Way Before Me

Way before me, someone scanned the

nighttime sky, saw the stars align and
named the constellations—Taurus, Aries,
Scorpio, Leo and many more were

delineated and defined. Way before me,
civilizations sprang into being along
the Tigris and Euphrates. Water was a
necessity as the wellspring of life. Way

before me Newton explained the pull of
gravity, Fulton propelled mankind for-
ward harnessing the power of steam.
Einstein proposed his theory of relativity.

Way before me Edison, Ford, Pasteur and
Curie. Had all these and more not been
before, here and now more than likely,
I would not be me. An old friend of mine

once told me that he was named after
George Washington. I thought that quite
odd as his name happened to be Dan. He
then added to his perplexing statement

Yeah, about 200-years “after.” Dan was a
funny guy that way. Before and after be-
came an issue for me. But, way before
any of us, someone unknown to either

you or me came up with the concept of
comedic relief. And wouldn’t you know,
that long ago, way before the times we
know today, there were corny jokes to

be told. And even all the way to present day,
some of those clever and ridiculous antics
seem to never grow old. Consider this, very
few steam engines are in practical use today.

Chris Hanch 1-7-2020