Member-only story
Your Path May Not Be the Road Less Traveled
Perhaps, you’re walking a path paved and well-trodden
Carving a Clearing
In the town where I grew up as a teenager, there was a path in the field next to a railroad that many kids walked and eventually rode their bikes. At first, we couldn’t ride our bikes through that field because the Johnson grass was so tall the weeds would tangle in the spokes of our bicycle wheels.
But enough of us ran through that field to get to a neighborhood store that had the best nachos, freeze pops, and flavored popcorn balls on the planet. We’d run through that field risking insect bites just to get to that store a little faster.
Soon, enough feet trampled a pathway, and we’d carved a clearing for bikes to follow. Today, that path is a small, paved road without a name. Cars frequent it to avoid “getting caught by the train.”
The Johnson grass is gone, and the corner store was replaced by a smoke shop.
When I returned home from college and saw the paved road, I wondered if anyone remembered or knew that it was children bravely running through a field that made this road possible.
Who remembers?
