Post by Ken Corbett on Feb 26, 2011 13:10:39 GMT -5
[/img]
I love my walking stick. Some folks may think it's an affectation, but it's more than that.
It helps me navigate the icy sidewalks and yes, snowdrifts. It supports my weight so my legs don't tire so soon on my long walks. Besides, it feels good in my hands.
I found it one day leaning against a tree by the river bank. It had already been cut from a sapling, and the bark had been peeled off. Finders keepers, losers weepers.
It's nice and straight, thicker at one end of course, and almost six feet long. I took it to my neighbor, who turns wood in his basement as a hobby, and he smoothed over the knotholes and rounded off the cut edges for me.
I took a grip off the handlebar of a wrecked bicycle and slipped it over the narrow end. I fantasize that I can fend off marauding dogs (or « drug-crazed hoodlums ») with the padded end, without seriously harming them, and drive them away. If that doesn't work, I could flip the stick, and whack the beast with the heavier unpadded butt end.
I haven't had an « opportunity » to test this concept yet, but there have been times when ugly snarling dogs came at me almost close enough .... I apologize if you're a dog person, I'm sure your dog is nice and would never attack me.
Last month, I was hiking with friends, and my buddy had his six-year-old boy tagging along. The lad couldn't stay put, he had to check out every nook and cranny. Of course, he got stuck in a hole, and couldn't climb back up the icy rock walls.
I passed one end of my stick down the hole into his outstretched hands, and pulled him up onto flat ground. Another time, he needed to jump across a crevasse to rejoin us, a dubious risky leap at best, until I proffered the butt of my stick across the gulf and he grabbed it and made the jump easily. So my stick does come in handy in a wide variety of situations.
I get some leery looks when I'm out walking with my stick, and yes, some folks do edge to the far side of the sidewalk as we pass, but I'm very careful not to even insinuate a threatening posture. I keep a smile on my face, and it works out just fine.
My stick is part of me now, and it goes with me on all my walks.
