Eight Year Old Boy... Running Away

Thought For The Day

The time dragged on as we waited for our escape to freedom. We checked our food supply over and over, several times considering a snack of a carrot or perhaps a small cookie but we  decided to wait until later around dinner time. The plan had developed slowly. We left a number of sizable holes in our plan but agreed we would work those out as we went along our way. We did not have a lot of travel experience on our own. We did not even have bicycles but we decided that we would go to Midland, a town about twenty odd miles north of Saginaw that we both knew could be reached by following State Street, a major artery that ran North - South. An additional advantage to that plan was it's location, access was only one block away. And so about four thirty that afternoon we began our adventure. We walked directly to State Street and headed North.

It was late afternoon, about high tea time, and we were understandably hungry, neither of us were ready to tap the food stores yet but eight year old boys are only interested in two things, food and adventure. So far the adventure had been pretty mediocre so naturally the food part kept rearing it's head.

One of the first streets we had to cross was Hanchett and that was where John lived. We used our skills learned as young scouts trained in the ways of Straight Arrow, a radio Indian Scout. We looked carefully around the neighborhood making certain that no people we knew saw us, then ran a block to get out of sight. The next two blocks took us past Stone School, closed for the summer but we were aware that there could be classmates in the area. We did not want to come into contact with people who would ask questions and so we moved quickly on our way. But, at the end of the next block was a major obstacle, Spatz Bakery. Spatz made the best bread in Saginaw outside the family kitchen. So, even though there was no baking going on that time of day, there was an aroma of baking from an earlier time of the day that lingered, reached out and surrounded us with fresh, out of the oven flavors which sought to divert us from our objective. The Handy Andy Tool Kit which served as our pantry was beginning to look pitifully small. But on we continued.

We were now seven blocks from home. This was a significant distance, one block farther than our school. We were beginning to feel the reigns loose. We were on our way to a new life. Four more blocks and we came to Gaudreau Florist. We considered only briefly sending flowers to our parents but somehow that seemed to minimize our disappointment in how we were treated by them and so we decided against it. Also, we didn't have enough money for flowers or anything else once we examined our resources. We had crossed Woodbridge, a significant traffic artery, we now were feeling somewhat disconnected from our homes and the initial rush of independence flushed us with excitement. Only a little over 19 miles to go.

To be continued..........

©Herb Ratliff, February 22, 2011, All Rights Reserved