Drawing The Line - 11

Okay, I'll admit it. I was too chicken to wear my new hat out in public during the daytime. The Line segment I was rolling out would be passing by the end of Fraternity Row and would go past a couple Sorority houses. Can I help it if I didn't want to look any more goofy than usual? As it turned out, it wouldn't have made a difference.

It was about 10 o'clock in the morning of December 10th when I packed up the four rolls of prepared tape and walked the ¾ of a mile to the end of the last segment.

Here is the start of roll 31. The fraternity house with the Christmas lights is the yellow house there in the background.

Here is the view from the end of roll 31.

Roll 32 didn't quite reach across the next intersection. It was the busiest intersection yet, so I attached the 33^rd roll before making the crossing.

Here is the end of roll 33. There is a sorority house to the right and one to the left.

Here is the end of roll 34 and this Line Segment.

I like the way it looks against the fallen leaves.

As I was gathering up armfuls of the tape to carry home, a guy came out onto the porch of the frat house with the Christmas lights. I decided I would try to interview him. As I crossed the street looking straight at him I could tell that he was hoping that I was not going to talk to him. I called up to him, “Do you have a minute?” I think that only the burning cigarette in his hand kept him from dashing back into the house. But he stayed outside and watched me approach.

“Hi, my name is Jon. I'm drawing a line around the world and have gone almost a mile,” I announced by way of introduction. I had once been as young as this guy, but never as tall, even before I began to shrink. I held out my hand as he pondered what I had said. He caught my smile and decided I was joking and not crazy and he sort of laughed. “My name is Jay,” he replied shaking my hand.

Here was a chance for me to find out the mind of one of the future leaders of the nation. Perhaps, even though he wasn't wearing a shirt as I talked to him, he would someday be wearing Armani suits while deciding the fate of nations. I had to ask some profound questions of him. So I pointed down at the table in the yard which you can see in front of the yellow house. “I've seen you guys playing some sort of game on that table sometimes. What is it called?”, I asked.”

“Do you mean, Beer Pong?,” was his reply. Of course, beer pong I thought nodding my head.

“Is that some sort of drinking game?”, I asked.

“Yeah, kinda,” he answered.

I asked him to briefly explain the rules, which he did. He mentioned another similar game called Beer Dot which was the one at is actually played on the particular table in the yard. I couldn't help but think I had been very unimaginative in my youth. I would just drink the beer, not come up with complicated ritual games for an excuse to drink the beer. I might have been a natural at Beer Pong. You can read the rules of Beer Pong here.

I mentioned my thought to Jay, “Heck in my day we just drank beer.”

He laughed and said, “Oh my dad tells me about playing quarters and bottle caps.” I had never played those either. Very likely even his dad is a bit younger than me.

He wished me luck on my project when we shook hands and parted. I forgot to wish him the same for his life ahead.

Anyway the Line Around The World  is now 4,480 feet world and still growing.

Jonathan