Walking, then and now.

When I was young, I’d often take long walks through the streets of Arcadia and Temple City. It didn’t matter where; I just liked to walk.

Skipper, a cocker/lab mix
Skipper

I moved to Anaheim after I began teaching in Orange and began jogging along the Santa Ana River Trail; I discovered I could see more in the same amount of time that I had been walking. I’d also keep a change of clothes in my classroom closet, jog to work, teach, change back and jog home a couple of times a week. I continued to jog (but not to work) after I moved to Riverside and then to the beach in the early 80s. The only walking I was doing was when I’d drive to the beach on weekends.

But jogging began to take its toll. My knees and ankles could not take the pounding of five, eight and twelve-mile runs; I had to take aspirin before and after my excursions. It got to the point in the late 80s that I needed an aspirin a mile – so I stopped jogging and walked or rode my bicycle. No pain.

Beach Critter
I wish I had a surfboard.

These days I take my wife to work, park at the beach and walk for a couple of hours. Since I generally walk at the same time every day, I see a lot of the same people day after day. Retirees like myself, mothers with young children, dog walkers, skaters and cyclists, surfers and fishermen.

I put my iPod in my pocket and my camera strap on my shoulder and head toward the pier and the cliffs. Music, a sunny day, people, dogs, squirrels, dolphins, seals, pigeons, gulls, pelicans and sharks, there are always sights to see and, sometimes, to photograph.

11.12.2012