The "Faces of Strangers # 13" Story

It was an ordinary day.  I had just left the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA after delivering a few of my altered Polaroids and started walking towards Central Market.  Reached West Grant and noticed what looked like a new layer of blacktop had just been laid on the walkway which had been interlocking bricks for ages.  Always liked the brick walk, but it did need some repairs and the city decided to cover it with blacktop instead of spending the money and doing it right.  The town of Lancaster, PA is a historic town which I have documented more than once in my stories and to start covering the cobble-stone streets and brick walkways with blacktop is a disservice to the citizens of Lancaster.  As I started up W. Grant from Prince Street, I passed a young man writing on the blacktop with a piece of chalk.

Noah writing with chalk: "This Was
Once Beautiful BRICK What Happened?"

 Couldn't read what he was writing, but the further I went towards the market I could see some of the notes he was writing.  After the third note I stopped, decided to forget my market visit, and walked back to talk with the street artist.  I introduced myself to him and he told me his name was Noah.  Noah lived south of Lancaster in a small village called Willow Street.  Was a life-long resident of the area except for the couple of years he spent in service to his country.  Young man with a big smile and a love for the city where he was born.  As we talked I could see how upset he was that the city laid blacktop over the beautiful brick walkway.  "You can still smell the blacktop.  Still not totally dry yet," he pointed out to me.  "And, this is my way of expressing myself in a non-violent, non-damaging, but yet visible way."  As I sat on the edge of the sidewalk with him a variety of people stopped to tell him they admired him for what he was doing.  Two older women stopped and wished him well in his quest to stop the city from ruining our beautiful streets and sidewalks.  I asked if I could snap a photo of him and place it with a story.  He was more than willing to have his photo taken.  I told him I also admired him for what he was doing and that maybe someone may read my story and be able to influence the proper people in government before more of Lancaster is covered in blacktop.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

Special Note:  Very seldom do my stories make it to my computer before they make it to the local newspaper.  Today's story could have been "news" had I written it as soon as I had gotten home from my trip to downtown Lancaster.  But, I had grass mowing, weeding, etc. that took the place of a quick trip to my computer for a story.  Today I opened the local paper and there was a photo similar to what I had taken two days ago, minus the subject of my story.  Seems that the city of Lancaster has removed the artwork from the sidewalk because of several complaints.  And, they said that they plan to remove the blacktop and replace it with bricks just as my subject was hoping for.  I guess his non-violent method did work even though the city said they always had the intention of replacing the blacktop with bricks.  Yeah right!