VANISHING POINT

I often think back to a radio show listened to while I lived in Alaska. Tom Bodette hosted a show in Homer in the late 1980s called, The End Of The Road. Tom’s best known for his catchy Motel 6 phrase, “I’ll leave a light on for ya!”

On this radio program, he talked in a deep folksy drawl about simple things observed—mostly from life in The Last Frontier. He had a unique way of telling stories that kept me tuned in.

During one particular show, he chatted about a woman he’d observed in Homer sitting at a stop sign in her car. The woman was shedding tears and he made note, going on to tell listeners the incomplete story.

This visual observation on Tom’s part struck a chord with me as it did thousands of others throughout the country. People wanted to know why she was crying, and to this day, I don’t know if Bodette found the answer.

I kept track of Tom Bodette over the years, until he seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. Just recently, I discovered that Bodette is living in rural Brattleboro, Vermont, where he’s a woodworker and woodworking instructor.

An interview of the man by CBS correspondent Faith Salie in 2023 on YouTube was most enlightening. Tom Bodette seems to have found peace of mind in this new endeavor.

Last year, I wrote a piece about an older gentleman, his wife, and dog, that I often saw at Rotary Park here in Lake Havasu City. They owned a dark blue Ford pickup. This truck was unique in that it had a country mural painted on the back tailgate.

They were a common sight for perhaps a couple of years, with the pug always hanging its head out an open driver side window.

At first it was all three, then the old man and dog, and finally, just him. On that last observation, a few months ago, the fellow had a forlorn look on his face, possibly with tears, telling me that visiting Rotary Park without his companions wasn’t the same. I haven’t seen him since, wondering what happened.

Just like Tom Bodette did with that mysterious woman crying at a stop sign in Homer, Alaska, some 35 years ago, I can only speculate as to where they vanished to.

Always trying to maintain a positive outlook on things, something tells me deep down inside that I’ll see them again. Hopefully, I’m right!