Nora's attempt to flee
The ironic similarity between Florence and Nora can be drawn by their attempts to escape their situations. In 1937 Nora has become an independent woman with a well-paying job. She even has the means to purchase her own car. One day, she decides that she can't bear her current existence and decides to drive as far as she can go. Perhaps she just starts driving and discovers that she makes it as far as Ft. Worth. Naturally the car runs out of gas and she is left stranded on the highway.
She is so distraught at what has happened that she begin sobbing uncontrollably, but the emotions that pour out of her are not due to her immediate stranded state. She feels stranded by the fact that she has tried to fork her own road and has been met by nothing but hazards of the male variety. A road that has been pounded by cars driven by men (perhaps they're yelling at her right now). She is torn by her desire to play the violin, to see the world, to visit New York and waltz or foxtrot at the Roseland Ballroom.
It is in the fog of this episode that Nora hears a voice from a man right outside her car window. He's been talking to her, but she is unaware of her muted state. However, the words "Where can I take you?" suddenly wake her up and she feels like she's met some kind of savior. Suddenly she cannot take her eyes off of him as if he were a kindred spirit who can help her navigate her way to happiness. He takes a gas can out of his car and fills her tank with it. Nora remains speechless and is still staring at him. He simply tells her. I hope you find what you're looking for and drives away in his car (westward toward Lubbock).
It isn't later, when she get a job at the Cotton Gin as a clerk that she meets him again. This moment in her life is essentially a tremor in the legacy of flight that will be evident in her daughter twenty five years later.