In My Father’s Tire Tracks

A man hits the road in homage to his father’s epic road trip 60 years before in this memoir.

In 1959, Sheedy’s dad, John, contracted to drive a new 1960 Ford Thunderbird convertible from a dealership in Hartford, Connecticut, to one in Los Angeles. In 2021, the author rented a Hyundai Elantra and largely retraced his father’s route. The resulting book is not just an account of a double odyssey, but also an exploration of relationships, of life’s changes, of growing up Catholic and middle class and wondering if you really know who your father is—and who you are. And it’s not just road travel, but time travel as well, as 2021 chases 1959 and the son, now a septuagenarian, pursues the 40-something father. It can be a dizzying reading experience, but also a fascinating one. Sheedy’s father made it to his destination, of course, delivering the car and visiting relatives on the road and in California; the author made it to the Bay Area, having made his own visits to people of the next generation and gaining invaluable insights and wisdom. Sheedy is a skilled writer and this tribute to his father is thoughtful and moving. He admits early on that “my 2021 road trip was an attempt to merge my identity with my father’s, if not to trade mine for his.” This is expressed as a forlorn hope, but tales of fathers and sons and cars and road trips are often potent American stories. Sheedy does his story proud; somewhere in the Southwest, for instance, he fantasized of catching up with Dad as the dawn broke, the T-Bird parked in an empty lot—because the motel where Dad stayed in 1959 was long gone in 2021. Dad, of course, does not recognize the pleasant older gentleman in the little red sedan in this scenario, but they share thoughts and disappointments and hopes—and then the T-Bird is off again, heading west. Overall, it’s a powerful and affecting trip.

A fitting tribute to a father-son relationship.