Oh what a difference six years can make. Back then I was retired, getting up and walking a mile or so down Ocean Drive and then onto Shoreline Drive to the wharf area to watch the sun rise up over Corpus Christi Bay.

I really met some interesting folks on those strolls.

While out for a walk one morning I ran across an interesting fellow. We walked and talked for a mile or so. Very interesting guy. When we were parting ways that first morning we actually did our introductions. “Well I’m Tom Sawyer” to which I said “I’m Huck Finn” to which you could tell that had happened to him more than once in his lifetime. Then I told him that wasn’t my real name, (oh really) but gave him mine.

He said that he walks three miles every morning. I wondered if he would pick another route in the morning, to keep from running across this idiot again.

But we continued to run across each other. Tom was really old but enjoyed the Bible and the ladies. He talked about both a lot.

He had me looking up stuff in the Bible when I would get back home. It was like he was giving be Sunday School homework.

He had been a minister of a black church at one point, but now was retired from a chemical plant also. He was a real talker.

I visited him a couple of times at his tiny garage apartment. He came over after our walks a few times for coffee. We’d stop off at the downtown WhataBurger sometimes. Everyone in that place knew him. The workers and the customers alike.

As we walked along the sidewalk, everyone honked and waved and called out his name. I always felt like I was with a celebrity.

I guess he wondered what happened to me. For some reason we stopped running across each other. Maybe moving back to Bertram did that.