our VW bug on a long road trip with nine weeks to burn before starting Vista training in Oklahoma. We headed northeast to Wisconsin looking forward to our first night in our two-person tent. We tented all along the way except for a few nights staying with friends.
From Wisconsin we drove through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where one day we encounter a huge herd of deer. So huge that we had to stop the car and just wait until the herd made the highway crossing. From Sault Saint Marie we drove south, camping along Lake Michigan until we reached Chicago. In Chicago we found a jeweler to resize one of our wedding bands!
From Chicago we drove to Detroit and entered Canada. In a day or so we arrived at Stratford, Ontario, to attend a performance of “Richard III” with Alan Bates in the lead role. What a time we were having! We spent several nights in an Old Order Amish community, the home of Pathway Publishing in Aylmer, Ontario. This was a time for reconnecting with David Luthy. David and I had been friends in Indiana. He was a Notre Dame graduate student when he decided to join the Amish. A perfect fit for an English major!
After the Amish experience, which included having pie for breakfast, we drove to Bright, Ontario, to visit the Community Farm of the Brethren, a Christian communitarian group founded by Julius Kubassek, a Hungarian immigrant. This group related to the Hutterites for a time and then purchased a farm in Bright in 1941. A honeymoon with Anabaptists along the way, reflected my recent discharge from the Army and desire to be an Anabaptist of some type. I was drawn to the Amish. Alice had grown up with the Amish in Iowa and wasn’t interested in making that leap.
After Ontario we went on East to Montreal and visited Expo 67. One of the world’s most successful World Exhibitions, Expo’s 50 million plus visitors had gone home so it was a pleasant time to visit exhibits and see the scope of the event.
A quick drop into Quebec City, one of the most European cities in North America, was enjoyable. Up the the Gaspe Peninsula, along the St Lawrence River, and into New Brunswick we found delightful provincial parks. Prince Edward Island gave an imaginary sense of being in Scotland. Our final province was Nova Scotia. We rode for 3.5 hours on a ferry between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Bar Harbor, Maine. A fun way to enter the U.S. and begin to think about where we were going — Oklahoma.
A quick drive through fall in New England took us to Provincetown, Massachusetts. From my Army days I was acquainted with Hawthorne Bissell, a tennis pro, who lived in Provincetown during the summer and during the winter in Islamorada, Florida, in the Florida Keys. We worked for Hawthorne for a couple weeks on his tennis facility and left for the West. With stops along the way we drove to Denver, Colorado!
Are you getting the picture of a long drive as far East as we could go and then turning around and heading to the Rockies? Remember we wanted to get to Norman eventually, be out of money so we could anticipate the government beginning to pick up our expenses.
After visiting friends in Colorado we drove east to Hesston, Kansas, to visit more friends. In Hesston the Vista program caught up with us. It was pre-mobile phone time and our road trip made it difficult for people to reach us. The training program was cancelled! The next day we had planned on driving to Norman. Again, no money with the anticipation of being on volunteer income with Vista. What next? A Mennonite pastor did some fast thinking and called a Mennonite missionary friend on the Navajo reservation. That contact called a mission near Window Rock to see if we could serve their ministry. They said “yes” and we took off for Arizona.
Our new hosts were great people. They had a radio station transmitting the Gospel to the Navajo Nation. Alice worked in the station office and I worked on the grounds as a general helper. I drove a dump truck and graded roads with a vintage grader. Once I had the harrowing experience of the left front wheel coming off the dump truck on a hilly road.
We lived in an old house with many air leaks. It was winter and a 48 inch snow fell during that time. It was so bad that the U.S. government flew relief flights over the reservation dropping hay for the sheep and food for those living in remote hogans.
One big issue — the mission was founded by Carl McIntire, a far right fundamentalist who was an instrumental player in Christian radio. He and his followers also protested Russian Orthodox visitors to the U.S. Rev. Carl was a key person in the emergence of the current far-right Christian Nationalist movement.
Being fresh out of the Army and a newly minted Christian pacifist, I had strong feelings and ideas about war, peace, and nationalism. Our conversations were intensive. It was not a good fit. We lasted about two months and headed back to Goshen College and the shelter of the Mennonite community.
I am aware that I still have strong notions about war and peace. The current surge in our country and other nations towards Christian Nationalism is disturbing. Along with our bloated and growing military budget, never questioned in a serious manner in Washington, it is a frightening time.
Then may long Peace my country's harvests bless! Till then, let Peace on all our fields abide! Bright-vestured Peace, who first beneath their yoke Led oxen in the plough, who first the vine Did nourish tenderly, and chose good grapes, That rare old wine may pass from sire to son! Peace! who doth keep the plow and harrow bright, While rust on some forgotten shelf devours The cruel soldier's useless sword and shield. from War Is a Crime by Tibullus (c. 55-19 BCE)
Thanks but I am sticking with average and ordinary. 🤓
A lovely story, told well. Of course I like the poem, which I hadn't read before.