Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

This happened during the first week of the walk in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I cannot recall what town it was.

At the south edge of town was a large house shaded by large, old trees. There were rocking chairs on the front porch. In each rocking chair was a elderly person rocking (what else would they be doing in a rocking chair?). A small sign out front indicated that this was a nursing home. Now everything made sense.

We walked past dozens of such nursing homes on the 1,100 miles. Some were in old houses like this, some were in newer concrete block buildings and looked like motels. The old houses had much more character. I suppose the new buildings were cleaner and nicer inside.

One elderly gentleman was different in his rocking chair on the porch of this old house. He was smoking a cigarette. He looked to be 90 years old. He shouldn’t have been smoking as smoking is bad for you. Then again, if you are 90 years old you have outlived all your doctors who told you that smoking was going to kill you.