I’ve just experienced the blur of 18 days rushing past me. Was I gone that long or was it just a dream, maybe a time-warp? Assuming it really happened, I’ll have to tell the tale. I think I’ll begin with the last: our group’s stop at the Redlin Art Center in Watertown, SD. We’ve visited there previously, but a comment Redlin made in his center’s introductory film struck me for the first time, something I experienced when I first started writing this blog. He said, “When you first start out you’re embarrassed at baring your soul.” I, too, was embarrassed at first but have gotten over that since I like to tell the story as I see it.
We’ve become fond of bus trips with 40 other people and the Farmers Union with its “Willer Way” of conducting them. If we were to drive to all the sites we have visited these past several years, we never would have gotten there. Always, the historical sites are the biggest draw for me, and one stood out because I’d been thinking about something a few weeks before I was reacquainted with it. An attraction in Georgia called Agrirama featured lots of century-old machines, buildings, costumes, etc. At the entrance stood a “Road Patrol” which was a small road grader that we would use for smoothing out the washboards on our roads. I had written a poem (with my usual seven-syllable line) about my experience with one, and when I saw it sitting there I had to step on its platform and reminisce.
The Road Patrol
The Greene Township road grader,
scaled small enough for horses
to pull, sat rusting in trees
until someone searched it out
and hooked a tractor to it.
Here’s where I enter the scene:
driver, pulling straight-away
while Dad stood on rear platform
working blade angle and depth
to smooth the washboard bumps
that banged and chattered a car’s
chassis so hard your teeth shook
and made you wish for a rain
to fall and soften the road bed
so that the little grader
blade could grab some bite and cut
the rough grade to a smooth shave.
The times cried, “Do-it-yourself
if you want to change your world.
No one will do it for you!”
(Florida Trip - Part 2 to follow)
