It is not a big thing with me, but I sometimes wonder where these sidewalks go.
About five or six years ago, there was a building in this field that housed the classrooms of the school that I am attending. The Army built a new school in 2005 and rendered the old one useless. This is a big deal with the Army. The Army never gets rid of buildings. For one, there is the tradition tide to them and there is the attempt to be good stewards of the Army’s resources. In addition, oh by the way, we take good care of those buildings—so they typically last forever if they were built right. The one at the end of this sidewalk may not have been built that well, but I am sure my father and brother-in-law attended class there. It was probably time close it down. It is good to see many of the gifts from previous classes hanging on the new building’s wall, along with artifacts from the many years of the school’s existence and passing along the traditions of previous years. The Army has a way of keeping the traditions alive.
As I drive through old Army posts and older cities, I see these sidewalks that lead to nowhere and realize that they were not placed there by accident. They led somewhere at one time. It is interesting to investigate the places, home, and business where they lead to. The sidewalks represent a fading fingerprint on the world from a bygone age.