The Buggy

I saw a buggy at the antique store today, its beauty unsurpassed! I couldn't help but sit and muse awhile about its esoteric past. It was shiny black with roll-up curtains to fend the stormy weather. Its lone seat was hand-tooled in the finest of cowhide leather! I pictured it being pulled by a svelte, fine-blooded horse, Clad in silver embossed harness, the finest to be had of course! Seated inside was a young swain with a beauty at his side, Awaiting the right moment to ask her to be his bride! Or maybe an old country doctor used it to visit the lame and sick, Or to deliver a babe, tho' the roads were blocked by snow and slick! Could a veterinarian have owned it, visiting far-flung farms, Attending to the maladies of animals, easing farmer's alarms? Perhaps a revered old pastor once used it to visit his fold, To nurture languid souls and bring solace to the old. Then there was the usual huckster prowling from town to town, Selling snake oil and other elixirs, he of nefarious renown! Who knows, it could have been used by such as Carrie Nation, Wielding her axe, creating havoc while preaching God's salvation! Whatever its past it now reposes in regal grandeur, For folks to admire and about its past to conjecture! Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired (© All Rights Reserved)