Kooser was a single parent when he wrote this poem in 1970, and the love that he expresses for his son elicits a warm feeling in readers. The United States in the 1960s and 1970s witnessed a dramatic rise in the divorce rate. In 1970 in the United States there were 709,000 divorces, or 3.5 for every 1,000 marriages, up from 393,000 in 1960, or 2.3 for every 1,000 marriages. Custody of children, though, was most often awarded to mothers, with father's granted visitation rights, often on weekends. As such, the image of the speaker in his car with his son, expressing the joy he feels at having him for the weekend, is a familiar one for Americans. A number of films dealing with the trauma of divorce and custody came out during the 1970's, the most notable one being 1979's Kramer Vs. Kramer, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. Kooser's most autobiographical work came...