John R Purcell

The big yellow school bus, number 47, was on its usual morning route picking up elementary grade students. The driver of the bus, Mr. Romano, now retired from his regular job, had become bored with retirement and decided to take the job as bus driver to have something worthwhile to do.

Those of us who are still alive and can remember the early motion pictures of the nineteen thirties may know of an actor whose name was George Raft. When I was a young impressionable kid, I saw him in a movie and I was fascinated with his ears. Yes, I mean the things we hear with, strange as that may seem. I thought that they were exceptionally long but set close to his head making them appear to be out of proportion to his head. Why a kid would even be aware of something like that is strange, but maybe I was a strange kid.

It was just a few days after Christmas and while on a morning walk, I came across a Christmas tree that had been left at the curbside apparently being discarded for the trash collectors to pick up. It was a really nice Evergreen Blue Spruce tree, perfectly symmetrical in shape, still very fresh looking,and about six feet tall. Seeing this tree, that had been cut down to be used as a temporary Christmas ornament for only a few days and then disposed of like so much trash, was very depressing.

I was just settling down in my favorite chair to relax and read the newspaper when the irritating drone of a vacuum cleaner assaulted my ears. That is an annoyance that both I and the family pet pooch really dislike and we usually head for quieter confines when we hear it. As I was about to get up and leave, the sound of the vacuum cleaner gradually diminished and stopped. Relieved that it was once again quiet I returned to my reading but suddenly standing in front of me was the lady of the house.

A little boy on his way home from school one afternoon decided to go out of his way to walk down the main street of town. There was a toy store that he liked to go by to look at the toys displayed in the store's window. There were wonderful things in that window that would delight any eight year old boy, especially one who never had anything like them. As he gazed at the display he had hope that perhaps this Christmas Santa Claus might bring one of those toys for him and some nice things for his two younger sisters. Christmas presents were a rarity in their family.

After making some purchases at a local super store, I headed back to my car in the parking lot. As I approached a vacant parking space I saw a flock of blackbirds fluttering around a white paper bag on the ground in the parking space. Seeing me, they all flew off a short distance to wait for me to depart. I assumed that there was something in the bag of great interest to them and being curious to know what that might be, I stopped to check it out.