MEDIA COVERAGE OF HUSON TRAVEL LETTERSMedia coverage played an important role in preparing for our homeschool targeted HUSON TRAVEL LETTERS adventure and we found that we had an interesting story to tell. First, a mid-1980s survey by National Geographic had shown that students in the U.S. were woefully ignorant of the geography of our own country. For example, high school students in some Texas schools confused the neighboring state of New Mexico with the adjacent country of Mexico! Most students could identify New York, Florida, Texas, Alaska, Hawaii and California on blank U.S. maps -- as well as their own state -- but couldn't fill in even half of the remaining ones! Second, since I (daughter, Juanita Huson Sylvest) had been only four-to-five years old during the original post-World War II Travel Letters series created by my parents, Roland and Malva Huson, I had always wanted to recreate the adventure at an age when I could more fully appreciate it! Therefore, I saw a window of opportunity for doing something fun that could contribute to the geographic education of U.S. students -- by once again writing personal letters to students -- especially homeschoolers. Third, it was rather unusual for a mother and daughter pair to strike out on the road in a large motorhome while towing a car behind, for a trip projected to last almost two years. The "carrot stick" for my mother (Malva Huson Brown) was that there were now two more "new" states -- Hawaii and Alaska -- which had not been visited on the original trip. Thus, we found during the trip that various forms of media --newspapers and magazines and even local radio and TV shows --wanted to interview us as we passed through their "neck of the woods."
Below are excerpts from some of the media coverage of the HUSON TRAVEL LETTERS. The full articles are just a click away: "When her daughter came home from school with a map showing she had placed Colorado next to Vermont (because they were both places you go to ski!), Juanita Huson Sylvest had had enough. It was time to take her geography crusade on the road --again." Chris Green, STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER, Springfield IL Most homeschooling families have recognized the open enthusiasm with which children welcome and respond to personal letters. This is one of the reasons that pen pals play an important role in homeschooling. This natural enthusiastic response to personal mail was the creative idea behind a unique product of the 1040s -- Travel Letters -- whose 1989 rebirth (i.e. HUSON TRAVEL LETTERS)seeks to address the modern-day concerns about geographic and historic illiteracy.
Curriculum Highlights,HOME EDUCATION MAGAZINE, Jan.-Feb.,1989 Before Kerouac and Steinbeck, there were the Husons. Hitting the road in 1946, a couple of young journalists, Roland and Malva Huson, and their two preschoolers, "Gadget" and "Jigger", spent almost two years discovering America in a modified Ford that was their shelter and transportation. Unlike the above literary giants, however, the Huson's travels didn't culminate in weighty tomes. Their odyssey was recounted in weekly letters, dispatched to youngsters throughout the land, with the pedagogical purpose of bolstering their knowledge of geography and other scholarly subjects as painlessly as possible. Forty-three years later, Malva Huson, now 73, and "Gadget", who currently answers to the name of Juanita and is a journalist in her own right, are planning on reliving that adventure.
Norbert Sparrow, L.A. PARENT MAGAZINE, Los Angeles, CA
Most of us dream of trips around the country, but a 73-year-old Baton Rouge woman will be leaving in June for her second trip, this time with her daughter...They will write and mail personalized letters to children throughout the U.S., providing them with information about the culture, physical geography, history, sociology and ecology of the areas they visit.
LOUISIANA WOMAN, May 1989 Do they view this as a grand vacation? "If you're really trying to visit the things that are important at the depth level it takes to write about it, it's work -- not a vacation," Sylvest said. "Mother is good at doing the research and my 12 years in the travel industry has trained me to be able to go into an area, not waste time and get a real feel for it in a short period of time."
Sarah Sue Goldsmith, BATON ROUGE MAGAZINE, May, 1989
It's not the fact that kids don't get information, because they have easy access to plenty, " says Sylvest. "But they don't have a connected understanding of the country. That's been demonstrated on adult levels, too. By traveling with us throughout the U.S. for 18 months, people can get a feeling for what a diverse country it is in a more connected fashion."
Claudia Schwab, NEWS-GAZETTE, Lexington, VA They say that half of the time they're called "courageous". The other half, they're called just plain "crazy". But the labels don't deter an ambitious mother-daughter team from wandering the United States, writing about their adventures and hoping to teach young readers about the geography and history of their country -- and a myriad of subjects that fall in between...It doesn't take long to recognize they are no ordinary "grandmother and aunt."
Anne Phillipps, COURIER, Cedar Falls, Iowa The two women are thoroughly enjoying the chance to see the United States through the eyes of their young readers. "Knowing that we're traveling on behalf of and writing for children keeps us young and active," Malva said. "We're having a lot of fun rediscovering our country and sharing our adventures with young readers."
FAMILY MOTORCOACH MAGAZINE The Traveling Husons are moving faster than a speeding glacier through each of the 50 states, taking their good old time...Writing about the road is an all-American idea. It's attracted writers as diverse as Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck and William Least Heat Moon... The Husons are on a different journey. It's about geography, ecology, history and tourist oddities. They have "dug for diamonds in Arkansas, visited a coal mine in West Virginia and boated through the Soo Locks in Michigan."
Gary Soulsman, NEWS JOURNAL, Wilmington, DE On the first trip, days were spent exploring the people, places and perspectives of the country. At night, the Husons usually camped in their car, which had been modified for sleeping...Ms. Brown, now a grandmother of fourteen, laughingly recalled that their "backpacks" on hikes were frequently children too tired to walk any more. In those days, in the 1940s, organized campgrounds were not as plentiful as today. However, there was greater accessibility to open, unused land. The Husons often camped on the beach, on lake shores or by rivers and streams, often catching fish for dinner. State and national parks and forests were also favorite sites.
CAMPING TODAY - The Official Journal of NCHA, Jan, 1989 During the first trip the family traveled in a modified Ford sedan complete with typewriter, Ditto machine and camping equipment. Today, the women travel in a motorhome, and use a word processor to produce the personalized letters...Sylvest, a licensed boat captain and sailing instructor, said that her years of sailing helped to prepare her for handling the 29-foot, 8-ton motorhome. She observed, "It really is a 'land yacht'. The operating systems are basically the same, but the medium through which we travel differs. We use the motorhome like the mother ship, getting us from major "port to port." Then we unhitch the car (dinghy) for running here and there sightseeing."
TIMES REPUBLICAN, Marshalltown, IA When she decided to re-create the travel letters, Ms. Sylvest tracked down 59 people who subscribed in the 1940s. “A lot said they wished they had saved the letters,” she said. “One man who had saved them was nine and 10 when he received them. He enjoyed the letters many times. His children used them when they were in school and he’s saving them for his grandchildren. It’s a unique bit of Americana.” About one-third of the subscribers are adults, including an 80-year-old woman who toured extensively as the wife of an Army general and wanted to travel again vicariously to old favorites and new destinations. “In a way, a lot of people have a dream of doing something like this, but they know they’ll never really do it, and this is a way they can experience it. It’s kind of like having a grandmother and an aunt on the road, sharing an adventure.”
By Cindy Creasy, RICHMOND (VA) TIMES-DISPATCH
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