alice

I hoisted this pack on today, heavier now with books and a few gifts. I jumped a bit while I tightened the shoulder straps. Thought nothing of it until I reached Starbucks.

Once I ordered I searched out a seat. I took my left hand and loosed the strap. Something so familiar about it. The zzzzzzziiiippp sound of the nylon brought me right back and reminded me of alice. Alice isn’t a person but the name of the pack we carried in the Corps. Well… we never carried them, we humped them. Humping the term we used for hiking. No clue where it originated from but it just stuck. humping alice 20+ miles creates pain like no other. Going downhill was always the worst. I’d take walking up those endless hills of the jungle any day over walking down just one hill.

There were times when the pack was so heavy little guys needed help standing. I no longer wonder why my hips hurt today. My lower back hurts. They say it is age but we know it was alice, still crushing us to this day.

It seem seems I live in the now and past simultaneously.