The Last Road in Yerington
There is a road I’ve yet to travel. It is not the longest or the most adventurous road I’ve traveled. It is not the first time I have driven this road, but It is the last road I will ever go down. It will start at the corner of Main & Bridge Street.
The Wells Fargo Bank will be on the left and the Copeland Lumber Company will be on the right. It might be called something else now, but when I was a kid it stood there like a big orange square Jack-o-Lantern with its black cat logo. Every time I went by it I would count how many months to Halloween.
A block behind the Wells Fargo Bank there use to be a blacksmith shop where I would stand and watch the blacksmith work as a kid. They have now moved it to the Lyon County Museum. In the next block was the little house where an older cousin, Donna, lived after her marriage and who babysat me when I had rheumatic fever in 1956. Journeying down this road, the houses become thinner and scarcer with each passing block. Six or seven block later was a small farm where one of our babysitters lived when we were kids. It only had an outhouse, and I remember helping the sitter do the laundry on a wringer washing machine.
After leaving her homestead, it turns into alfalfa fields until you come to the Model Dairy. Looking up ahead one can see the Yerington “Y” on a hill. At the dairy the road veers right and in a few short minutes, my last road ends at the front arch of The Valley View Cemetery.
As a teenager, the cemetery was one of the favorite “makeout” places. I would hear strange stories about my classmates seeing “green eyes” or was it “red eyes”. I never did see them, but now that I am going to be living here for a very long time, maybe I can figure this mystery out.
Yes, this will be my last road. A pleasant road filled with the smell of alfalfa and the sounds of the mooing of cows from the dairy. Above the Yerington “Y” seems to proclaim “Yes, It was a good life and yes welcome home!”
Roads, Roads, Road
Of these, I can speak
So many roads, so many adventures.
I have traveled to explore
I have traveled to escape,
I have traveled so many roads.
Roads that lead to nowhere
Roads of anguish,
Roads to get back
Roads to go forward,
Curvy roads, rocky roads
straight boring roads.
hilly roads, mountain roads,
meadow roads, valley roads
desert roads, coastline roads
hot dry roads, rainy roads
foggy roads, snow covered roads
icy roads and some clear sailing roads.
Yes, over hill and over dale
I traveled like a ship in full sail.
And now I take a trip down the last road
I will no long walk or ride the roads
I will travel but not on the roads
No, this time I will fly into the arms of the One
I have been seeking on the many roads.
He will be my permanent traveling partner
And where He carries me I will follow
For He is my Road.
by Chere L Brown 2015
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