"Prancer--A Story... and More"

(Posted 1/3/12, but written many years ago...)

I'm fondly gazing at a pic of a photograph I took a couple of years ago. It appears to be nothing special--just a nice landspace shot.  The dull browns, grays and greens suggest it's early winter... a somber, blue-gray sky... looking down a gentle hill thru leafless trees, past an ugly street lamp... some scattered hedges at the bottom... beyond, a sandbox with a mother and her small boy... here and there a picnic table or a swing set.  A nice park perhaps?

Actually, it's from a series of photographs of the City Park in Hagerstown, Maryland, where I grew up.  The hill is steeper than it appears--a drawback of photography.  And when I was a small boy, there was an entire "hedge garden" of which there are now only those remnants.

And as with each of those photographs, there is a story.

Some of you know a little about Prancer, for whom my screen name is an honorific.  She was a Toy Manchester dog, given to my brother and me by Mom shortly after Dad's death at my age 6.  She lived until I was in college.  Seven pounds of love and motion.  A magnificent pet, who I loved immensely.

I was Prancer's main "walker."  (My brother suffered from polio when young, and really couldn't keep up with her for very long.)  I don't think it was until after puberty that I could actually run faster than Prancer.  Those little legs sure could churn FAST!  LOL

And one of my favorite places to take Prancer on a "walk" was the City Park.  Thus the hill and the story, the photograph and pic, and now, this--to try to capture a memory that is still so vivid after all these years.

Ed. Note: I moved back to Hagerstown a few years ago, to be back home after so many years away. A couple of years ago, I moved to just a short piece from the house in which I was raised.  Now I'm a brief walk away from the City Park.  So I (and sometimes Pamela) walk by that hill regularly. And after all these years, I still always stop there... and pause a few moments to remember...