Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 16:30:48 -0400
From: “N.A. Booko”
Subject: Tales of old Hyway 64: Imaginary Picnic . . .
I live on a section of old hyway 64- Built in 1921 and abandoned 1942. Portions of it is still intact, winding in and out of properties between Pittsboro and Siler City.
Part of it I use for a driveway- Part I use for walking, bird watching, goofing off.
Although it is 20 feet wide and made of crude asphalt, with the original side ditches still obvious, it is so overgrown and covered with decaying leaves, one would not suspect it was once a major highway.
Today was sunny- I sat down beside a big pine, near one of the ditches and started to look at the junk people had thrown out many decades ago. A lot of tin cans, jars and bottles. Nothing recent. I found an old thermos, complete with the mercury glass insert, a pickle bottle, a sardine can and a green Seven Up Bottle.
It was almost as if someone had had a picnic right in that very spot. My mind wandered.
Wonder who it was? No one I knew. But I still could seem them there, having fun and enjoying a meal on this sunny day.
I decided it was my land, my highway, my side-ditch and my imagined picnic- so why not have those in attendance that I wanted to remember? I closed my eyes and they were all there- Those that have gone on before. Aunts, Uncles, cousins and Grandparents.
My mother, wearing that beautiful brown and blue striped dress, with her long brown hair blowing in the breeze. Aunt Cat with her homemade tooth brush she used for dipping snuff.
And with my mother, the cutest little baby . . .
Sorry, I couldn’t see any more- I thought rain drops were falling, but alas, it was tears . .
N.A. Booko
(N.A. Booko lives and writes in Chatham County)