My long walk

I will be leaving this area soon, but I had the opportunity to go for a nice long walk. There have been workers up on the water tower that rises high above the town. They've been scraping and repainting it. While walking I heard sirens blaring as fire trucks went whizzing by. I found out that there is a big chicken house on fire. This is an area with lots of chicken houses that grow chickens for the big Tyson plants in the area. Apparently one of them burned today. How many fire trucks are needed for a chicken house fire? Well I lost count, but every volunteer fire department in the county must have responded as fire trucks just kept coming and coming.

My long walk took me to the cemetery on the outskirts of town. I love walking in cemeteries. I guess it is my interest in history that causes me to enjoy walking in a cemetery, because they really aren't the most cheerful places to go. The cemetery I visited today had tombstones dating from the 1800s to the current year. There are lots of Italian names. A lot of Italian immigrants settled here in the heyday of the coal mines. As I walk I take special note of the children's graves. There are so many children buried here. Some of the old graves have been disturbed by the roots of some big trees on the far side of the cemetery. I'm not sure why the trees are allowed to stay but I have to admit that they are a nice source of shade. I walked around the trails of the cemetery and it was slow going since there were so many tombstones that caught my attention so that I had to stop and read them more carefully. Who were these people? What were their lives like? How did they die? I'm so curious. But all I can do is wonder, so I walk on. It is a beautiful, green cemetery, framed with a forest of trees on all sides and view of Sugarloaf mountain in the distance.