Pinestraw

    I didn't get out and about walking through the countryside during junior year abroad in Canterbury nearly as much as my friends did. Mostly this was because I am and was fundamentally lazy. But it's also true that I was a little freaked out by the lack of pinestraw on the ground. Slightly, but all the time. Apparently, you can take the boy out of the piney woods but you can't take the piney woods out of the boy. Even today, I'm most comfortable walking under pines and over pinestraw.
    As best I can remember, I hadn't read "The Lord of the Rings" at that point, though Walt had given me the trilogy during high school. No doubt I would have done a lot more tramping about the English countryside had I read it by then. But surely I loved the walking parts of "The Fellowship of the Ring" that everybody else complains about a lot more when I did get around to reading it a few years later because of what walking I did do in England.
    During Philadelphia days, I did a lot more walking. As much as possible was done in Wissahickon Park. I don't recall there being a lot of pine there either (if any). It's possible that the kind of jobs I had in Philly created enough stress that I required a lot more walking. I used to walk from West Philly all the way to the other end of Wissahickon Park, then back to Chestnut Hill where I'd pick up the trolley, then transfer to the subway to get back home. Here, I used to walk from my dad's house on the Fort Jackson side of Shandon to the other end of Riverfront Park, then all the way back from that end, drinking the water fountains at USC dry on the way. What ever happened to that guy?