I have often expressed my appreciation of sidewalks. Our neighborhood has sidewalks. Everything between our home and downtown has sidewalks.
Most all the homes in our neighborhood were built in the 1920s. In the 1920s people walked. Everywhere. Walking was a common and vital means of transportation.
Trolley systems and buses were important. By bus or by trolley? You walked to the trolley stop. It worked.
Then, along came cars. Cars. Our house does have a garage as well as a sidewalk. Well, most accurately, it was first a car barn. Then, the original owners added a dog ear in the 1950s and we rebuilt it in the 1990s. The point is transportation was evolving. People drove more and walked less.
In the Stigler I first remember, sidewalks were vital. I could walk everywhere and did.
Today, almost every small community in eastern Oklahoma has a section labeled “Old Downtown.” These areas were the commercial soul of the town.
I don’t have the words to adequately describe how vibrant downtown Stigler was during those times. People moved from store-to-store shopping. On Saturday and Tuesday (Sale barn day), there was a hustle and bustle as folks moved along the sidewalks. People flowed like the South Canadian River, moving around resistive knots of visiting folks, accepting a meandering path. I don’t know why, but small groups of men, one leaning on a parking meter, jump to mind.
The auto took control of our shopping habits. “Why walk next door when you can drive?”
Still, residual islands remain. Utica Square. A pleasant evening stroll, walking and window shopping are still available. There are not many places left with sidewalks and windows. I’m thankful.
Neighborhoods with sidewalks are still available. But the primary purpose of walking has changed. Folks stroll.
Exactly when did cars overtake feet, roads become more important than sidewalks? Sidewalks became a quality- of-life matter, not the highways of commerce.
Now cars are being wedged out. Parking lots surrounding malls appear vacant. We are all home in front of our computers.
Walking is back, if you consider moving from my chair to the refrigerator walking. Amazon. I shop, I order, it arrives the next day. But I have talked to no one, not a person. Think I’ll go take a walk around the neighborhood. Someone will be outside on their lawn or on their porch.
The philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” I attest the same is true of all thought.
It is as if walking kickstarts the brain. Should I get a new thought I have to sit down – immediately – and record it on my iPhone. Otherwise, I risk forgetting. Age is a peculiar thing.
I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did. – Yogi Berra
