Wall Drug Ahead

Perhaps it's only fitting that the worst year in movies of my lifetime concluded with the worst Oscar show. From start to finish, this year's Oscar celebration managed to be both dull and finicky at the same time.

The best movie I saw this year was a garbled green screened mess calledThe Invisible Man. It was an easy choice every other "movie" that I saw this year was on teevee.

The teevee movie that resounded the most with me was Nomadland. I've spent time as a nomad and as I look back at my life, those times were amongst the best of times....broke as a joke....down to my last peso not afraid to say so but lovin life and campin' out every night under the stars as I criss crossed America. The life of a derelict is the life of a king etc.

A portion of Nomadland is set at Wall Drug. Let me tell ya about it.

When you start heading West from Atlantic to Pacific somewhere around western Ohio you pick up these unobtrusive distance markers revealing the distance to Wall Drug. 1200 Miles to Wall Drug....1000 miles to Wall Drug etc. Everything sorta looks like New York until you get into the vicinity of Wall Drug, South Dakota. South Dakota is where everything changes and it becomes apparent that you're not in Kansas anymore. Wall Drug had established itself as a watering hole for roadbound Americans. Wall Drug, on first sight resembles a stockade oasis with a cowboy motiff. It's a collection of small shops and sure enough features the famous Wall Drug water...."reach out your hand if your cup be empty if your cup be full may it be again" with cold, clean, clear Black Hills water.

Nothing ever as intoxicating and refreshing as Wall Drug water. Preparation for the Badlands, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and Deadwood. America will never look quite the same to the thirst quenched traveler whoso consciousness will be jostled even more with the subsequent discovery of Wyoming, Montana, Utah etc.

Wall Drug, dude.

Of course, not everybody nomads across America so up until Nomadland, Wall Drug was/is unknown to most Americans other than those who have tasted the waters or seen the Black Hill Gold. I would often tell folks about Wall Drug and the only thing they seemed to hear was the word "drug" especially when I talked about Wall in my high school classes. 

For some this proved that "Mr. Rivers was on drugs etc,"

I always got a kick out of that.

However when somebody knew about Wall Drug because they had tasted the water, a gleam would appear in their eyes....a gleam of freedom and connection.

I stopped at Wall several times over the next decade. The last time I returned was as we were prepaing for our wedding at the Field of Dreams in Iowa and wondering whether or not we had survived our collision with a semi-truck a few hundred miles East near South Bend Indiana, the home of touchdown Jesus.

I had been talking about Wall with Lynn for the past couple of years and of course, she also thoiught i was nuts. Until we got there. Wall had grown quite a bit but the spirit still remained. If were going to get married we needed wedding rings. A wedding ring is band of gold. Can there be a better place to find that band other than the Black Hills? 

Black Hills gold.

We bought our wedding rings right there at Wall Drug. We're still wearing them today 32 years later. We've been through a lot over those 32 years. Lynn is a tough person. I've only seen her tear up a couple of times on our life journey. The first time was at Wall Drug when she tried on her ring. I can still see that moment in my mind's eye.

I felt it again watching Nomadland. In a year with pandemic and without movies Wall Drug had somehow emerged and momentarily quenched my thirst with the water of hope and gratitude.