This oddity can be seen from a very busy intersection in our city, but only if one looks closely. Pedestrians can easily spot the metal bar and many must wonder what it is and how it got there. Let me explain.
The apartment buildings in the background were not always there. This was once the location for a private highschool that was built sometime during WWII. The corner location has a grove of towering Douglas Firs that were large even back then.
When I was in highschool, I used to walk to this school and always passed under this bar. It was fastened to these two trees as a station on a fitness route, a place to do a prescribed number of chin-ups. I would often drop my books and do a few on my way to the first class of the day.
In those days, the bar was straight. As these trees grow in height, only from the top, their diameter increases, thus the buckle in the bar. It attests to the fact that the expanding growth rings in the tree are more powerful than iron.
When the school was demolished, these trees remained, as did the chin-up bar, and I feel good about that. Whenever I pass it, I think that there has not been all that much time through the hour glass if the bar is still there.
I walked past this location last weekend (how else would I have a photo of it?) and purely on impulse, dropped my camera bag and attempted a chin-up. You know, for old times sake, and maybe to prove something to myself. I promptly pulled a muscle in my shoulder and had to carry the camera bag on the other arm the rest of the way home. What's that all about?
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