The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
Sundance Kid
The shaggy-haired boy has stopped his bicycle to watch a man on a machine unearthing blocks of cement. The boy plays with the strings from the hood of his sweatshirt. He fidgets, but keeps his eyes fixed upon his hero.
The man in the machine is a cowboy, a bull rider on a dozer, wrangling up what was once a Billa supermarket. On a pile of dirt the machine wavers, rocks, tilts eerily forward. The boy tilts too. Then the machine rolls back. Finally, something cracks and up comes a scoop of dirt, cement, building elements. The machine shakes, but the cowboy sits still, hard at work, smoking all the while.
The boy wants to stay, but an obligation puts his feet on his pedals before the work is done. He doesn’t tip his hat, but he does head off into the sunset.
–Vienna, Austria.
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
Funny, my husband does that–always has to stop and stare for a bit when we pass a construction site. Something about guys and heavy machinery….
I didn’t realize that this was a phenomenon! I bet there are cute moments like this going on everywhere! 🙂
I think this sounds like male thing stopping and staring
Haha! It seems so!
just went through this with my grandson, he is awe-struck in these situations ) good analogy with cowboy image.
Thanks! Not a lot of cowboys in Vienna, but a few help to keep things lively. 🙂
One of my greatest pleasures in life is watching workers at a construction site. It goes back to my childhood when I helped my father built houses during the summer. Girls dream too.
I love that, Mary Louise! Excellent point! I enjoyed watching the watching of the work, myself. I wish I knew how to construct something.
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