They walk with us 12.29.16

            This morning, in the predawn hours, I had walked from the well-lit driveway, down the dark and forbidding street. It can be extremely intimidating when one leaves the safety of a well-lighted area, walking into the unknown darkness.  I was on a mission to retrieve the so called, “newspaper”, from the front lawn here at the Ford Homestead.

            There in the darkness, lying in the dormant blades of grass, almost hidden by the numerous leaves, was the paper. It was encased in a clear plastic sleeve, which is used to keep moister out, also allowing the paper delivery person to toss the paper out of the window of a moving vehicle, without all the paper spreading all over the yard.

            Seeing the paper lying there in the hostile darkness, I carefully stepped over the curb from the street into the yard. Three steps and I had the paper. I turned and looked around, seeing nothing, I carefully moved back towards the street.

            Finally, my foot was back on the solid street, and now I turned toward the safety of the lighted drive way. As I took a step towards the drive I heard what sounded like someone taking a step next to me. Startled, I turned, and saw no one there!

            I again started walking toward the drive. Again, there was the sound of footsteps, at my left side and slightly behind me. I could now see one of many leaves, which was oddly, the only one being moved by the wind! This one leaf was making the sound of someone walking! The leaf walked with me for about 40 feet and as I turned onto the drive, the leaf stopped moving, no longer making the sound.

            They walk with us, unseen, but they want us to know they are there!

           

            I know most of my readers are too young to remember the days when there were paper boys. Yep I said paper boys. I never knew a paper girl.  Think about it for a moment, if there was a paper girl, the paper boys would have followed her, not delivering their own papers.

            Newspapers in the olden days were much larger than those of today. By larger I mean, the size of the pages were 33% larger. The larger papers allowed for folding the paper in an odd almost square shape. Then the paper could be thrown from the side walk toward the front porch. Yes, most houses in the olden days had a side walk leading to steps that took one to the front porch.

            On days when the papers were going to be extremely large, I would help a friend who had a paper route. My pay was a root beer. There was a store on Good Hope street in Cape Girardeau, Mo, where one could sit at the counter and drink that wonderful root beer. I don’t remember the name of the store but it was most likely a drug store.

            Enough olden day’s stories.

            Yesterday, seven of us went riding. The ride organizer Nick, had us riding down the interstate to George Town, for lunch at a restaurant that was known for their fish. It was a little over 60 miles on the interstate, of which there is a lot of construction. Most of us do not like riding on the interstate with those crazy people in cars and trucks!

            Lunch was ok, but BBQ at the bunkhouse would have been better, in my opinion.

            After lunch we rode out into the hill country, taking back roads for several hours. To be honest, some of the back roads I had never ridden on before.

            285 miles ridden in a little over 7 hours, I returned home. When you are not use to riding that many miles for that many hours in one sitting, your posterior (butt) begins to hurt. 

Look around, they may be with you!

Don Ford