Presentiment

Corral Schoolhouse

Presentiment: a feeling that something will or is about to happen : premonition

This was yesterday's word of the day from Merriam-Webster, but I didn't read it until this morning. Lo and behold, this afternoon I felt restless and I was certain that if I left the house with my camera, I'd find something of relevance to my research. The kids were up for a jaunt around the prairie in the '89 Grand Wagoneer. I took several photos of old buildings at the old townsite of Corral, 7 miles west of Fairfield, then made a wide loop back to town for milkshakes at the Wrangler. An older couple (brother and sister, I later learned) was seated in the restaurant and by their license plate I knew they were from Boise. So I struck up a conversation that began something like this.

Me: "Are you coming through from Boise?"
Man: "No, we're going to Boise."
Woman: "Are you local?"
Me: "Yes, I live right here."
Woman: "Well, we're Ballards, and we were here looking for old Ballard photos."

My jaw must have dropped. "I'm a Ballard!" I said. So I unpacked the kids from the car and we had our milkshakes inside and learned all sorts of things I had been dying to know about the Ballard clan's history. Turns out, someone in the family has traced the line all the way back to Williamsburg and Jamestown! Before that it was England, and there it gets murky.

The newfound relatives and I swapped contact info, I took their picture, and we went our separate ways marveling at the presentiment--or, we preferred, providence--that brought us together. As the woman put it so well, "What a burger!"