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The Road Trip


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Sometimes the best thing you can do in life is pack your bags and hit the road.  You have tried everything that you know and still, no one is happy with you.  It was harvest time on the farm and the days were still hot.  There had been little rain for weeks now and dust clouds engulfed the fields.  Daddy said that I had to hand tobacco to the stringer.  That meant long hours of standing on a wooden box under the tobacco barn.

That moment was the start of a lifetime love of the road.  I knew then that I would repeat that moment many times over in the years to come.

I told him I didn’t want to do it and of course, he got upset and said that I shouldn’t live on a farm if I couldn’t do the work.  I thought about what he said and decided that he was right, so I slipped away, packed my suitcase and headed toward the railroad tracks.  The sun was beating down on the metal tracks and the heat shimmered from the steel, but I walked on toward town.  I was determined and unafraid.  That moment was the start of a lifetime love of the road.  I knew then that I would repeat that moment many times over in the years to come.

I could see the dust cloud coming down the road from Daddy’s old Ford truck heading toward where I was sitting by the tracks.  I was hot, hungry but not discouraged.  Daddy got out of the truck with a sandwich and a cold RC cola in hand while Cookie jumped out the passenger side window and smothered me with Doggie love.  Daddy sat beside me in silence for a while then said what I do may not be for you but for now, you must farm the land and learn its lessons.  In time you will follow your own path but now we have a crop to get in the barn and a winter to prepare for, and I need you.  Just remember that your time will come.

Point Of View

From the sun-kissed shores of the Carolinas, the frozen winters of Virginia to the dark swamps and bayous of Louisiana I loved the road.  As I grew up the wanderlust drove me to play drums on the road for years, the highway songs playing in my head like an anthem for my life.

Now I am much older, and my song is sad with a sweetness of a life lived with a fullness, abundant with stories to tell, a liking for a front porch swing where I sit remembering the highways and byways of my youth.  Yet every now and then I see a dirt road and wonder where it goes.  I might even open the door to my old truck and ride a few miles with my old dog and see where the road might lead us.

Larry Tyler
Larry Tyler
Awaken the possibilities … then unleash them. After 55 years of successful retail management, I have returned to my passion of writing. I write Poetry, Storytelling, and Short Stories. As a child, I grew up on front porch storytelling. I would sit and listen to my Dad and his brothers tell these great stories that were captivating, and I always wanted to hear more. I wanted to experience the things they talked about. I started writing at a young age and reading everything I could get my hands on. At twelve years old I started a storytelling group and several of my friends became writers or poets. At 16 I hopped box cars and worked the tobacco fields, orange groves, picked cotton, and spent many nights around a campfire listing to life stories. Someone once asked me why I wrote. It consumes an amazing amount of time and I assure you it is not going to make me rich. I write so that my children can touch and feel my words telling of the ones that came before us and the stories they told me. These are the chronicles of our family and even though they come from my childhood memories and are deeply rooted in a child’s remembrance at least they may feel what it was like in the time before them and cherish the things the elders left behind. I am a Columnist & Featured Contributor, BIZCATALYST360 and I have The Writers Café, a group on LinkedIn that features Poets, Writers, Artists, Photographers, and Musicians . On Facebook I have two groups and one page; Dirt Road Storytelling, From Abandoned To Rescue Dogs And Cats, and About Life, Love And Living. As writers, it is true that we honestly do not know what we hold within us until we unleash it. When our words inspire others only then will inspiration return to the writer. I will spend my twilight years in search of the next story, the next poem, and the next image. I will take the time to enjoy my Wife, our Dogs, and Cats, and our amazing new home and I will always find the time to walk down a dirt road I truly hope is that I never have to read another book on Leadership, be on a conference call or see another plan o gram as these were the tool for what I did in life and not about who I am.

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