Happenings in the park

Sunday 5:00 a.m.

I have decided that it is the simple pleasures that make me happiest. Yesterday we hiked a trail and walked around the lake at Bee Tree Park with granddaughter, Ashley. We got a good workout. The weather was gorgeous. There were three wedding parties taking photos in the park which sits on the Mississippi River bluffs.

One time Bill and I were standing on the overlook pavillion when a middle-aged woman in a wedding dress joined us. She said she was waiting for her tugboat captain to dock below on the Mississippi. They both worked on a barge and had fallen in love with that spot that overlooks the river. They were to be married at 4:00 p.m.

Another time we were sitting in Jefferson Barracks park which also overlooks the river. It was a fall evening and we were alone. A woman towing a very small cart/buggy behind her car parked nearby. We watched her unhitch the buggy. Then she walked around to the passenger door, opened it, went around to the other passenger door and shoved a miniature horse out of the back seat. She hitched it to the buggy and rode around the parking lot, then she nudged the horse back into the car, hitched up her wagon and left. Bill and I sat in stunned silence. I said, "Did we really see that?"

Parks seem to attract colorful characters. One time when my children were small and playing at the playground, I sat on a bench beside a man wearing bright blue socks who was editing a thick, unbound, typed manuscript. I asked if he were a writer. He said he was. He told me he was writng about his interrogation by the CIA. They were suspicious of him because he had called to tell them every detail of the JFK assassination before it happened. He told me he was president of the UFO society and that aliens visit him at 2:00 a.m. every morning and give him privileged information.

UH-HUH! You can really see some interesting sights in parks.