Faded Time: Walker Brothers Cowboy

If you take the time to look into the eyes of the elderly as they speak of their past, you can almost see how the world spun around them as they begged it all to slow down. A grandfather will walk his granddaughter around an old southern town explaining that his childhood home once stood where that old dried clump of hard clay now displays a "For Sale" sign, promising great development possibilities between the newest BB&T and Starbucks. It is hard to imagine that his time got away from him at 85, yet his shaking hand finds it hard to fall as he points to that lifeless plot. His memories within the clay are all he has to prove his worth, an evident theme in the story "Walker Brothers Cowboy,"

The attempt to prove self worth in the mark left in clay is when the father walks his son down to the old lake. Here, he begins the grand tale of how the Great Lakes were formed. As he is telling this story, he places his hand upon the earth and pushes to emphasize how the glaciers tore through to creation. When he pulls back, he has made little to no mark at all, only to remark that the glaciers had much more force than he could.

Though this may seem like the simple retelling of a story to pass along, it hold a much deeper meaning to the story teller. Earlier within the story, it is revealed that he is a failed farmer with a wife that is none to pleased with their new position in life. His life, just as his hand, had little to no strength and has made no impression in the clay, making this a metaphor for his situation. However, he takes his child to the lake frequently and speaks to him about silly stories. It is these memories in which he will build his worth for he has lost it everywhere else.

So, as the clay remains unmoved, the impression is leaves upon those who try so hard to impress upon it will remain. Those who try to find their worth will continue to push their hands deep into the earth to make their mark. The elderly will point at old plots of clay nothingness to note what was. But all that will ever remain in the unmoving clay.