Not every man is any man. Many men live in a world above the rest, if only in their minds and bank accounts. They never fear they will walk in the shoes of “those men.”
He was leaning against the wall of a commercial business, out of obvious sight, but with the world in view. It was a cool but sunny fall afternoon and he was thinking that if he was of the habit, it would be a classic smoker’s moment.
He could see the old man carefully stepping along behind the businesses attempting to appear a non-threat. His thick flannel hung loosely from his worn jeans, ball cap pulled down snugly against the breeze, and he carried a 5 gallon bucket with his left hand, allowing the right to pick up small items and discarding them, save for something of value or usefulness, which then was added to the contents of the prize bucket.
Like an animal the old man stopped and jerked his head in his direction, sensing he was being watched. He of course was still there, leaning against the wall, observing. The old man must have assumed the fella watching had some level of authority over this property because he quickly set the bucket down on the broken pavement and fell just short of raising his arms in surrender.
“How are ya today sir”, he offered. The old man looked pleasantly startled by the congenial salutation. The old man looked down in the bucket for a long moment and then raised his humbled eyes from under the ball cap and asked “things picked off the ground any mans?” “Yeah, he responded back to the old treasure hunter, “It was any mans, only now it’s yours.”
“Thank you kindly young man” the old man replied as he walked on, eyes to the ground. He continued to lean against the wall watching the old man search and find, all the while he was thinking that if he was of the habit, he would have offered the old man a smoke.
Any man would have done the same.
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