Driving Down Memory Lane

I was drivin’ down an old, worn black-top highway, on my way to a funeral. It was mid-Missouri, and late summer made it hotter’n the dickens outside. I was thinkin’ there was only a couple of hours left of daylight as I reached over and switched the car’s air conditioner fan up another notch. Thoughts of my late friend kept popin’ in and out of my mind. We’d grown up together right here in this very neighborhood. Fishin’ trips, carryin’ ol’ cane poles as our bare feet kicked up the powdery Missouri dust around us … goin’ ta’ school with ol’ cigarette butts in our jean pockets that’d we’d smoke after school … repeatin’ stories to each other ‘bout Edna May or Jean Ann we’d heard … gulpin’ down an ice-cold crème soda outside Gavin’s Grocery on Saturday afernoons … racin’ our bikes that had no fenders … A little bit of air-borne dust, off to the right, caught my eye. I momentarily diverted my gaze to take a glance in the direction of that airborne dust but continued driving as the roadway stretched out in front of me. It took a couple of attempts, but eventually, I recognized the source of that dust. It was just a young boy runnin’ through a wheat field … Missouri dust just a-flyin’ around him as he made his way through the golden grain. I couldn’t hear him, but I could see his face, grinnin’ from ear to ear, his hand held high with his ball cap wavin’ in the breeze as he chased whatever was in his make-believe vision. I watched him as long as I dared, tryin’ to concentrate on keepin’ the car in my lane. I eventually made on down the road, but not without checkin’ my rear-view mirror several times … until that air-borne dust was no longer in sight. Up ahead, I saw a gas station and thought I’d better get a refill. After I stopped and shut off the engine, I discovered I had tears running down my cheeks. Seein’ that boy runnin’ through that field was perhaps either me as the boy I used to be … or maybe my late friend. Or maybe just a momentary portal to embrace the wonderment of cherished memories. Took me quite a while ‘fore I got my car filled up, but the events of that day won’t ever leave me, I think.