During the recent flood threat in Cairo, I saved a bunch of pictures from the wires, and planned to write a lot of blog posts about what my hometown means to me. I guess now I'll just save them for the memoir. But I DID want to write about this one right away. It's because I spent sooooooo many hours staring at the Ohio River along the levee road, where this kid is. I've even climbed those metal "stairs" like he's doing, in earlier centuries during my childhood when the river rose above its banks.
I simply can't tell you how many times I find myself marveling at how far I've come in this life. I recall pedaling down to this river on one of my various rickety bikes, or driving down in one of the family jalopies, either with one of my sisters or alone, and just sitting there. Some OTHER Cairo teens drove to the levee road to have underage sex, or do drugs, or anything more risky than just staring at the water and hoping that one day, they'd have great adventures, and travel the world, and make a difference.
I never got to get pregnant on the Ohio River levee, or lost a few brain cells from chemical hijinks, but I guess all that dreaming paid off.
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