Yesterday in the midst of downtown Long Beach, two young women rode into town and up to the espresso stand and placed their orders. Yes, ‘rode’ not ‘drove!’ It was an unusual sight, at least to me. We don’t have ride-up or even drive-up coffee places here in Oysterville. We don’t even have horses living in town anymore—one of the sadder aspects of progress to my way of thinking.
As the customers and their mounts patiently awaited their orders, I went off into some kind of what-if reverie… What if automobiles were finally outlawed? Would we take up with horses again? How long would it take to have enough horses to go around? Would we change our zoning regulations or would we have to build huge stables on the outskirts of town?
I thought about all the natural fertilizer we’d have for our gardens and wondered if the cost of feed would come to as much as the cost of gas. Certainly, we wouldn’t have to worry about the air conditioner going out on long trips to California. And how often would we make those long trips, anyway?
Mostly, though, I thought about how few places there are around here that can still incorporate horses into daily life. For one thing, no hitching posts. I remember being impressed in Amish country in Pennsylvania that supermarkets had places for buggies to pull up and parking lots were actually less user-friendly to autos than to horses. I remember, too, that rest stops in Montana and Wyoming had horse areas with water troughs and hitching rails much as our rest stops have pet areas.
By the time I had finished my own business in town, horses and riders had disappeared. I was glad I had seen them,even if briefly. They brightened my day.
There have been times in my life when I have thought that a horse would be more convenient than a car that is falling apart. When I voiced that to a friend he pointed out that then you have the whole food and vet thing. But a slower paced life–at the pace of a horse and carriage–frequently appeals to me!