Why

Look, my dad recently admitted he made the whole thing up. Our Lady, Queen of the Highways. No such official name for the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary is many things, such as Our Lady of Guadalupe, but she sure as heck never frequented Highway 66, or appeared at a Stuckey’s. He made that name up, but Our Lady, Queen of the Highways is an appropriate symbol for our large, Irish-Catholic family, prone to coast-to-coast road trips, and so that’s the name of the book. It uses geography, the transcontinental route we took, as a vehicle (well, the actual vehicle is a station wagon) to chronicle our family life in the 60s and 70s.

I’ve written about these trips, because, for one, they opened up this country for myself and my five brothers and sisters; many of these places became very significant for one or another of us in future years, affecting the arc of our own lives. Mine especially:  my 30-year career in the National Park Service was kick-started by these trips. I’ve also written about these trips because growing up Catholic in the 60s and 70s, was, frankly, kind of funny. Nuns in full habits, who could throw footballs accurately.

Synopsis

Our Lady, Queen of the Highways is a memoir about growing up Catholic in California during the 1960s and 1970s, told through recollection of cross-country driving trips to visit relatives in the Midwest and the East. The book is organized as a transcontinental journey, following the family station wagon from my hometown, a Los Angeles beach city (El Segundo!), to the East Coast and back. Each chapter describes a geographic leg of the journey, and explores the significance of these locales to our family’s growing understanding of this country’s natural and cultural history and to our Irish-Catholic roots, and ultimately to my own life experiences, many of which occurred in these locales. Our route followed the Mother Road, Highway 66, and so the narrative is sprinkled with references to the landmarks of that classic route. Significant stops along the way are given longer treatment: my mother’s upbringing in Illinois; my dad’s roots in Massachusetts and his time at Notre Dame, where three of us six kids also attended college, and where my dad proposed to my mom. The book ultimately explores the impact of these places and experiences on me, on my growth professionally and personally. And all journeys must come to an end: the book is also a reflection on the nature of the past, on our experiences and memories. Including the paths not taken.

Try it.

Our Lady was published in 2022 by Adelaide Books;  click here if you’d like to read a chapter. It’s the one about Illinois, where my mom grew up. And if you’re REALLY interested, are dying to find out how this all ended up, click below to buy it either from Adelaide, or from Amazon.

Buy it.