Other than the Singing Bridge, called that because of the sound tires make on the metal grating, (Roebling Suspension Bridge) in Cincinnati I don’t think I have ever been anxious about crossing bridges that span rivers. And that was when I first learned to drive and the car drifted as I crossed the river in the rain. I really don’t think about bridges much though, do you? There are many people who have had bridge anxiety for a long time…they didn’t need a bridge to fall down to make life’s drive across the water even more distressing.
It’s been in the news that it’s been a year since the Minnesota I-35 bridge collapsed and many lives were altered forever by that one event. I always think about the children in the school bus that day, how bravely they escaped danger, but there were many more people that were frightened and too many that died. I cannot imagine what terror those people and their families went through. It could have been worse, much worse, but maybe something was learned from that horrible twisting failure of concrete and steel that can prevent such a thing happening again.
I looked up an old entry to see if I had any reference to that day and I did, though I preferred not having such connections sometimes. It was in an entry about stopping rehab, and in the entry I wrote about when I started rehab and had anagrams about the event. Life is what it is and I should just accept that sometimes I have such unusual connections which seem to form a link in a chain. Maybe God just needs to hear one more prayer to do something sometimes. I would like to think mine count for something. My heart goes still out to those whose involvement changed their life.
The bridge near where I live, the Madison-Milton 421 is one of many in this country that get more traffic than it was designed for, and less upkeep than it needs. But it is still there and people are thankful that they don’t have to drive 50 miles to cross the river here. Sometimes it seems the ferry option should still be viable, like the Anderson Ferry , which as far as I know, is still in operation in Cincinnati. I haven’t been there in close to 20 years. My time flies the older you get, doesn’t it?
The ferry can’t hold many vehicles but it’s always busy. Location makes it work where it is, I don’t know what some of those folks would do without it, though it’s something I doubt most folks would put up with in more populated areas. There are times, though, that some of the aspects of the slower life seem a good option.
For the past couple of years I have had the desire to go on the Parke County road rally to see the covered bridges. One of these days I need to do that, don’t I? A friend said he would take me once, twice, and now, well, who knows if he would even remember to think of asking me. Life moves on. When my sister and I were in our late teens early twenties we used to go on drives in Ohio to look at covered bridges. Now neither of us can afford gas for such a luxury. Oh the things I have promised myself…I need to find ways to fulfill my promises to me, don’t I?
Life needs some good memories now and then, especially because there will always be reminders of something less than that, we need balance it or surplus our memories to the good.
