| The Cinder.....
Posted: 3/30/2009 3:02:57 PM | We walked through the back streets, down to the edge of the little arts festival in my town. It’s a small little thing, with only about 30 booths, and usually the same people hawking the same tired paintings of fruit in a bowl, or a matted photograph of Dale Earnhardt. But for a small town, it is a welcome distraction to break up the monotony of life, and the daily drudge of work, store, home, sleep, work, store, home, sleep,,,,,
This year though, they had a new vendor. He was selling horseshoes and nails to hang on the wall and to give to friends. He was pounding them out on an anvil, with a portable forge that used coal for fuel, and a foot pumped bellows. As the wind shifted, the smoke turned, and ran right through the crowd. Its acrid vapors reached into my mind, as the smell of the coal and coke yanked memories from somewhere.
Standing, eyes affixed on the anvil, and the hammer landing blow after blow, two on one off, to keep away the demons, I was lost in a waking vision. I could smell the smoke of the steam engine my daddy took to me see down by the tracks in Bluefield West Virginia. I was only a small lad, and the sheer size, the dripping water, steam shooting out of the valves and vents, and the smoke that rolled from the stack sent a terror and a curiosity deep in me. Wanting to run, to put distance between me and that monster, and wanting to see it up close, and touch it, paralyzed me with indecision. It was alive with sounds and movement, and I just froze when it slowly pulled forward to clear the switch so it could make a turnaround at the Y. Mesmerized by the whole scene, until the steam popped from the cylinders, in a rush of noise and a cloud that I was sure it would devour me. I jumped straight into the air, and before my feet hit the ground, my dad had me.
His massive hands just scooped me up, as he lifted me to the safest seat in the world, his left arm. My arms would not even go around his neck. He looked at my face, and asked if I was scared. Of course I said no, but my face must have told on me, because he just chuckled, and walked right up to engine, and he began to point out the parts and pieces and explained how each thing worked.
Then the engine made the Y and came back, we stood together, and watched as the operator put the spurs in her. The thick smoke covered us, and the noise was so loud only a shout could be heard. It began a love affair that has endured to this day. It was just lost in my mind, until she shook my arm.
“Hey, are you OK? What’s wrong with your eyes?”
“Nothing, it’s just a cinder.”
"What's a cinder?"
"The part of the coal that the forge can not destory."
I need to call my dad today. | |
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