Days Like Today

I've been on conference calls with the world today and every inhabitant wants me to do something...NOW. I'd no sooner get off one call that I'd have to be on another. My todo list grew exponentially. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for my work. It pays the bills and puts vittles on the table. But it's days like today that make me miss those carefree days when I was young. When I spent the sunshine exploring the hills and hollows of my home town. I know where there used to be a sulfur spring with water that smelled of rotten eggs and where there was an artesian well with water cold as a popsicle. I have never tasted better water. One day I was hot and sweaty and I made the mistake of jumping in the glass clear pool that served as a cistern for the well. I did finally catch my breath, but I had to lie in the bright sun for a long while to warm up enough to walk.
One day our crew reallocated a railroad tool cart. It's the small flat trailers that get pulled behind the small railroad vehicles that inspect the rail before the real trains come through. It was sitting there all alone on the spur that came to the coal tipples of Sloss. What were we to do? We looked around and there was not an adult in sight so we started pushing. The thing about these cars is that once you get them moving, the hard steel wheels have very little friction on the steel rails so once we got that puppy moving, we could all jump and and ride for a long while. We pushed that cart up and down that stretch of railroad for hours on end. At the end of the day, we were all to exhausted to return it to where we found it. We ditched it at the end of the line and played dumb the next day when the railroad people came looking. "No sir, I can't imagine who would have taken the cart. Yes sir, if we hear we'll be sure to let you know." None of us would have told if they threatened to pull our tongues out with pliers.
Anyhow, today while I was absently jotting down another action item, my mind wandered back to that day lying on my back on that slow moving railroad cart, listening to the click clack of the wheels on the rails and I'd give a weeks pay to be there right now.