A Time Remembered

by Glen Hendrix

Photo by Simon Matzinger on Unsplash

I remember cruising the highways as a youth, usually counter-balancing weed, beer, and cigarettes to obtain a complete car/driver gestalt. It was the 70s. As an old person I am required by law to warn you not to do that now as it may result in fines, jail, injuries, and death to you and others. 

Hundreds of scissortails would dot the power lines, their long tails bobbing back and forth for balance in the wind. Roadrunners scampered across the road, amazingly close, but they hardly ever got hit. Occasionally I would have to get out and move a turtle across the road before some asshole smashed it. 

Unfortunately, the machine/animal connection happened too often. Armadillos, skunks, possums, raccoons, coyotes, and snakes were broken and dead nearly every trip. It was a sad thing.

The grain fields, though, with blackbirds and red-wing blackbirds whirling in and out of the edges would affirm that life went on despite the incidental deaths of fellow creatures from speeding hulks of rubber and metal.

The other day I realized I’ve made that trip many, many times now over a period of many years, and it is now different. They are all gone. The scissortails, the blackbirds, the roadrunners, the armadillos, the skunks, the possums, the coyotes, the snakes. They aren’t on telephone lines or in grain fields. They aren’t even dead in or on the side of the road. They are gone. 

As happy as I am to not see them dead in the road, I am not deluded enough to not know what that means. There may still be some back in what few woods I see, but I believe they are mostly gone. I cannot describe to you how I feel about that. To tell you I have to type this through tears does not come close. 

To some who may read this and not understand the ineffable sadness of this loss, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you never experienced that feeling of the abundance of life. That knowledge of woods and skies full of God’s creatures going about their business. I can only hope that someday we can all experience that again.