I should make a TRACK category. Like Adventures on the Track, Things That Make Me Want to Run (Away), or Save me From Small Children.
I’ve noticed lately that an elderly man in his 70’s comes to the high school track just before 9 a.m. I’m usually about done walking by then and when he sees me coming to my car he hides behind his large truck until I get in and leave. I don’t know why. I’m not scary.
But 70 small children swarming onto the track are! I was half way around the track, enjoying the cool weather and quiet when the herd of children showed up out of nowhere and flooded the track. The old man was there early today. Probably trying to avoid me. I was walking behind him when the small children took over. Half the group went one way, half the other, some were racing each other. Small groups spread out walking side by side and covered all the lanes. Some were even walking back and forth across all the lanes as they went around the whole track.
RUN!
That’s what my brain said. But the old man kept walking in the outside lane as though nothing was happening. I soon passed him and decided that I had every right to be on the track. Children didn’t move out of the way as I passed them or met them coming the other way. I refused to move either so they had to dodge me at the last minute or run into me. If the old man could do it, so could I!
But wait, why does he hide from me when he’s perfectly okay surrounded by crazy children?
Hippie and the Midgets 