By Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Two days before Christmas in 1973, it was cold and beginning to snow when I set out from Great Lakes ILL. at 6.a.m. to get home to my boys on Long Island. I was in the U.S. Navy then. My boys, Tommy, and Bobby were in a foster home in Levittown because my wife had left us. I was in the Navy and hadn’t enough money to fly home. I had always kept my promise to my boys and didn’t want to disappoint them.
Roger, a naval buddy had a car and could get me as far as Ohio. I could get a Greyhound bus there, which costs less. The roads were starting to get icy. All of a sudden Roger’s car skidded and hit the back of a truck. We were lucky and escaped unhurt. Now I was forced to hitchhike. As I was hitchhiking in the snow, I recalled a poem by Robert Frost, which went in part as follows,” The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I had promises to keep and many miles to go before I sleep.” Which I really had to do.
