Footprints

“Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave, and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.”

• Alice Childress (1912–1994), American novelist, playwright and actress

The only house I knew my first decade of life lay diagonally across from the plant which supplied power to the campus of the college where my father taught. Along the northeast corner of the plant sat a red brick cylindrical smokestack which, if one stood at the base and gazed up, appeared at times to move slightly. One could become a bit dizzy if one looked too long. The top of the smokestack…