Walking Along Broadway: A Visual Journey, Part I

I went out walking today. It was a beautiful day, with flat, peaceful clouds floating across the sky. I wore my flip-flops down to Central Market and north on Broadway to the coffee shop. I saw some interesting things along the way.

First, there was a slab of sidewalk with impressions of leaves in the concrete. It was just before sunset, golden light was flooding beneath the leaves of the trees.

As I walked farther, I discovered another interesting landmark: a palm tree pushing itself tenaciously between the sidewalk and this telephone pole.

How do trees do this? I've actually see other palm trees growing like this here. It almost looks like the tree is invading a concrete planet. I really hope this tree survives. Its root structure is buried the under the rock, so maybe it's impervious to diseases that would attack it if it were more exposed. You know what they say: Life finds a way.

Closer to home, I found a message written in in an older section of sidewalk.

There are many stories and legends about the origin of the American expression, "Kilroy was Here." San Antonio is home to the largest military retiree population in the world, according to this entry written by Captain Stephen R. Ellison, a doctor specializing in emergency medicine, at www.kilroywashere.org.

One story that appears more than once on the website tells of a man named Kilroy who might have been either an admiral during World War II or an inspector on a ship. The second story relates how Kilroy would sign this message in lieu of a formal written inspection or if the necessary people weren't around.

There's also apparently a story in Earth is Room Enough by Isaac Asimov that tells his science fiction version of the legend.

As with other sightings of the intriguing message, the drawing of the famous Kilroy character is here, too, although it's very faint. You can see it if you relax your eyes over the first two letters.