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[at-l] Re: ATML Who's hike is it,anyway?

In a message dated 98-05-03 18:14:05 EDT, dave17@mindspring.com writes:

<< >>It seems that many of us want everyone to hike their own hike as long
 >>as it is  the hike that we wanted them to hike.
     Excellent!-david scudder >>

I don't know if this relates, but all this business brings me to a true story.
In 1977, I was student teaching in a small town in western PA.  I talked the
other female teachers I was car pooling with to stop at a local wateringhouse,
that had a big sign....Friday happy hour out front, into going over one Friday
after school was out for a couple of cold ones.  

We walked in, all over 21, and sat at the bar. We sat there for awhile and no
one waited on us.  After a time period, I told the bartender that we needed
some beers and asked kindly if he could wait on us.  The response was, "at
4:00 the only women that come in here are wh@$@'s and alcoholics and when we
left the bar would be a better place."

Come to find, we were not welcome at happy hour any place in that town.

The reason I bring this up, is sometimes the narrow focus of the posts in this
room remind me of that incident.  If you open up your mind to new things,
maybe the new things become the challenge.  Maybe the new things are something
that we have to adjust to or fight against.

In the future, maybe people who worked and raised families all their lives and
wanted to thru hike and have waited until they retired to find that there back
can't handle a pack, will have Pittsburghs to call to have their dreams come
true.  Maybe people with sick family members will be able to pull out their
cell phones and call home to check in wherever they want and still be able to
hike. 

We have to be careful of the way we think.  In western Maryland, they just
paved 10 miles of an unused rail right next to the C&O Canal towpath, so that
those who can't handle gravel can have a trail they can navigate on. This cost
the Maryland tax payers 2.5 million dollars.  This section is also part of the
American Discovery Trail and the Tuscarora Trail.

         choovers
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