Ten of us mildly geriatric, square dancing friends recently spent a weekend hiking segments of the Appalachian Trail in West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
On our first morning’s ascent out of the Shenandoah River valley near Harpers Ferry our robust platoon of hikers encountered a young couple coming the opposite direction.
Some of us were resplendent in OSU colors. The young couple was mildly restrained and we soon found out why.
They were from Michigan and hailed from a school somewhere up there near Ann Arbor.
As we stood there mostly surrounding them I sensed we might break out in the Buckeye fight song at any moment.
Turns out we, realizing our superior strength in numbers, set a tone of gentle civility and told them the truth on the hiking conditions we had just conquered and they were about to encounter.
And, so began our marvelous weekend. Please stop by over the next week or so as Fogeyisms tells the rest of that story.
Our slightly bewildered friends are on the left in the photo as we alternate discussions between hiking and rivalry. We parted, smiling peacefully. The tiny piece of red behind the Michigan fellow belongs to Nancy Meinzer’s OSU ball cap. That’s yours truly with back to the camera, Sue Brooks with the yellow jacket tied around her waist, Mark Meinzer with his OSU ball cap, Rosa Hatfield mostly hidden behind Mark, Dick Hatfield and Roberta Karger on the far right. Out of view are Russ and Jane Matz.
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Photo by Don Karger—with a tip of my hat, of course.
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