Strollin'

By Garry A. Johnson

Strollin' is about life and the struggles of trying to have it all, your way.

It is a story which deals with Independence, Love, and Family.

Thomas Wilson is sixty-five years old and feeling older. His love life and family life are complicated.
This weekend Tommy is going to let loose and live a little.

Strollin' talks about relationships and the test of time.

You will never be free until you free yourself.

Strollin is about dealing with the truth and holding your head high even when your heart aches.

Strollin , is about walking with confidence and faith into the unknown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465394279

Garry A. Johnson

Garry A Johnson is a author of whimsical talent. He tells the stories of the people you don’t hear about in the hood. By mixing Politics and Social order with possibly a fanciful twist, Garry A Johnson is a author who paints tales of life. “Bridges to Cross” is the author’s fifth novel. He also has published a collection of short stories.

Book preview

Strollin’

Garry A. Johnson

Copyright © 2011 by Garry A. Johnson.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4653-9426-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4653-9427-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

106209

CONTENTS

-Realizations-

-Scatting-

-A Life Alone-

-California Dreaming-

-A Walkabout-

-Repaying Sensei-

-Still Dreaming-

-The Horizon-

-Parents-

-Falling Into Line-

-Cynthia Wonders-

-Getting It On-

-Conversations-

-Bench Time-

-Friday Night (West Coast)-

-Friday Night (East Coast)-

-Trouble-

-Escalation To A Lull-

-A Day Of Wonder-

-Wrapping It Up-

-Shouting-

-Strollin’-

To my Mom & Dad

To my friends who have lived through it

To Gerald & Pete

My Family

To the solution of our problems

Thomas Wilson enjoyed his retirement.

He had been practically doing nothing for days.

He had barely been outside of his house but he was happy.

(Each day presents a new adventure and the hours of the aimless are too numerous to mention.)

Tommy had had a myriad of options.

In a way, this was something that rarely happened for him.

Tommy was luxuriously free.

It was not that Tommy’s days were always constant motion or endless activities.

(Daily life presents a host of activities for us all just to live to another day.)

In a normal day Tommy’s activities were totally not to his schedule. In the past it was just work, family and life, in general which controlled his actions.

Now that he is retired and his daughter is grown and moved away, his decisions, more to say, his schedule was tempered by his wife.

Today though, Tommy woke up singing.

He had rolled around on his bed for hours, watching television and occasionally venturing to the refrigerator.

He was spending more and more time on the internet, reading the news & checking his e-mail.

Tommy has a daughter who lives in California, but he has no grandchildren.

In a way he thought he would have enjoyed having them because he recently he had gotten hooked on video games.

It would be nice, he thought, to have grandchildren and to have someone to play the games with.

Everyday for the past several days he has spent a few hours challenging himself to play (and whenever possible) to win.

It was exhilarating!

One of the reasons Tommy was so happy and raucously carefree was because for a week his wife was visiting their daughter in California.

Tommy was going to be alone for one whole week.

There is very little freedom in life; for a week Tommy estimated that he was as close to heaven / as free as he would get above ground.

 -

REALIZATIONS-

One thing Tommy had to understand and accept.

He was sixty-five years old and he couldn’t run the streets and act stupid as he did when he was young.

Many of his old family and friends had either died or were out of touch.

(When people are young they don’t know what’s going to happen but they think they do.

As people age, in most cases they accept the axiom.)

Regardless, whatever is going to happen happens.

People, often, become something or someone that they wouldn’t have imagined when younger.

Some people deal with it, others lie to themselves.

Often People act badly.

People generally medicate or worry; both methods have killed so many of his old friends that he had grown used to being alone.

Tommy had lost many friends over the years.

He wasn’t involved in any groups or committees, at the present time.

Tommy had not promised hours to charity, or donated time to any political or religious organizations.

It wasn’t that he didn’t care about anything or anyone.

There had been many years where he had given significant time to pursuits outside of his own interest.

He had donated to, volunteered or supported many issues.

He was now enjoying his life with limited obligations.

(There is very little freedom in life.)

People are all tied to each other whether we want or not.

Laws, language, Customs all affect us, whether we agree or not.

Here in retirement, Tommy was FREE.

He no longer had to greet the world each morning because he had to earn a living.

The only people he had to be around were those he chose.

Another factor for his exuberance was that his wife was away.

There was no game of silence which had words, wishes,

Questions, requiring answers and often actions.

FREEDOM advanced several levels.

 -

SCATTING-

Tommy still had a few buddies to hang out with but they were not as free as he was this week and others lived too far away.

Some of his old haunts had been closed like Mickey’s but he had other places where he could go and drink.

This was good and bad.