~Going Home~

I pulled to the side of highway B and walked to the center of the bridge that spanned Wakenda creek. I stared in disbelief at my childhood playground. I spent countless hours here hunting, fishing, throwing smoke bombs at passing cars, fighting make believe wars, exploring life and learning about love. Now just an impersonal ditch cut through unrecognizable farmland. Gone are the grain elevators that in my childhood seemed to touch the clouds in the sky. No more houses with white siding and green shingled roofs. No childhood home, no trees, no life… Nothing left except the tears in my eyes.
time must move forward—
leaving only memories
to fill up my heart

Fox and Hare

a fox and a hare 
race for winter's survival—
the fox leaves hungry

Repeat

I guess every town in America has one. Heck, maybe even every town in the world. You know what I'm talking about. The cruising loop. The place every teenager goes to see, and be seen by, anyone that counts. 
Even Wakenda, Missouri with its population of 150 people had one. Of course, with its 5 streets that ran north and south and another 5 that ran east and west, (if you were generous with what qualified as a street) it was a little harder to define it as cruising the loop.
Cruising Wakenda was more suited for using one's feet or a bicycle than a car. Fortunately, since walking didn't cost more money than what I had in my pockets, for me that was never a problem.
Wakenda, Missouri in the late 1960's and early 70's was a pretty small town with not too many places where one could "hang out". We had the drive that circled the elementary school, Womack's Garage, the grain elevators, and the alley behind the pig lot was just about the extent of it.
But sometime, when one of my older brothers felt generous, I was invited to ride along to the big-time cruising in Carrollton. Where we drove the loop past the Dog-N-Suds, over the railroad pass, around the roller rink, up to the park, around the square and down the hill to Bruce's Burger Bar. Pretty much, the same thing, except now, I had to help pay for gas.
cavemen on dinos
from tar pit to volcano
cruisin' on Friday night