An Old Highway Through My Past

Common Sense Commentary: Many of us.... older folks, grew up on the family farm or in some isolated small town. "Going back home" with great expectations of seeing familiar faces, names and landmarks, stirs old memories with excitement. But then, arriving in that holy place of your childhood, deep disappointment puts a lump in your throat and fills your heart with sadness. Your unbelieving eyes tell you, "Its
not as I remember; what happened to it"? There, where the auction barn was is a stark, steel tower. And, over there, where we kids played, hundreds of old, rusting cars all grown up in weeds. Why did they tear down that beautiful home and put a 1950's gas station and an old rusting tin building there ? Would you look at our house... its just an unwanted shack with junk in the yard.

Such was my experience when returning to my home town after years away in a thousand distant places. I left the expressway and turned west down old highway 80, through west Texas. Its The Old Highway Through My Past.

...........Driving down an old highway..................
...........Through the land of yesterday................
...........Spirits hover here and there.................
...........Haunting dreams of long ago..................
...........Ancient boards mute as death.................
...........Rusting fences falling down..................
...........Chimney gravestone standing oer..............
...........Shattered hopes of the past..................
...........A tree and flower linger still...............
...........Living witness to the dreams...............
...........Of home and happiness in this place..........
...........Which somehow faded with the years...........
...........And now are gone...sadly gone................
...........Pass It On. Rayburn Blair